NEW YORK -- While the slowing economy may have walloped the retail sector, major database marketers exhibiting at the nation's largest retailing conference chose this year to announce their entry into mobile.

Acxiom Corp. and First Data Corp. were among the two major database companies that proudly touted their mobile marketing and contactless payment offerings to the thousands of retail executives walking the show floor yesterday at the National Retail Federation's 98th Annual Convention & Expo. First Data, the nation's leading payments processor, even had a concept store to demonstrate its Go-Tag contactless prepaid product that can be stuck to the back of a mobile phone.

"It's a stepping stone to mobile commerce," said Ian C. Van Buskirk, director of product management for mobile commerce solutions at First Data, Marietta, GA.

Working like a premium gift card, the Go-Tag form factors such as fobs, stickers or wristbands have a prepaid amount loaded on them to make contactless prepaid payments.

For example, the Go-Tag sticker can be stuck to the consumer's mobile phone, employee badge or MP3 player.

First Data has yet to announce its first corporate customer for the Go-Tag.

But the company expects that consumers will buy the Go-Tag form factor in a store that sells prepaid cards or even top it up online.

The customer then can stick the Go-Tag sticker on the back of a mobile phone and wave it in front of a contactless reader at the point-of-sale unit such as a vending machine, for instance.

Apart from the terminal, the transaction uses the existing gift card transaction-processing infrastructure, according to First Data. While the end result is the same as if a cashier had swiped a card, this technology is said to be a step up for the customer.

"From the retailer's perspective, it's keeping the lines down and moving faster, and from the customer perspective, it's actually getting them to move faster," Mr. Van Buskirk said.

Vivotech Inc. supplied the Near Field Communication technology that backs Go-Tag.

Marcelo Lima, director of marketing at Vivotech, said delegates came by his booth and wanted to know if they could buy this NFC phone at a store.

"I think what it offers that is different from other prepaid or loyalty offerings is the advantage of getting out of the wallet and linked to any device the customer wants, like the cell phone," Mr. Lima said. "Consumers cannot put anymore plastic in their wallets.

"When they stick this to their phone or any other device, it's not going to be a gift card," he said. "It's going to be for repeat use and retailers are looking for that. They want to expand the gift card for more and more use."

A few aisles away is the Acxiom booth. What is not hard to miss is a board with an invitation to text to win a Nintendo Wii. Here were the instructions on the board:

"When you text RETAIL to 229466, you'll have more than a chance to win a Wii -- you'll get a chance to discover the power of Acxiom's MobileAdvantage-X mobile marketing platform. Opt-in to receive a free demo after the NRF show."

The winner will be notified by text.

So this writer texted to participate in this SMS sweepstakes. A few seconds later, this message was received:

"Acxiom -- You're registered for the Wii drawing! We will notify the winner via text by 2-2-09. Want more info on our mobile solution? Reply MOBILE to this text."

And so MOBILE was texted. This was the bounceback message:

"Thanks for your interest in our mobile marketing solution for retail. We will contact you at the number that you've texted us from."

Thus, Acxiom got the double opt-in needed and also a lead for its business development team to follow.

Acxiom's MobileAdvantage-X is a mobile marketing platform for delivering targeted opt-in marketing programs through SMS text, mobile Web sites and handset application messaging. It is overlayed with Acxiom's InfoBase-X data.

Among the other features of the platform are location targeting capability, secure data transmission protocols to protect consumer data, an intuitive user interface, multiple actionable redemption methods, mobile couponing, click to call and click to mobile Web site.

As is the case with all database marketing services, Acxiom's take on mobile is all about targeting the right consumer with the right offer.

"Nascent but growing in scale and viability, it is not too soon to be considering location-based marketing as part of your mobile strategy," said the brochure for MobileAdvantage-X.

"The ability to provide contextual offers to our opt-in customers based on their location can be a key driver of response," it said.