Pizza Hut partnered with Ping Mobile at the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2009 show in San Diego to do something a little bit out of the box with mobile.

At lunch time the two companies had models walk around the show floor to distribute pizzas and napkins that included a mobile call to action. Attendees were asked to text PINGPIZZA to 74642 for a chance to win a large pizza a month for one year.

?As a leader in digital innovation, we?re pleased to work with Ping Mobile on this exciting text promotion," said Bernard Acoca, senior Director of digital at Pizza Hut, Addison, TX. "From Facebook to the iPhone and even text and mobile ordering, our goal is to stay at the forefront of the new and emerging ways that customers want to order their pizza.?

Ping Mobile promoted the event on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook to generate buzz on the promotion.

Show attendees that texted in for an entry into the sweepstakes received a message that says, ?UR entered to WIN 1 FREE Lrg Pizza Hut pizza per month 4 a year! Contest rules @ pingrewards.com/pingpizza. Winner notified via phone call on 10.08/09.?

Attendees were then asked to reply YES to learn more about Ping Mobile campaigns.

The message says: ?Reply YES 2 learn about Ping Mobile campaigns that Kick SMS & produce EyePopping ROI!?

CTIA attendees were also able to enter via email by sending an email to .

All text message and email entries will be pooled and will automatically be entered into the contest.

Those that opted-in to learn more about Ping Mobile received a text message that said, ?Success! You?ll get info on all the latest & greates from PingMobile! STOP 2 quit. HELP 4 help. Std Msg&Data chrgs aply. Check us out @ www.pingmobile.com!?

Mobile was the key element that tied Ping?s Pizza Hut sweepstakes and Ping?s mobile capabilities together.

Ping Mobile and its team of models descended upon the CTIA trade show in white T-shirts emblazoned with Ping?s logo, and the words ?Mobile Marketing that Kicks SMS? on the back.

The Ping team went to work handing out close to 1,000 free personal Pizza Hut pizzas and Ping napkins displaying the Pizza Hut sweepstakes call to action on them

Hundreds of attendees were walking around the CTIA event holding their free pizzas and discussing the Ping Mobile Pizza Hut sweeps. This mobile campaign achieved a double-opt-in rate of 31.4 percent.

Ping?s decision to hand out free pizza generated enough hype to not only drive people to see what all the buzz was about, but once they found out, people were compelled to text for their chance to win free Pizza Hut pizza for a year.

"Not only was Ping able to engage their audience in a way that was both relevant and fun, it also ensured that they had people talking and that Ping Mobile would be remembered in the minds of the CTIA attendees for a long while to come," said Shira Simmonds, president of ping Mobile, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 

This is not the first time that Pizza Hut worked with Ping Mobile.

The quick-service restaurant chain used mobile to generate buzz about its new Hershey's Dunkers offering and built a mobile database of consumers to remarket to.

Calls to action ran on Cox Media's cable network asking viewers to text the keyword HUT to short code 269411.

Consumers who texted in were entered for a chance to win a Pizza Hut pizza, once a month, for a year straight (see story).

?This campaign is a creative innovative way to promote our partnership with Pizza Hut and from our perspective this exemplifies our creative approach with our clients,? Ms. Simmonds said.

?We are always thinking out of the box,? she said. ?The messaging on the napkins is also in line with our tagline which is ?deliver your message one ping at a time.??