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Keeping It Real (Small)
October 24, 2006
I have been seeing so many ambitious plans for using the mobile platform lately, from mobile TV to full article downloads by newspapers and magazines, it is refreshing to see see a handful of new mobile launches that respect the art of brevity on handhelds and understand that less is more.
While I am a fan of The Week, I have never been even vaguely interested in "Survivor." If I want to see human venality on show, I do what every other red-blooded American does--sit among the parents at suburban PeeWee soccer matches. Nevertheless, Hook Mobile's partnership with CBS to issue MMS trading cards of the realty show's cast is one of the first novel attempts to leverage the Multimedia Messaging Service and content sharing on phones. Texting a short code subscribes you to a random set of cards for the various cast members. Users can send the cards to others in a message, purchase more packs, and manage the collections online. I am loathe to imagine what kind of fanfreaks of this dwindling media property really want to "collect" such things. But I am also the guy who sniffed at his buddy hoarding all those "Star Wars" #1 comic books back in '78, so what the hell do I know?
MMS is a very promising marketing tool in large part because it is so efficient but deep. In this case it is a one-screen card with a too-small image of whatever self-promoting yingyangs are on "Survivor" this season. But it can also be an animation or multi-page rich media mini-show. It is mercifully brief and blessedly visual. And as the phone interfaces streamline for it, MMS is easily forwarded to others. We may finally get on mobile that "you-gotta-see-this" viral content distribution that propels short-short form Web entertainment.
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