The death of Michael Jackson nearly stalled the world wide web.

Unlike anything seen in recent memory, entertainment and social networking websites experienced near crashes and exploding servers as a result of millions of hits that congested web traffic to an unprecedented extent.

The mobile web in particular was tested like never before and came through shining on the other side.

Even before Michael Jackson’s death was confirmed, celebrities took to Twitter to comment on a day of celebrity death (first Farrah Fawcett, then Michael Jackson). Throughout the evening, other celebrities tweeted to similarly express their reactions to the King of Pop’s death at the age of 50.

Several pranksters then released false stories on Twitter about Harrison Ford and Jeff Goldblum also dying today in freak accidents. None were true. But all caused such a flurry of mobile web searches that the internet as a whole had to fire on all cylinders to keep up. Read the rest

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Earlier this week, Justin told us about the potential $90 million ruling against Simon & Schuster for sending unsolicited text messages promoting the Steven King novel Cell (which itself, ironically, is about the really, really dark side of SMS). The court decreed that the publisher violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) because messages were sent through an automatic telephone dialing system. Now, legitimate mobile marketing service providers are stepping up to protect their industry–and to protect the integrity of a communication platform with which consumers really do want to be reached.

The company Ez Texting is spearheading lobbying efforts to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, to protect mobile marketing technology companies from being sued due to the misuse of their services. It has begun an organization called the Mobile Advocacy Coalition, whose website, www.mobileac.org, includes information on how other mobile tech providers can become involved.

Ez Texting’s Shane Neman tells me: “Fax broadcasters and the [cellular] carriers have specific exemptions by the FCC as they are considered to be ‘mere conduits.’ However, SMS aggregators, providers, and software developers do not. We too are merely the technology providers, and yet still can be liable under the law because no specific exemption is exists for us.” Read the rest

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Rules, regulations and industry best practices are put in place for a reason, and nowhere are they more important then when it comes to anti-SPAM cases.  An emerging number of cases are being filed for violations of anti-SPAM laws regarding not only landline and cellphone call violations, but for SMS SPAM as well.

One such case is one involving a woman by the name of Laci Satterfield who, in 2007, sued Simon & Schuster in federal court in the Northern District of California for sending an unsolicited text message to her son’s cell phone that advertised the Stephen King horror book Cell.  Her attorneys claimed such text messages violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act because they were sent through an automatic telephone dialing system. The suit, brought on behalf of a potential class of 60,000 people, sought between $500 and $1,500 for each unsolicited text message Simon & Schuster sent, meaning the publisher faced damages of up to $90 million.

While specific rules and regulations regarding SMS messages are still a bit ambiguous, Simon & Schuster claimed that it didn’t use an auto-dial system, and that no “calls” took place as defined by the federal law.  The company also claimed that Satterfield and other users had given consent by agreeing to the terms of ringtone downloads, and thus had opted-in to receiving further marketing messages.  Originally, Oakland federal district court judge Claudia Wilken sided with Simon & Schuster, though she did not rule on the question of whether a text message constitutes a telephone call- the most important aspect of the case.

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Most news surrounding mobile campaigns consists of telling how successful the campaign was overall and how much better they are when compared to other forms of advertising.  In reality, not all mobile campaigns are created equal, and have the results that were hoped for.

Case in point- a local Jiffy Lube in Ames, Iowa and its recent mobile coupon campaign that had less than favorable results.  The retailer was convinced by a local radio station to conduct an SMS-based coupon campaign where listeners were urged, at the end of Jiffy Lube commercials, to use their mobile devices to text the word JIFFY to a 5-digit number.  All participants received mobile coupons for various Jiffy Lube discounts and services such as oil changes, wiper blades, tire rotations and filters.

The campaign ran for the last two quarters of 2008, and garnered nearly 175 SMS messages per week- resulting in over 4,500 responses overall for the campaign.  The disappointing part is the fact that out of those 4,500 respondents, Jiffy Lube only saw about 30 digital coupons actually redeemed.  This seemed odd, given the fact that some coupons were for free oil changes and heavily discounted services- so what could have caused such a bad response rate? Read the rest

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Yesterday the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee grilled carriers about alleged the price hike–and possible price fixing–of SMS rates. AT&T and Verizon reps spun the whole thing as a price decrease, citing bulk message plans that are more popular than per-message spending. But members of the antitrust subcommittee that conducted the hearing didn’t seem convinced.

“These sharp price increases raise concerns. Are these price increases the result of a lack of competition in a highly concentrated market?” said Sen. Herb Kohl, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, who had previously expressed concern that the four largest cell phone companies doubled their text message rates from 10 cents in 2006 to 20 cents in 2008.

Sen. Kohl also said, ”These lockstep price increases occurred despite the fact that the cost to the phone companies to carry text messages is minimal–estimated to be less than a penny per message–and has not increased.”

Carrier reps vehemently denied any illegal trust activity. Verizon general counsel Randal Milch said most Verizon Wireless customers subscribe to a texting plan, and as a result they “pay less than a penny per message,” a reduction of almost two-thirds since 2006. ”As the result of the price cuts, usage has grown six-fold,” he said. Read the rest

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Even Harry Potter couldn’t save the publishing industry from a precipitous decline in sales that has severely impacted the publishing world’s ability to perpetuate the type of success it has experienced in recent years (if not decades).

As a result of desperation, some of the largest publishing houses in the world are looking into mobile marketing as a new way to introduce books and projects to the penny-pinched consumer.

Publisher HarperCollins is leading the way.

This week, the publishing giant announced a partnership with mobile marketing firm QMCodes to “introduce a 2D barcode scanning promotion.”

The promotion is designed, in particular, to push the upcoming title called L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad, star of MTV’s The Hills.

The campaign will let consumers access L.A. Candy related content, such as video clips by downloading an application from HarperCollins’ mobile site (or by scanning a barcode on the novel, which was just released). Read the rest

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Palm, once king of all handhelds, released its highly-anticipated Pre smartphone–the first to be powered by the company’s new webOS operating system–over the weekend to rave reviews. But it’s not the twittering (or Twittering) of tech reviewers that caught my eye. I was struck by what Palm Executive Chairman Jon Rubinstein told Reuters:

“‘For us, the opportunity is not to take customers away from RIM or Apple,’ but rather to entice users of lower-level cell phones to upgrade to a more powerful smartphone.”

In other words, the Pre–not the Blackberry Storm, nor the next version of the iPhone expected to be announced this morning–could commoditize smartphones. This may ensure once and for all that mobile marketing (from SMS to mobile Web ads) is the essential way to reach consumers. Read the rest

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