BOSTON : m-Qube, a provider of mobile marketing, has launched a short message service (SMS) marketing campaign in the United States in conjunction with the New Line Cinema movie Knockaround Guys, which stars Vin Diesel XXX and John Malkovich. The film debuted in theatres earlier this month.

The interactive text message campaign, which targets the under-25 market, allows movie fans to register a four-person team online and participate in the Knockaround Guys "Bag of Cash" sweepstakes, including interacting with text- message-based trivia quizzes from their mobile phones. The winning teams that answer all three movie related trivia questions correctly qualify for entry to win a $2500 "Bag of cash" grand prize and a DVD player.

Text messaging, say reports, is expanding rapidly in the US right now particularly among the teens and young adults at the "sweet spot" of the motion picture industry's target audience. Today more than one billion messages are sent every month in the US. In Europe, where the phenomenon first took hold, an estimated one billion messages are now sent every day..

The opportunities presented by this new medium are significant for marketers. Conservative estimates are that mobile marketing spending by brands looking to capitalise on the first truly "out-of-home" direct response medium will pass the $5 billion/year mark within the next few years.