Though still in it’s infancy, mobile marketing is gaining momentum. New marketing channels don’t emerge often, and this one is a biggie. There’s not another channel that keeps you hooked into your customer as constantly as mobile. Mobile marketing utilizes a complex mix of multiple technologies, marketing techniques and design principals.

According to a 2006 study by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) over 38% of US subscribers play mobile games on their phones. About the same number use text messaging. Nearly 12,000,000 subscribers participated in a TV or radio poll via SMS. These numbers are staggering considering that mobile phones currently outnumber land-lines in the global marketplace.

Technologies such as WAP push, TXT triggers, short codes, SMS, MMS and WAP sites will all play a key role in mobile marketing initiatives. Designing for a tiny screen is also a challenge. For instance, on a traditional web site, links are commonly placed along the top or left side of the screen. In a content-rich WAP site, links need to be placed at the bottom of the page so that once an end-user has scrolled through the content they can navigate to the next page. Graphics need to be super-small to be loaded efficiently.

Mobile content delivery, both free (promotional and branding) and paid (content as product) are seeing a rise. This is due to the formation of relationships between carriers and content delivery aggregators. This process has been unfolding a bit quicker in Europe than here in the US, but we’re catching up quickly.

Overall I think 2006 will be a landmark year for mobile marketing. Check back for updates and new information.