Take an episode of "Deal or No Deal," where viewers have a chance to win cash prizes by playing the "Lucky Case" game. Now, instead of just the $10,000 prize, perhaps a brand like Saturn can give the consumer a chance to win a new Saturn SUV after GM has made a product placement to debut its new car. Before the commercial, Howie Mandel promotes the game, and the ladies of the show stand before the SUV to present the choice of cases.

What the "Lucky Case" game looks like

The in-show, pre-commercial bumper, with tacit endorsement by the show's host and stars, is invaluable. So the viewer grabs the phone sitting next to them on the sofa and sends a text message of "1", their lucky case choice to the five-digit mobile routing number (called a "shortcode") 59595. Shortly after, the phone vibrates with a new text message: "Thanks for playing! The Banker loves the other green too: the environment. The incredibly efficient new Saturn VUE Hybrid. Intelligent & beautiful, m.saturn.com".

The message naturally segues off of the TV show platform (by mentioning the never-seen Banker) and has a link to a mobile website. The site is specifically purposed for the mobile phone and can feature images and video of the Hybrid, highlighted stats and even direct-connect buttons to schedule a test drive.

Due to the intrinsic nature of mobile, each interaction can be fully trackable from inception to conversion and further segmented for different markets, if need be. Marketers can't get all that from tagging a commercial with a URL and hoping the consumer goes to his or her PC.