Ah, the Super Bowl. I'm waiting to count the ways that they will integrate mobile into the experience.

I'll start with Sprint as they have an NFL sponsorship.

To get started, you text "SBXLI" to 7777 … but only from your Sprint phone. (I tried from my Verizon phone and the message evaporated into thin air) A text message is returned with a link to a mobile web site that offers a menu of options ranging from news to music. Very easy to do.

What I liked about the site:

  • Contextual

  • Well organized

  • Easy to navigate

  • Free downloadable NFL application … so it is possible to give away applications for free. This one expires in 9999 days.

What I didn't like:

  • Each time I launched the application, I was taken away from the mobile web site and put into a different environment without the ability to "go back." I had to go back to my "inbox" of text messages to launch the link. Somewhere in the middle I had to download updates to the music application. I also couldn't figure out how some of the music tied into the NFL.

What I liked about the sponsorships:

  • Pepsi seems to be a primary sponsor. There was an itsy-bitsy Pepsi banner ad at the top of the page offering a free screensaver (which I downloaded – easy and well integrated experience) and the opportunity to enter a sweepstakes. Moreover, when I launched the video service, it had made for mobile content with Ron Pitts. There was a pre-roll Pepsi ad and a little, itsy bitsy Pepsi logo on the screen throughout the footage. Nice.

What I didn't like:

  • I tried to enter the sweepstakes. Of course, they wanted you to go online using a PC. The URL is www.pepsisupercan.com. Ok, this is pretty typical. However, when I wanted to enter the sweepstakes, they wanted a Yahoo! user id. Yes, somewhere I have one of those, but at this point I lost interest – too many steps in the end. Not clear why Pepsi wouldn't bother to register people themselves.