Tomi Ahonen wrote an excellent piece called What happens to mobile advertising when economy comes back? that combined with a MediaPost article by Sarah Mahoney about retailers’ Black Friday plans has got me thinking about the future of mobile marketing.

Ahonen’s point is that once the economy comes back to full swing advertisers will look to add new engagement marketing techniques to their plans instead of just beefing back up their budgets on the old technology. Mahoney’s article got me thinking about how retailers could use mobile campaigns during Black Friday.

As I commented on the Media Post article, what if retailers created text message campaigns specifically for Black Friday. They could drive sign ups via their advertisements in the Thanksgiving Day newspaper – “Text STORE to 12345 for special discounts only available via text message.” Combine that with mobile commerce and shoppers could be buying from multiple stores via the power of mobile. The really smart folks would sign up for the campaign and stay home and shop from the couch.

It is time for marketers to start thinking about campaigns like this. The old marketing techniques will only take us so far. It’s time for really smart and engaging mobile campaigns.