A recent article from ClickZ asks, “Will 2010 Be the Real Year of Mobile?”

Yes, we all agree that the Year of Mobile is… ahem… somewhat overdue. The article goes on to list the factors that the author believes makes mobile difficult for marketers. Surprisingly, the article misses the boat on how effective mobile really is as a tool for the savvy marketer.

Marketing is a discipline, not a medium. “Mobile Marketing” is, in fact, a bit of a misnomer as it leads people to think of mobile in a silo – the least effective place for any marketing tactic to reside.

More importantly, the messaging side of mobile (SMS) has the scale, reach and standardization to allow marketers to effectively ply their marvelous trade. If we think of marketing as a dialogue or conversation between a brand and consumer, where a fair value exchange takes place, mobile messaging clearly delivers.

Brands and their agencies use mobile messaging for exactly that purpose: as a mechanism for connecting and deeply engaging with their consumers. It is extraordinarily effective, has huge reach, relatively low cost, easy to measure and immediate in impact. There is no more trusted device than your cell phone.

BTW, mobile display advertising is *not* marketing (sorry Google/Admob!), it is simply one tactic in the constellation of efforts required to successfully market a product.

The Mobile Conversation reminds me a bit of the PPC Search versus Online Display debate years back. Everyone was initially ambivalent about Search because it wasn’t “engaging”. Hm.

In my experience with marketers, *results* are engaging. *ROI* is engaging. SMS provides both results and ROI. Engaging, indeed.