Regardless of the recent financial crisis, this year has by all means been wonderful for mobile marketing. Who's the smartest of them all mobile marketers?

This publication launched last year with a mission to enlighten its readers with news, analysis and opinion on the latest branding, customer acquisition and customer retention efforts in mobile marketing. Since December not a day has passed when we don't run an article on how marketers, be they small or Fortune 500, are tapping the power of mobile for standalone or multichannel marketing.

Our publication and the number of stories we publish each day on mobile branding and direct marketing are testament to the growth and steady maturation of the most personal communications and marketing medium.

Criteria
Now comes the time for the industry to help us choose from among the best mobile marketing campaigns, marketers and individuals. What are the hallmarks of a good mobile marketer and hence a candidate for the top honor?

First, the marketer should have consistently made effective use of mobile marketing for branding or customer acquisition or customer retention or a combination of them.

Second, while standalone mobile marketing efforts are OK, the marketer should have also incorporated mobile into a multichannel plan. Mobile's role in giving legs to print, TV, radio and the Internet is what makes it a standout medium.

Third, the marketer should have built a qualified database of respondents to mobile campaigns. This opt-in list is gold, since the churn rate with mobile phone numbers is minimal compared with email or postal addresses.

Fourth, the marketer should have achieved a high rate of response to campaigns on a consistent basis, thus proving deft use of calls to action and targeted marketing.

Fifth, the mobile marketing creative should have been consistently outstanding, with the ads or imagery conveying the brand attributes and engendering high click-throughs.

Finally, the marketer or individual should have shaped the mobile marketing industry this year, serving as a role model to peers and encouragement to service providers.

At least, some of these attributes have to be part of the DNA of a smart mobile marketer. It's not about the budget, but the smart thinking with the appropriate use of marketing dollars for mobile.

Overall, the idea is to give this honor to a marketer or individual who made effective use of mobile through creative execution and marketing offer to consistently generate a high response rate for mobile marketing campaigns and outreach.

In other words, this marketer or individual should have moved the needle for mobile marketing and the brand in 2008.

Only marketers or individuals qualify for nomination, not marketing campaigns or products or services.

Deadline is Nov. 15
Nominations are welcome for marketing, media and publishing, nonprofit and political efforts.

All nominations should be accompanied by three pieces of high res jpeg creative examples of the nominee's work, along with a detailed description in a Word document of why that nominee deserves the honor. The yardsticks must be kept in mind.

This publication's staff will also submit their own board of candidates for Mobile Marketer of the Year.

A decision based on industry feedback combined with this publication's experience of interacting with the industry will lead to the nomination of contenders.

The winner will be announced in December.

Please headline your submissions Mobile Marketer of the Year in your emails to .

Mobile service providers can nominate their clients or others and marketers can nominate themselves or others. Also, individuals can nominate others with whom they have no ties.

Multiple nominations are welcome as well, limited to three per referring marketer, publisher, service provider or individual.

The deadline for submissions is Nov. 15.

Our judgment will be fair and to the best of our journalistic abilities. We are not anointing, but confirming the wisdom of a smart crowd.