While the economy's struggle featured in the backdrop, this has been yet another marvelous year for mobile marketing. So which brand advertiser was the smartest of them all?

Readers are invited to nominate advertiser candidates for Mobile Marketer of the Year, the most prestigious award in mobile advertising, marketing and media. The 2009 winner was Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. for outstanding use of mobile advertising and marketing (see story).

Each day we publish articles and case studies on the efficacious use of mobile marketing for branding or customer acquisition or customer retention purposes. Some advertisers, on the advice of their ad agencies and mobile marketing service providers, take more risks than others to push the envelope. It is from these ranks we would like to have the 2010 Mobile Marketer of the Year. 

Criteria
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. Case studies with high res jpeg images to support will help.

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 social media, print, TV, radio, direct mail, catalogs, insert media 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 encouraging agencies and service providers.

At least, some of these attributes have to be part of the DNA of a smart mobile marketer. It is 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 which 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 should have moved the needle for mobile marketing and the brand in 2010.

Only marketers - brand advertisers - qualify for nomination, not marketing campaigns, products or services.

Deadline is Nov. 4
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 advertiser 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 sometime in November.

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

Agencies and 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 Thursday, Nov. 4.

Our judgment will be fair and to the best of our journalistic abilities. May the best brand win.