SemperAptus.com - Mobile Attitude (Review)

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Mobile Attitude:
Marketing for Your Pelvic Region
by Kimberly Lau

"With Mobile Attitude, you'll look important... And isn't that what technology's all about?"

You're in a fancy restaurant with your significant something. You exchange loving gazes when out of nowhere, your hip starts to vibrate and you yell out "AGH!". Then, after that brief moment of sheer terror, you realize it's just your stupid pager going off and then you spend the rest of the evening trying to regain your composure. Sound like fun? Or maybe you carry a pager and want people to notice how important you are because it goes off constantly. Sound familiar but you're afraid to admit it? If so, then maybe Mobile Attitude is for you.

Mobile Attitude is a free service that allows you to get free promotions, coupons, snow reports and reminders via your alphanumeric mobile device (telephone or pager). Messages are sent to your device based on what time of day and which days you want to receive them. You can also specify the number of messages you want to get (so if you really want to look important, you'll set it to the maximum of 5). The process to join is a fairly simple one, though I did get a stuck trying to figure out who my pager carrier was (who knew that choosing Skytel would work when my pager said "MCI Worldcom". My excuse is that this is a work pager so I don't pay the bills and hence have no clue who the carrier is -- that's my story and I'm sticking to it). They don't have every carrier known to man, but they have a fairly sizeable selection including AT&T Wireless, Airtouch Cellular and Paging, GTE Wireless, Nextel, Pac Bell Wireless and Sprint PCS.

There are promotions ranging from movies and concerts, videos/electronics/computers and CDs/gifts to Food and Outdoor Recreation/Sports. Recently, I've gotten a coupon for a free 1 topping personal size pizza from Round Table Pizza. All you need to do is call the phone number listed in the message by a certain date (I'm not giving you that number -- that pizza's mine). I can also get an Olympus D-360L Digital Camera for $280.35 at shopwireless.com (the same price is listed on the website). For some deals, you need to bring the mobile device and show them the message in order to get the special deal. Some of the current promo partners include Andronico's, Round Table Pizza, Any Mountain, Omaha Steaks and Marlins Deluxe Car Wash among others. This service will really prove useful if they can add more retailers.

More than mere marketing

So maybe saving money isn't your thing, but remembering the anniversary of the day you met your sweetheart or your boss' birthday (for kissing up purposes, of course) might be worth more to you than that free one topping personal pizza (personally, I think your priorities are all screwed up, but hey, who am I to judge). If that's the case, then Mobile Attitude's reminders might be the service for you. All you need to do is go to the Reminders area, write a short message, choose the date and time and Mobile Attitude will send you a message to your mobile device -- and you will look like a hero for remembering something for a change.

And in case you want to "crank call" or "crank page" a friend, you can also send a message directly to yourself or to your friend's mobile device as well. Assuming you know the mobile carrier, number and pin (if applicable), you can send messages once you log into the service. Caveat -- it took me a few hours before I got my message, so I wouldn't send messages like "Honey, I think the baby's coming" unless you don't think the baby's coming anytime soon.

Last and definitely not least, for you powderhounds (or wannabe ski bunnies or knuckledraggers) out there, there's the snowzone report which sends you messages with the snow report for various ski resorts that you choose. Of course, this being the end of June, there haven't been any snowzone reports, so I have no clue whether or not this service is a keeper or a deleter.

So, assuming you don't mind getting a few extra buzzes or rings every now and then for stuff you may not care about or want to buy (I have my pager set to "vibrating pleasure mode", so I love it), sign up for the service. If you're nervous, don't worry; the company has a very simple unsubscribe feature to remove yourself from the service with the click of a single button.

	Pros: Fast and easy sign-up and sign-off features. Customizable E-marketing that will make you the envy of all your coupon-clipping friends.
	Cons: Works with limited paging/cell providers and has very few features so it only appeals to a small audience.

With Mobile Attitude, you'll look important, you might save some money, get some good skiing in and your significant other will love you for remembering the day you met. And isn't that what technology's all about?