Audible.com has incorporated mobile into its more traditional marketing initiatives, offering free audiobook downloads to BlackBerry users.

Traditional ads include a mobile call to action, asking consumers to text AUDIBLE to short code 35620 to get Thomas Friedman?s No. 1 bestseller free. The mobile calls to action are present on New York City subway trains,  within New York Times and Wall Street Journal print ads, and online via banner ads. 

?We are trying to offer customers a chance to have an instant interaction with our ad,? said Will Lopes, vice president of business development at Audible.com, Newark, NJ. ?Offering the ability to text gives consumers an opportunity for instant gratification to a free piece of audio with no obligations.?

Audible.com is a provider of audiobooks read by authors and celebrities in addition to magazines, radio shows, podcasts, stand-up comedy, and speeches. Users who use Audible can download to their computer or sync to a mobile device. Audible is a subsidiary of Amazon.com.

As of now, there are no advertisements in the spoken word content.

?The broader strategic goal is to target commuters and communicate the utility of using Audible while commuting, as well as engaging them with an offer to which they can respond immediately,? Mr. Lopes said.

?Right now, we are doing contextual targeting but the target is for business professionals,? he said.

Audible.com isn?t the only audiobook provider targeting mobile consumers.

Over 1.5 million public domain books in the United States are now available for bookworms who have iPhones or Android-enabled devices.

Users can go to http://books.google.com/m on their mobile browser to search for a title, author or subject and start reading while on the go (see story).

Additionally, to celebrate its anniversary, romance series book publisher Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. released 16 free romance novels for users of Lexcycle's Stanza electronic book reader application for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch.

Stanza for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store and from http://www.lexcycle.com (see story).

?Our service is supported in over 600 digital devices,? Mr. Lopes said. ?However, mobile offers the unique opportunity to remove the PC from the equation in discovering and listening to over 60,000 hours of audio content available at Audible.

?The ability to market in this platform improves the customer experience and as such is an attractive platform to advertise,? he said.