A New Year is a time for new resolutions, and inevitably, a lot of broken promises over the coming months, as the gym membership card gathers dust on the shelf and the diet cokes turn into double vodkas. But here at Mobile Marketing, one promise we wont break is our vow to round up the major news at the end of each month, so you dont have to. So sit back, or if youre still behaving yourself, run on the spot, and enjoy our 2-minute guide to mobile marketing in January…
On the subject of gyms, Incentivated  picked up a mobile loyalty/CRM brief from the LivingWell  Health Club chain. Rumours that the welcome message to new customers reads: ur2Fat are so far unconfirmed.
Other companies picking up late Christmas presents included Enpocket, which was handed the Britvic mobile marketing account, and digital agency Dare, which was appointed as Vodafones retained full-service digital agency, though the network operator was at pains to point out that the appointment would not affect its relationship with Enpocket, which currently handles its mobile marketing campaigns.
On the subject of campaigns, its only when you take a step back from the day-to-day that you see what a tremendous amount of activity and ingenuity there is in the mobile space. In the space of a few weeks, we reported on a series of innovative campaigns. Wandsworth estate agent Realm Estates launched a service that enables house-hunters to download details and photos of properties to their handsets. Then book publisher Hodder Education took the wraps off its Get A Life! series of self-help books, which neatly combine old and new media, with a common-or-garden paperback book, tied to which is a bundle of motivational text messages to which the reader can choose to opt-in. Or not. Which, of course, is what good mobile marketing is all about.
Meanwhile, 02 teamed up with Enpocket  and Time Out to launch a mobile dating service for its i-mode customers. It was a good month for teaming up, in fact. Maybe it was the post-Christmas blues, but everyone seemed to be on the lookout for someone to partner with. Outsourced marketing communications company  Broadsystem announced a partnership with mobile response specialist TXT4 designed to enable it to offer a wider range of integrated multi-channel communications services to its clients. Then just a couple of days ago, All New Video and YooMedia announced that they were getting together to develop next-generation  mobile TV and interactive services.
And as we put this round-up to bed, news came in that mobile content management and delivery company iO Global  had teamed up with digital music services provider DX3 Technologies   to bring DX3s unrivalled music catalogue to iO Globals network partners worldwide.
It was a good month for Mobile TV trials. BT emerged from the depths of the M25 to claim that the trials of its BT Movio service had been an unqualified success. Not to be outdone, the Oxford triallists, 02 and Arqiva, released their own interim results, and guess what? They love it up in Oxford too! If only the enthusiasm is as unbounded when we all have to start paying for 1-minute episodes of Coronation Street, the networks will be laughing all the way to the bank. In 3s case, they may need to, after the network operator unveiled a canny/foolhardy (delete as appropriate) plan to pay its customers for the calls and texts they receive. Such an odd idea, it just might work
So there you have it, more dodgy item links than a regional tea-time TV news programme, but at least you know whats been going on. Stay tuned throughout February for all the latest happenings in the mobile marketing stratosphere.