Lexington, Kentucky marketing company expands mobile operations

Mobile marketing is garnering more attention from advertising professionals and businesses that are trying to increase their market reach, including in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that mobile marketing company CMSText plans to hire 135 more people to handle its recent growth, further underscoring the rapid rise of the advertising channel.

CMSText founder Conrad Carney said it was expanding from its original text message marketing services to develop a platform - Xooker - that is similar to Living Social, Groupon and other daily deals.

"It will also have mobile gaming involved," Carney told the newspaper, likening Xooker to "Groupon on steroids."

He added that "it's a complete mobile, social new media platform."

More businesses would be wise to adopt mobile marketing, based on a survey from CA Technologies, which found that because of the popularity of smartphones and tablet computers, people are being more productive with the time that they previously wasted. The finding suggests that companies now have even more opportunities to reach out to customers.

The so-called "mobile economic time" facilitated by mobile devices adds up to 38 days a year, the company said.