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Hallmark Cards Inc. is getting into the text-messaging world - but not the one that usually springs to mind. Text Bands, a new product from the Kansas City-based greeting card giant, aim to give kids a way to exchange positive messages when they meet in person. Kids wearing the colorful bands bump fists or shake hands, causing the the bands to light up and the message - up to 10 characters - to transfer. Each band can hold as many as 24 messages; they include filters to help prevent negative messages.

 Talkz gives its users a plethora of options for communication, letting them text, doodle, send a video or even a voice message all within the app. You can send messages in other people's voice or if you can't send a voice recording, it will clone your voice and send a voice message.

Mogreet launched the AdStitch mobile advertising service Tuesday, combining high-quality video ads with mobile messaging to help brands easily recoup return on investments. Cox Media Group's Oakland, Calif. television station, KTVU, has been testing a morning weather alert to subscribers along with an ad in the MMS message on mobile phones. The ad in the message typically ranges from five to 15 seconds, but more advertisers want to create shorter clips. The best-performing ad units are shorter, according to Mogreet CEO James Citron. "An automaker knows showing a five- or a 15-second video of a car performs better than 20 characters in text, banner or display ad," Citron said. He believes MMS is the only way publishers can reach 95% of Americans with mobile video.

Research firm Informa believes nearly 19 billion instant messages were sent per day in 2012 through chat applications, which has finally overtaken SMS texts which only 17.6 billion texts were sent in the same year. The 19 billion instant messages were spread across six of the most popular mobile chat applications: WhatsApp, BlackBerry Messenger, Viber, Nimbuzz, Apple's iMessage and KakaoTalk.

Mobile messaging application Viber has released version 2.2, introducing group messaging as well as improved call quality and several user interface enhancements. The company also said it has reached 90 million users, with users making over 1.5 billion minutes of calls each month. This is a jump of 20 million users in just over two months.

Messaging apps

"Specifically, the mobile video ad resulted in 79% general recall, 58% brand recall, 48% message recall, 24% ad favorability and 15% purchase intent. Here's how those figures compared to online and TV across the same five metrics:   General Ad Recall: Mobile video was 2.7 times higher than online; 1.6 times higher than TV. Brand Recall: 4.8 times/online; 5.8 times/TV. Message Recall: 5.6 times/online; 7.5 times/TV. Brand Favorability: 3.4 times higher than both online and TV. Purchase Intent: 2.5 times/online; 3.8 times/TV."

redesign of messages

leave messages for specific people at specific places.  

Eighty-six percent of Americans surveyed said they don't want political campaigns to customize messages based on their interests. Again, this has become a de facto approach to the way political advertisers use online advertising, particularly on Facebook. If a Facebook user, for example, shows an interest in gay rights issues by liking related organizations, chances are he might have been served an Obama for America Facebook ad in 2011 with a message focused on marriage equality: "President Obama supports repealing the Defense of Marriage Act. Add your support now!" stated a Facebook ad from the President's reelection campaign that appeared to be targeted to people who liked left-leaning groups on Facebook, including gay rights-related groups.

Goal: The Wild Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to protecting the wilderness, started the Forever Wild Rhino Protection initiative to save Rhinos from extinction due to hunting in Asia.  Problem: Like all non-profits they had no money to create awareness and get support.  Insight: People don't always pay attention to these types of serious causes, but they sure seem to have a lot of time to watch silly viral videos on the internet.  Strategy: Find a way to have the message integrated into these silly viral videos... for free.  Solution: Download the top trending viral videos from YouTube, edit part of the video to include messaging about their initiative, re-upload the video with the same exact title as the original and call it YouTube Interventions. 

consumers seem to like the direct messaging service

One thing the study also reinforces is just how much advertisers are betting on Facebook: according to comScore's analysis, more than 15 percent of all U.S. online display ads were "socially enabled," meaning they contained a message asking viewers to "like" or follow the brand or the campaign on Facebook. That's almost double the number of ads that contained those kinds of messages in November of last year, the report said. That kind of bet is what drove Salesforce to spend close to a billion dollars to buy Buddy Media, which specializes in managing Facebook pages and social campaigns.

mobile messaging apps are making a transition to become more like a social platform

According to new data released by Flurry Analytics this morning, overall app usage in 2013 saw 115% year-over-year growth, with Messaging apps showing the most dramatic growth, up 203% year-over-year.

Qkies are edible cookies with QR codes on them.  send messages along with the food!

"The new chat feature is pretty easy to access. Users simply swipe right on someone's username in their inbox to start a conversation. Before, Snapchat users could only send text in the form of captions on photos, resulting in a lot of terrible pictures being sent for the sake of the messages that accompanied them. Now, conversations don't look much different from those in other mobile messaging apps like WhatsApp and GroupMe, except these ones disappear after they take place."

For their client Cellcom, McCann Erikson Israel invented a new advertising space to promote the brand's teen-focused First Love website. Cute little love messages - followed by a promotional message for the site - were displayed in the address bar next to the site's URL.