Dial Corp.?s Right Guard and Verizon Wireless are sponsoring the in-stadium and on-air mobile initiatives of the NBA?s Phoenix Suns.

The Phoenix Suns and Txtstation have formed a two-year partnership that brings real-time mobile interactivity to fans at US Airways Center and television viewers watching the games from home. As of the Suns? home opener on Oct. 30, fans have been able to participate in a number of mobile promotions, powered by Verizon Wireless and sponsored by Right Guard.

?The Suns want to be able to create text clubs and engage fans,? said Michael Falato, vice president of sales and business development at Txtstation, Austin, TX. ?To engage fans, you need something that?s exciting, innovative and interactive in real time, and that?s what we do for their TV broadcasts and in-venue via text-to-screen and SMS voting.

?Fans are asked to join the Suns text club to get updates from the team,? he said. ?The Suns are building a database and engaging fans.?

Right Guard is a brand of deodorant for men. The Gillette Co. introduced Right Guard as the first aerosol antiperspirant in the early 1960s.

Formerly a Gillette brand, in 2006 Right Guard was sold to Dial Corp., a U.S. division of the German consumer goods group Henkel, for $420 million as a condition for Procter & Gamble's Gillette acquisition.
Verizon Wireless is the No. 1 carrier in the U.S. based on number of subscribers.

The Phoenix Suns are a professional basketball team in the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association. Their home arena is the US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix, AZ.

Txtstation is a mobile marketing company specializing in sports and entertainment helping broadcasters, event owners, sponsors and media to communicate with viewers or fans directly through mobile phones, the Internet and landlines.

Suns shining on mobile
Txtstation first partnered with the Suns this past summer to deliver interactive features at Phoenix Mercury home games.

Txtstation provided high-definition real-time texting graphics through their software service platform Txtstation Pro.

Txtstation also developed a Chyron Lyric plug-in that allows real-time voting and text-to-screen capabilities for the Suns broadcasts on Fox Sports Arizona and MY45 in Phoenix.

Given the success of the trial, the Suns believed that extending the partnership would help them deliver additional value to their fans and sponsors, including Right Guard and their exclusive mobile provider, Verizon Wireless.

The Phoenix Suns mobile initiatives include Fan?s Choice Vote in which text message responses determine the ?pulse of the fan? and Suns Jukebox that allows fans to text in their choice for the next song to be played in the arena.

Text-o-War lets two groups of fans to try to out-text one another.

Fans can send SMS, MMS or tweets to the Suns to be featured on the text, picture and Twitter message displays on the video and ribbon boards around the arena.

The Suns also offer a text-to-win sweepstakes for a seat upgrade.

?The biggest news is that the Suns wanted to use the Chyron Lyric software, a professional graphics system used by Fox Sports Net, so we developed a Chyron Lyric plug-in that takes our real-time graphics and shows it through their Chyron Lyric software,? Mr. Falato said.

?The majority of sports TV broadcasters use Chyron Lyric as their graphics machine,? he said. ?We?re an HD shop, and working with a company that can do high-definition was very important to the Suns.

?We offer not only in-venue SMS initiatives but a broadcast solution through our Chyron plug-in.?