Today 4INFO launched a smart integration from its SMS ad network to Twitter SMS. Both publishers and advertisers on our SMS ad network will use this new functionality to allow users to sign up for their favorite tweets via SMS directly from 4INFO, without having to text in to a new number. They can just reply to any message from the 40+ shortcodes we manage, and be automatically be transferred over to Twitter. Give it a try by sending a text message to 44636 (4INFO) with the word "TWEET".
This is the highest profile deployment of 4INFO's many different SMS Text-to-Shortcode ad units. Most marketers use these ads to build their mobile marketing databases, such as Cirque du Soleil (Text CDS to 44636) and Butterball (Text BUTTERBALL to 44636), but with many brands turning to Twitter to share their thoughts, another solution was required. Our Text-to-Twitter ad unit is the solution; a simple way for consumers to connect to a Twitter feed directly.
Text messaging is the heart of 4INFO, and it's very important to Twitter. They started as an SMS service, but as their volume exploded, the support costs for the service must have seemed untenable. They took... Read more
Archive for Zaw Thet 
Is it possible to make meaningful brand connections with Generation Y?
It's hard to achieve brand loyalty with any generation, but especially with Millennials. I'm sure that I don't need to make the case for why creating brand loyalists is important, but two essential reasons boil down to: 1) If you create loyalists when they're young, your sales trajectory and pass-along has a longer lifespan; 2) As anyone reading up on modern brand building probably already knows, the power of one passionate consumer combined with spiffy amplification tools (social media) can translate into thousands more customers hearing about your brand based on recommendation. Still, pervasive noise in our culture makes this much harder to achieve and "experts" tell us we've engendered a highly fickle batch of individuals – drug of choice? Choice. Like every generation in turn, Gen Y is increasingly distracted. The New York Times, Business Week and New York magazine all devoted articles within the past few weeks to our national attention deficit: the un-doings caused by multi-tasking in manifest digital forms, and the resulting shift advertisers must take toward leveraging social media influencers. Maybe you don't remember the good old days - when people shopped by brand, and purchase decisions were driven by the long-term brand capital that premium... Read more
Almost 21 Questions for Jeff Ma, of MIT card counting, Bringing Down the House, 21, and Citizen Sports Infamy
My good friend, Jeff Ma is co-founder of Citizen Sports and part of the famed MIT card counting group whose story was told in the book "Bringing Down the House" and the movie 21. He has been the technology lead for two internet startups and was an options trader on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. I grabbed the opportunity to pick his brain on sports, consumer behavior, marketing, and more...
1) Now that everyone’s in March Madness mode – first things first, we’ve already seen W. Kentucky upset Illinois – tell us your next two upsets! There aren’t many upsets left to be had out there but I think Gonzaga could beat UNC. They have almost as much talent as the Heels and with Lawson less than 100% who knows. I actually think Arizona could give Louisville some trouble. They have NBA talent at three positions and Louisville has been prone to some lapses.
2) I’m all about mobile, you’re all about sports – what do you see as the big opportunity for sports brands in the mobile universe? Brands need to go where people are spending their time and clearly sports fans are all over mobile. Reaching the consumer when... Read more
