Mobile marketing platform

(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- According to market research firm Informa Telecoms & Media, companies will spend more than $11 billion by 2011 to advertise on mobile phones.

That's one reason Johnson's staff includes a team of six mobile-technology specialists and software developers. While they have already launched a series of mobile ads for Nike (Charts) and ESPN, Johnson has bigger ambitions for the third screen.

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Anomaly recently launched the first shopping platform enabling consumers to buy products via text messaging. It got the attention of PayPal, which linked up with Anomaly to launch its text-to-buy service.

Anomaly has since created a more advanced version: ShopText, which allows U.S. mobile-phone customers who come across a magazine ad to text-message a number to buy the product instantly, usually in return for a big discount.

Since ShopText launched in September, ads placed in Lucky and Cosmo Girl have generated more than 1,000 transactions for products from Procter & Gamble (Charts) and others.

Anomaly won't disclose revenue figures but says it receives a licensing fee and takes a small cut of each sale. "A shift is occurring in the overall adoption of texting," says Ed Kountz, JupiterResearch senior analyst for payments. "It's got the potential to take off."

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