Vitaminwater recently launched their newest campaign staring the genius that is Gary Busey.  In the new ads Gary Busey plays Norman Tugwater, Fantasy Sports Attorney.  He’s fighting to get monetary compensation from fantasy sports players for the athletes that he represents.  The whole thing is pretty funny and quite entertaining, but Busey’s nut-job cheesy TV [...]]]>

Vitaminwater recently launched their newest campaign staring the genius that is Gary Busey.  In the new ads Gary Busey plays Norman Tugwater, Fantasy Sports Attorney.  He’s fighting to get monetary compensation from fantasy sports players for the athletes that he represents.  The whole thing is pretty funny and quite entertaining, but Busey’s nut-job cheesy TV attorney character takes the cake.

The most interesting part of the whole campaign would be the texting component that they have going on – we are a mobile company and into the whole mobile thing.  It’s nice to see a campaign with integrated mobile components.  By texting in TUG to 70734, users receive a call from Gary Busey followed by an SMS with a link to their mobile site.  Once on the mobile site, users can watch the viral video and share it via Facebook and Twitter.  It’s a pretty robust campaign, from the Facebook page, videos, billboards, and OOH.  We salute you Vitaminwater, welcome to the mobile club!

http://leep.it/jy

Let’s chat about it! Holla at me at: asif[at]textopoly[dot]com

Textopoly Unveils Newport Beach Film Festival’s Social Media and Mobile Mash-up

Textopoly Injects Mobile into Social Media through a Unique Facebook Mobile Opt-in Widget and Debuts Fully Integrated Social Marketing Campaign Capabilities including Social Management

Costa Mesa CA – March 9, 2010 – [...]]]> We’re very excited to debut out latest release!

Textopoly Unveils Newport Beach Film Festival’s Social Media and Mobile Mash-up

Textopoly Injects Mobile into Social Media through a Unique Facebook Mobile Opt-in Widget and Debuts Fully Integrated Social Marketing Campaign Capabilities including Social Management

Costa Mesa CA – March 9, 2010 – Textopoly, Inc., a bleeding-edge mobile & social engagement agency specializing in all things interactive, announced today the debut of their new mobile marketing tools in the social media space.  Through a creative social media mobile opt-in method and integrated social tools such as Facebook, Twitter, RSS, and leep.it, Textopoly has delivered brands a new way to extend their message to interested and engaged users.

Textopoly’s new social suite includes mobile opt-in integration into Facebook. The new Facebook opt-in Widget enables social publishers to build a mobile community of opt-ins directly from their Fan Page through a customized tab and send targeted mobile alerts, video clips, images and audio clips through Textopoly’s proprietary mo:base platform.  Through this unique widget, Textopoly has created a whole new communication paradigm connecting social media with mobile.  Additionally, through the use of mo:base and it’s unique interaction with Twitter, brands now have the ultimate space to post their updates and have it sent out across their social media sphere and mobile communities.

“Textopoly had a lot of creative technologies which would help us better utilize and integrate our social media offerings,” said Todd Quartararo, Co-Founder & Director of Marketing for Newport Beach Film Festival. “We’re really proud to debut Textopoly’s new tools and have seen amazing results thus far. Through their social media & mobile offerings, Textopoly has helped us reach our goal this year of extending and organizing the social media and mobile space of the festival.”

“The Newport Beach Film Festival is just the start,” said Naushad Huda, CEO and Co-Founder of Textopoly. “We can now extend our social media offerings to all brands, providing them a space to further engagement with their fan base by fusing mobile and social together. As seen with the Newport Beach Film Festival, we’ve created a whole new way to vitalize end users; and this tool is the first of many on slate for this year.”

Alongside of the social media mobile widget and Twitter integration, Textopoly is debuting their social media campaign management offering.  By moving beyond mobile services Textopoly has planted its foot in the overall marketing game by being the first to offer mobile and social from one shop.  Through strategic content updates and mobile interaction, Textopoly vows to help every brand move beyond its traditional static methods and into the expanding social-metaverse of the future.

For information visit www.textopoly.com or their Facebook page at http://leep.it/fk

About Newport Beach Film Festival
Celebrated as one of the leading film festivals in the United States, the Newport Beach Film Festival has evolved into a prestigious multicultural event, attracting over 51,000 attendees to Southern California. Committed to enlightening the public with a first-class international film program, a forum for cultural understanding and enriching educational opportunities, the Festival focuses on showcasing a fresh and diverse collection of studio and independent films from around the globe. Located along the pristine Orange County coastline, the Newport Beach Film Festival offers attendees an optimal setting to experience filmmaking at its best. With its action packed slate of film screenings, red carpet galas, international spotlights, nightly receptions, compelling conversations with filmmakers, fashion shows, music performances and industry seminars, the Newport Beach Film Festival has quickly gained recognition among filmmakers and audiences worldwide The eleventh annual Newport Beach Film Festival runs April 22-29, 2010 and will spotlight over 400 films from around the world. www.NewportBeachFilmFest.com

About Textopoly, Inc.
Textopoly is a mobile & social engagement agency that creates highly customized campaigns for brands and agencies. Whether it is through texting, the mobile internet, applications, or social media they bring the brand straight to the users fingertips through easy and fun interactions. Through an evolving form of marketing, as well as research and dedication to both technology and its best practices, Textopoly is the leading pioneer in setting the trends in mobile and social engagements. Visit Textopoly at www.textopoly.com/.

Textopoly, Inc. Media Contact:
Evan Kennedy
Textopoly Inc.
O: +1.949.281.7201
evan@textopoly.com

Johnny Rockets & Atkins are two I was thinking about today.

