For some time, advertisers the world over have set their sights on the third screen -- the mobile phone. According to Juniper Research, total mobile ad spend was $1.3 billion in 2008. Depending on which study you read, marketers are expected to be spending anywhere between $6 billion (Berg Insight) and $7.6 billion (Juniper) on mobile by 2013.

As with video advertising only a few years ago, many marketers are unsure what to expect from the platform, the metrics, and revenue models. eMarketer and others have stated that social networking is what will drive mobile advertising ROI. However, based on some comments made during a January CES panel discussion, some industry veterans are not so sure.

According to Carter Brokaw, chief revenue officer of Meebo, there has been a "crisis of confidence" in social media, and a lot of what happened in 2008 didn't work.

Michael Zimbalist, vice president of research and development operations for The New York Times, echoes that sentiment by saying, "There is still no recession in consumer adoption of digital media -- particularly mobile. What we need to see in mobile is the creation of some new formats and new ad dollars. But it's just not there yet."

Based on these pessimistic sentiments, I decided to start this article with a great feel-good example of mobile social media that did work in 2008. (And it worked for a major newspaper publication -- so listen up, newspaper editors and publishers.) Later, I will present some additional examples of campaigns that may make mobile marketing naysayers think twice.