4INFO, the mobile ad-network/SMS service we’ve covered in the past, is confident that mobile marketing can help significantly boost a brand’s Twitter followers. So confident in fact, that it’s offering some of its largest clients a months worth of free mobile advertising to do nothing more than simply promote their Twitter account.
The idea behind the experiment is to test the combination of using mobile marketing to drive traffic to a brand’s Twitter account together with the already mobile-centric aspect of Twitter as a service. To test the waters, 4INFO kicked off a month-long trial in which a handful of brands will use mobile advertising to promote their Twitter feeds. If it works, the company hopes Twitter may consider working with 4INFO to monetize its own traffic in the future.
4INFO is extending the offer to some of its largest clients, including the likes of the NBA, Microsoft, Turtle Wax, UFC and others in hopes that Twitter will take notice and adapt its business model. During the trial, brands will promote various mobile advertising campaigns that only promote their respective Twitter feed.
For example, the NBA can send text messages reminding people to watch a certain game, and then include a simple call-to-action to follow them on Twitter. “We’re using the content of their Twitter updates in the various mobile-ad campaigns, except the call to action is for that consumer to follow the brand on Twitter instead of traditional methods,” stated Zaw Thet, 4INFO’s CEO.
4INFO has high hopes for Twitter, and they might be dead on with their assumptions, but beyond this experiment, the company also plans to test the “value of a Twitter follower,” so it could get interesting. Companies seem to be lining up to integrate with, or use the power of Twitter to their benefit. Being that Twitter is a very mobile-based service, combing that aspect with mobile marketing could be something big.