A mobile site (and/or iPhone app) for JR with location finder, nutrition info and fun bells and whistles would be cool. For Atkins, a strategy [...]]]> This is a quickie – I’ll randomly post brands that I was thinking about that would be fun to work with.

Johnny Rockets & Atkins are two I was thinking about today.

A mobile site (and/or iPhone app) for JR with location finder, nutrition info and fun bells and whistles would be cool. For Atkins, a strategy that would tie into their social media efforts on facebook and a strategy using SMS/WAP for health tips, menus, meal plans, etc.

First, the Crimson Tide placed a mighty stomping on “The School That Shall Not be Named” and proved that team sports means just that, not relying on one person.

Next, after a thrashing the [...]]]> As a married Texan and graduate of Texas A&M, nothing filled my heart more than a few items that occurred over the weekend.

First, the Crimson Tide placed a mighty stomping on “The School That Shall Not be Named” and proved that team sports means just that, not relying on one person.

Next, after a thrashing the week prior, my beloved Dallas Cowboys yet again spanked the Philadelphia Eagles and proved that great teams can make great mistakes (especially in December), but it is all about the recovery.

Lastly, I was out at dinner with my wife and she told the world that she had on Victoria Secret’s Black Lace.

All three items have one thing in common – social media. During the BCS game, I was watching the game while talking iSmack to my Longhorn friends back in Texas. During Saturday’s Cowboys game, I cheered along with my Texas kindred spirits while giving my Philly friends an iWedgie. My wife’s “ladies room” chat about breast cancer and the colour of her undies was had by thousands of women across the internet. Facebook played a major part in all three phenomenons, but more importantly, only a small amount of people where in front of their desktop participating in these activities.

It was all via mobile.

Social Media truly became “social” when people realized that they can actually take the net with them away from their offices and desks.

Many articles (leep.it) talked about the Breast Cancer Facebook meme as a viral phenom that was more slacktivism that activism. An example from NPR observed:

One participant indicated that “I changed my status, but I don’t know anything more about breast cancer or how to protect myself against it. Now all my Facebook friends just know the color of my bra”.

The major news stations, MSNBC, NPR and other traditional and nontraditional media outlets did help raise awareness by simply talking about the occurrence. I found it also telling that the meme was carried more via Facebook than Twitter, considering a recent Harvard Business School study (leep.it) that found that on a typical online social network, most of the activity is focused around women – men follow content produced by women they do and do not know, and women follow content produced by women they know.

Advertisers, politicians and single guys should take note. Advertisers should also note that the study found that, the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets. On a typical online social network, the top 10% of users account for 30% of all production.

It is amazing that social media has the ability to make an idea spread, a la Seth Godin (leep.it), and it is also telling that in this instance, mobile will be the “first screen” to connect our society — whether they are using Facebook, Twitter, or any other venue.

Ohhhh little brother… You have so much more to live and learn. Kudos on the attempt though!

We can at least agree on the fact that AT&T’s network is anemic at best. However, when comparing the HTC Hero and Apple iPhone, both of which I have also owned and operated, [...]]]> In response to Shehzad’s “HTC…No One’s Hero”

Ohhhh little brother… You have so much more to live and learn. Kudos on the attempt though!

We can at least agree on the fact that AT&T’s network is anemic at best. However, when comparing the HTC Hero and Apple iPhone, both of which I have also owned and operated, I still feel as though the HTC, for my purposes is far greater than the iPhone.

Let me address a few of your ‘points…’

1)   Size Always Matters

You are definitely correct, the HTC Hero is 10% smaller than the Apple iPhone; I don’t have a huge bulge in my hip pocket when I have the HTC Hero. However, this does not necessarily mean that it is less functional when using the virtual keyboard. I can type text messages and directions just as fast, and when the HTC Hero predicts the word you are trying to type it’s at least close if not exactly what you want to type!

2)   HTC Hero = Non- Sense mobile phone

I’ll give you this one. Yes, I agree they should have made a sensor to when you put the phone to your ear it would lock the screen.

2a) HTC Hero = Social Media Guru

One of the other things that the HTC Hero does a lot better than the iPhone, is keep me connected with all my friends and family! Its’ simple integration with my Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter account, keeps me updated on all the ‘status changes’ and organizes my messages from my friends, and overall lets me stay in touch with everyone no matter where I am! I don’t even need the Facebook mobile application! With the iPhone, I have click on the stupid Facebook application, click on ‘home’ to view status updates, click on ‘profile’ to view my profile, why couldn’t they make it all integrated?!

3)   Alphabetically? Really?

The menu button in the HTC Hero is really just a buy-product. They didn’t care about it because you can customize your home screen or any of the remaining 6 screens to have whatever you want on them! For example, on my home screen I have the most common items I use: contacts, Pandora, messages, email, and browser. If I flick the screen to the left, it has all of my wireless amenities, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc. I customize my phone to fit me and therefore never use the menu button! Furthermore, even if it is in alphabetical order, who cares, it’s so much easier to find things! When I had my iPhone, things were all over the place, and never in order, unless I customized them.

In conclusion, the iPhone is a good phone, its easy to use and meant for every Tom, Dick, and Harry, however, when you really want a phone to do a man’s job, get the HTC Hero, it’s a Hero and a Hero always wins!

PS: Let’s not forget, this is HTC’s first attempt against the iPhone, which is in its 3^rd generation. As soon as HTC gets a bit more comfortable, I have no doubt they will out do the iPhone in every category.

Want to chat about mobile over lunch!? My treat! Email me at: Asif[at]textopoly[dot]com