Vodafone is challenging F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, to race against the speed of it's improved mobile data network in The Netherlands. To make it an actual challenge, Vodafone calls for 28.800 Facebook users to join the race in a virtual car on Facebook. The time it takes Vodafone's network to download all of their profile pics, is the time to beat for Hamilton. The actual race will take place on a secret track - Schiphol is rumored - on the 13th of september. The race will be aired live on Facebook.

A while ago i posted about Vodafone in Spain doing some crazy stuff for their 3G solutions for small businesses. Time after that, they've created a follow-up of that campaign, consisting on a Vodafone employee (that spends some time blogging) and his family going through Spain in a "bus-house" and without a landline number to get connected to the Internet, just a mobile phone and a USB modem. Also residents of each city will be allowed to get into the bus, as it will be staying for two days in each place.

All of this is being blogged at La Casa Movil and although it's in spanish, it's worth a read, you can use some online translation tools to get it translated into English or the language of your choice.

Yesterday, my friend and co-worker Arturo and myself found out a couple of brilliant cases of integrated advertising, done respectively by German agencies Lukas Lindemann Rosinski and Jung Von Matt.

I think that both the image for the first case and the video for the second one are absolutely self-explanatory...

The geniuses from Waskman came up with a very original idea to advertise the new Vodafone "Oficina Movil" ("Mobile Office") service, which main value is to avoid freelancers and small businesses being wire-dependant on mobile phones, office phones and data services through 3G technology. So after a while of thinking who the target was they realized they could be the perfect target, so they proposed Vodafone moving their offices to the middle of Madrid and Bilbao for three weeks, writing about the whole process in a few sites.

Marketing to kids can prove tricky. Marketing mobile phones to kids can be even trickier. The Sydney Morning Herald (free reg.) reports that in Australia there is a discussion going on children and mobile phones. New research show handset could threat kids' health and Australian mobile carriers take different approaches to the findings. Virgin Mobile doesn't market its products to under-10s; Telstra says 10-14 years-old are youths not children, so it's ok to target them; Vodafone and Optus have guidelines which prohibit marketing to under-16s.
Who's right and who's wrong? My opinion is that children simply don't need mobile phones.

... for men. A new research by Idc found out that young adult males are more likely than females to purchase mobile phones as fashion statements. The study, "What Makes Mobile Users Tick? The Underlying Factors of Mobile Phone Usage and Purchase Criteria" also reveals a number of other corollaries about mobile phone users' perceptions about their phones. For example, productivity and convenience benefits are paramount to more users compared to other fundamental benefits, such as safety and security or style and status.

Sending an SMS in France it's too expensive: 0.12 � per message is a price that discourages French users from texting. In the rest of Europe the average price is 0.10� (but I pay 0.15� with Vodafone Italy), and this has helped the sms mania to explode. An article on Le Figaro (in French) explores the texting habits in France, collecting data and opinion on a market that still has to show its potentials.

Napster and Dwango have signed a deal to launch �Napster Mobile� across major North American carriers. The service will allow users to choose ringtones that fit their lifestyle, musical tastes and mood from an extensive song catalog while they earn credits redeemable for PC downloads.

Ericsson has announced the winners of the Mobile Application Awards 2004. The purpose of the Awards is to find the best, market-ready mobile applications focusing on services that add value, create convenience and make daily life and work easier and more efficient. Over two hundred applications from 34 countries where submitted for the 2004 Awards. Twelve finalists where selected in four categories, based on criteria such as professionalism, market potential, innovation, consumer friendliness and ease-of-implementation by the operators and the media industry. The finalists came from Australia, Germany, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Hong Kong, Austria, USA, and the UK. The finalists got the unique opportunity to present their services live to an exclusive audience comprising of executives from mobile network operators, venture capitalists and other industry players.
The winners were selected by the audience through live SMS voting. In the category "Best Mobile Enterprise Application" the winner has been Lavasphere by Gavitec AG (Germany), while Best Mobile Information Application has been named Wayfinder EuroNavigator by Wayfinder Systems AB (Sweden).

Australians would rather get (and send) a text message during the holiday season than a Christmas card, according to a survey commissioned by Motorola. As ITnews reports, the findings are interesting also because they show that nearly half of those surveyed preferred to send text messages rather than talking on the phone.

If you work in the wireless industry, you might be interested in the MuLiMob project. Funded by the European Commission as part of the IST programme, MuLiMob SSA aims to make the most of Europe's multilingual and multicultural diversity for the benefit of its mobile users and workers, by making information available on current and potential developments and by identifying research to be done. Benefits of participation are:
- presence of your brand/company in our reports
- exclusive access to the findings and analyses of our research
- to get connected to the Mulilob network and community

If you want to learn more about the program, just visit the site: www.mulimob.org

3G Americas has published a white paper (.pdf) which identifies the development approaches and business models for consumer wireless applications as well as substantiates the opportunity of this growing wireless data market with the GSM family of technologies.

Tony Blair will join a mobile chat room to get in touch with its public. The initiative is the first of its kind, and it's surely extremely interesting. The only problem as The Register reports, is that the questions are being vetted in advance...

Text & listen at Jay-Z concerts

A cell phone for GrandPa

The Power of the Force with your mobile

Wireless anti-spam committee formed

Mobile gaming growing in Asia

Evaluating the future of MMS

Porkers, Grazers and Nibblers... (???)

The new "Swiss Army knife"

SMS' classes for over 50s

The Big Brother gets it wrong

Tim condemned for spam

China: text & fear

Texting mania in CEE

Entertainment drives cell phones' replacement

Baseball likes wireless

Presidential mobile spam

Mobile spam might be expensive

All eyes on mobile entertainment

Good news from the Wireless Summit

Singapore's fastest SMS thumbs

Wireless Paradise City

Cellular TV Comes to Life

Mobile: teenagers as evangelists

Spam: the wireless menace

Premium rate SMS come to the US

US wireless: cooperation is the key

Rabobank believes in I-Mode

Mobile video services will grow

Motorola presents Rock the Mobile Vote

Chinese are in love with SMSs

A look at Spanish wireless market

Kodak targets mobile camera phone users

MSN goes wireless

Here come voice-enabled shortcodes

Wireless video for Rugby fans

SMS: it's a question of point of view

Get Dilbert on you mobile phone

Putting wireless stats in context

American Express launches i-Mode site

Mobile coupons: a new marketing niche

November: Wap record in the UK

I'm dreaming of a... "wireless" Christmas

Teens, Santa Clause and the mobile phones

Everyday life with mobile technology

Verizon tries to introduce ringtones mania in the US

Music downloads to mobile phone: a new business? Not really

From SMS to Video: Growing Mobile Data Applications

A new fashion: the ringback tone

SMS fever in the UK

BMW introduces 'ConnectedDrive'

NHL: vote your MVP with an SMS

The bright future of cameraphones

Get your next haircut via MMS

SMS mania in the UK

Club Nokia: send your MMS as a postcard

European SME using mobile e-mail

Pioneers in synchronous mobile and interactive TV

Mobile marketers, get ready!

Book Virgin Atlantic with your phone

U.S. carriers hope to import text messaging

Charlie's Angels mobile campaign

The ringtones business

Introducing wireless marketing

Are looking for more cool interactive ideas? Check the archives