Ipsh! created the platform that allows users to sign up and receive targeted and time-sensitive mobile alerts about Katrina events and news in their area. Users visit makingchangeforkatrina.org and register their name, zip code, and cell phone number.

Ipsh! has also developed the viral mobile marketing component that enables visitors to spread the word about the campaign by signing up their friends to also receive text messages.

“Although Katrina was a year ago, there is still a need for funds in the region for housing and other relief,” said Nihal Mehta, CEO of ipsh!. “We recognized that ‘Making Change for Katrina’ is an easy way for people in the U.S. to contribute and make a big difference without having to give a lot. By creating a mobile component to the campaign, people will have even more access to fundraising events and other activities where they can get involved and make donations. We are excited being involved in such a great program.”

The “Making Change for Katrina” campaign collects spare change via Coinstar machines to benefit victims by giving funds directly to Habitat for Humanity.

“Increasingly, major brands across all verticals — from the Discovery Channel to Britney Spears to Ernst & Young — are including mobile in their marketing and advertising campaigns to acquire customers, increase awareness and build loyalty,” said ipsh! Managing Director Shabnum Norling in a statement. Norling, who will oversee the division, adds, “The wireless Internet is starting to gain significant traffic, with an estimated 500 million impressions served by WAP advertising engines just last month, according to our stats.”

ipsh! boasts that it has implemented more than 550 mobile marketing campaigns in its five-year existence.

The major areas covered by FullServ-ipsh! planning and buying services include on-carrier deck placement, off-deck WAP publications, mobile game advertising, and mobile television channels.

Additionally, ipsh! claims its pllanning can be as targeted as handset, carrier, area code, Zip code, basic demographic, income level, gender, and in some instances, location.
Additionally, FullServ-ipsh! will handle the creative process that may include WAP site development or mobile video, assuring an integrated and seamless marketing effort.

“The mobile web in the U.S. today is similar to the Internet in 1998, but growing at a much faster rate based on lessons learned years ago,” comments Nihal Mehta, CEO of ipsh!. “As a full-service mobile marketing agency, it’s our responsibility to aggregate all these burgeoning mobile media advertising opportunities, and recommend the best strategy to our clients. Media formats for advertising have quadrupled since the basic radio, TV and print, so the least we can do with FullServ-ipsh! is simplify all the mobile options with a one-stop shop experience.”

If you’re the kind of person who would run out and buy the new Britney Spears fragrance Fantasy, without blinking an eye, do we have a campaign for you. Taking Goodby Silverstein Partners’ FantasyBritneySpears.com online campaign globally and into the mobile marketplace, Omnicom’s mobile marketing firm, ipsh!, worked with GSP to create what it’s calling the first-ever cross-continental mobile marketing campaign.

Omnicom’s ipsh!, which was hired to help strengthen brand loyalty and awareness of the Elizabeth Arden fragrance, now allows fans worldwide (e.g. UK, U.S., UAE, Spain, Italy, South Africa) to download the same ringtones (of Britney-recorded messages, not songs) and Fantasy-branded wallpaper off the Fantasy website. The site also offers an interactive game where players can upload pictures of their “crush”, play the dating game with Cupid’s bow and arrow, watch the Fantasy TV spot, send-to-a-friend, and even download audio of Britney herself telling the Cinderella story of her and hubby Kevin Federline.

The Fantasy theme of the site surrounds the viewers in a fairy tale, page-turning experience. Britney tells users her own fantasy, which takes place in a forest ala Fern Gully–only without the tractors cutting it all down–and shares a story about a girl (herself) chasing and being chased by a boy (K-Fed) until he strikes her with Cupid’s arrow. Of course, the real story could be translated a bit differently, but as long as consumers are picking up the scent—and according to ipsh! project manager, Ken Singer, the company is already seeing “significant consistent traffic”–nothing else matters.

But regardless of whether or not you buy the “true love” story, since Brit and K-Fed’s fairy tale is more tabloid than Shakespeare, ADOTAS finds out what made Elizabeth Arden go mobile. “The campaign is a branding exercise–the client [Elizabeth Arden] is marketing the Britney website as a whole,” says Singer. “Perfumes are products that personify personalization. Mobile technology is the technical equivalent–the mobile phone is the most personal device available. The message of “personalization” made a mobile marketing campaign a perfect vehicle to launch a youth-driven fragrance.”

As for how they are getting the word out about the pop idol’s pretty in pink perfume, Singer tells us that other than the send to a friend option, they’re letting Brittany do the talking. As he tells us, “All of our ringtone/wallpaper campaigns are intrinsically viral. The wallpapers have images of Britney and the ringtones are recordings of her voice. Every time the phone rings, Britney’s voice will be promoting the fragrance to anyone within earshot.”

How does your fantasy stack up? Visit www.FantasyBritneySpears.com to find out.