Can you guess what is "The Most Valuable 4" of Real Estate in the World"? Go ahead take a stab at it. What did you come up with? Let me give you a hint it's not on the ground at all, it's in your hand right now. That's right your mobile phone screen.

There are more than 5 billion cell phones in the world. That's more than the total number of PCs and TVs put together. If your business is not trying to take full advantage of new mobile marketing technologies like SMS text marketing, your missing out on a huge opportunity.

Entrepreneurs and business owners should follow the best practices for mobile marketing and treat that 4" of real estate like diamonds or gold. Don't mess around being cute or silly just get right to the point and make sure to offer some value with every mobile marketing campaign.

Make sure to research your competition, new campaigns and engagement techniques. This will help businesses create better mobile campaigns as well as track your results. In most cases just starting a mobile marketing strategy now will give your business an edge on the competition. However this will not last for very long. Now is the time to take action.

There's a reason why many people call 2011 the year of mobile. Right now companies that are developing mobile strategies are going to be the big winners. Those that apply the "wait and see" approach are going to be playing catch up or spending big dollars to get on pace. Just take a look at a few mobile marketing case studies.

The mobile phone is a very personal device, it reaches an audience where they are and often within minutes not hours or days. Mobile response rates are typically five times those of comparable web campaigns, and several tools exist that gives advertisers transparent control of both cost and return on investment.

The cost of experimenting with mobile is low compared to most traditional media. This is attractive to skeptics. Very often they come back for more after experiencing firsthand what mobile marketing can do for them in terms of customer response rates and ROI.

Those who can refine their mobile strategies now will be better prepared in the future to dominate the "Most Important 4" of Real Estate in the World." It's a small space so get there first. Start a mobile campaign now and start benefiting from this new frontier.

Mobile Marketing and Local Search Optimization from TurnUp Local

With more  companies investing in a mobile marketing strategy and as smartphones change the way people access content . Comscore just revealed that mobile advertising has doubled in the past 2 years. Companies are jumping in and engaging these new customers.

Most smartphones users are already using their phones to pass the time and are looking to be entertained. Mobile marketing is an opportunity to reach a new type of customer who is already looking for something to do. Companies just need to put themselves in front of these consumers. Below are some clever mobile marketing solutions.

Mcdonald's Projection Screen Game

Mcdonald's recently ran a mobile campaign in Sweden that allowed users to control the billboard that is accessed through the web. No need to download an app here, which takes away all the friction from the users. Very smart use of this technology. If a player can play the game for 30 seconds they win a coupon for free food from the nearest Mcdonald's. Check out how engaged the users are in the video below.




Dual Screen from Heineken

Heineken knows how many people are watching soccer and accessing their phones while watching TV so they developed a game around watching soccer called StarPlayer. The game allows users to interact in real-time with the game they are watching by trying to predict what will happen next. The game was also accessible through Facebook.  Pretty darn cool. Check it out below.




Cornetto Projection Mapping

This is a cool street campaign from Cornetto in Turkey. They had a game developed hat was playable via projection mapping. The interactive game was playable by a passersby who had to call a number to enter, which then enabled them to control a character within the game using the keypad on their phone. The game was only playable by 5 people at a time, encouraging people to watch the action while they waited their turn. Which not only engaged the players but everyone around them. I want some ice cream already! If you managed to complete the game  you got a code on your phone which you could redeem for a free ice cream. The game was implemented by Unilever



Lynx – Complete the ad

Here's a great campaign from Axe. What I want to know is when does this come to the U.S.? This campaign is in Uruguay. Axe used this  mobile campaign to engage its target consumers by running a print ad the had parts of it missing. A code could be texted in to get the missing parts of the image. Then users where sent back the missing parts of the ad. This requires the user to go back to the ad and to put the two part together. Very clever...




Notice something about all these mobile marketing solutions? Nothing from the states here. It seems the Europeans have a leg up when it comes to leveraging mobile. No secret here though. The uptake of mobile has been a bit faster overseas.