The National Basketball Association's Utah Jazz team will engage fans with an SMS-based entertainment service that interfaces with its customer relationship marketing program.

The NBA team is partnering with SMS marketing firm Txtstation for the initiative, which will place the calls to action to participate in polls and trivia questions both inside Salt Lake City?s EnergySolutions Arena and in television broadcasts of Jazz games. The Jazz will also be offering participants the chance to opt-in to its mobile loyalty club.

?The Jazz wanted to have something that was more real-time, that had a pop and a great look to it to get people to text in,? said Michael Falato, vice president of sales and business development at Txtstation, Austin. ?They were looking for a company that could help them, not just with technology, but with ideas and concepts ? to be more of a strategic partner and a consultative company.?

The Jazz previously worked with another vendor to develop in-game mobile entertainment, but brought in Txtstation to take advantage of the company?s pricing, unlimited texting capabilities, television integration and other mobile offerings, according to Mr. Falato.

Txtstation will begin managing mobile in-game entertainment for the Jazz this season as part of the three-year deal.

Jazz mobile iniative
The Jazz will use the Txtstation platform to engage fans with a variety of entertaining diversions during games at the team's EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City, UT.

Fans will be able to participate by sending designated keywords to the short code 69882.

For example, fans will be able to vote on polls displayed on the arena?s video screen.

The service allows results to update in the arena video screen in real-time as responses stream in.

Here is a screen grab of a real-time mobile poll:

In addition, the Jazz will encourage fans to send in SMS messages and images they have taken with their mobile phones.

The team will select and display some of these responses on the video screen.

Here is a screen grab of a SMS ticker, displayed on the EnergySolutions Arena video screen:

?[The Jazz? in-game mobile entertainment service] ranges on the stuff most teams want to do ? texting, posting pictures to the big screen, voting,? Mr. Falato said. ?These are concepts that work well.

?The difference is, when you send a text, a light will light up on the selection you voted for [on the video screen],? he said. ?Percentages change and you saw the light up on the screen, or you saw your text on screen.

?When people text in they want to see some sort of pay off.?

When Jazz fans send a text to the short code, they will receive a message back encouraging them to opt-in to the Jazz Mobile Club to receive periodic text alerts with information about the team.

The Jazz will also promote Jazz ticket sales and merchandise, while also activating an AT&T sponsorship through the loyalty program.

?The mobile club will send out scores, information about games, trades, stuff like that,? Mr. Falato said. ?It will also implement customer relationship marketing.

?The Jazzz want us to take our data and feed it into their CRM system, which is a big reason they picked us,? he said. ?We can help them sell more tickets and merchandise, and help them engage and activate their sponsorships ? AT&T being one of them.?

Sports and mobile a match
Sports events have played a big role in the development of the mobile space recently.

For example, the World Cup was a defining moment for mobile marketing, which saw a litany of applications and mobile advertising campaigns key into the soccer tournament (see story).

More recently, the Houston Texans have brought on Txtstation to activate a McDonald?s sponsorship as the football team engages fans with an mobile in-game entertainment initiative (see story).

?A lot of these teams have partnerships with brands, and they?re using mobile to better activate those partnerships,? Mr. Falato said.

Final Take
Peter Finocchiaro, editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer, New York

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