Delta Air Lines launched a mobile marketing campaign meant to promote the company's international business routes and destinations.

The airline teamed up with digital agency Digitas and mobile marketing firm Phonevalley for the promotion. This promotion comes on the heels of a text-messaging campaign Delta ran in the fourth quarter of 2008.

"We are enthusiastic to support Delta Air Lines in their promotional plan once again," said Alexandre Mars, CEO of Phonevalley and head of mobile at Publicis Groupe, Paris. "Cell phones are very unique to marketers as they allow consumers to instantly react to an ad whilst on the move and to engage with their brand."

Phonevalley is a mobile marketing firm with clients such as Hugo Boss, Kraft, Volvo and L'Oreal Paris.

Delta Air Lines is the world's No. 1 airline, serving more than 400 locations worldwide.

During the months of April and June, frequent travelers were presented with a visual list of Delta's many worldwide destinations and invited to text the name of select destinations (i.e. Tokyo) to short
code 44144.

In return, participants received a series of tips to improve business practices in the featured destination to help them know what to lend insight to business practices abroad.

The final message of each set includes a link to the Delta mobile Web site.

There consumer could research and manage flight options.

The first text messaging campaign ran in Q4 2008 and demonstrated consumers were not only responsive, but willing to engage multiple times in a session.

The average consumer was likely to interact with the entire set of tips per location.

To examine the level of consumer engagement, Delta focused on response measures.

Response metrics such as frequency and completion rate enable a brand to quantify a mobile campaign's ability to serve as a one-to-one marketing vehicle.

Delta has a healthy set of mobile offerings, so the airline isn't new to the mobile space.

In March, Delta partnered with the Transportation Security Administration to expand its mobile check-in with an electronic boarding pass (see story).

Delta's mobile site at http://mobile.delta.com lets consumers view their itineraries, login to book a trip, check flight status and schedules, check-in and click-to-call a Delta representative.

Delta isn't the only airline making use of mobile.

Hawaiian Airlines ran an SMS sweepstakes to build its mobile database and activate its television sponsorship of Major League Baseball's San Diego Padres (see story).

Additionally, international airline AirAsia used mobile to increase awareness of the company and its promotions throughout Asia (see story).

"The cell phone is a fantastic opportunity to reach and engage consumers in entertaining programs as well as useful services, Mr. Mars said.