One of the exciting trends in the mobile banking space is the start of significant advertising centered around the new technology and capabilities. According to Adweek, CitiBank recently launched an interesting marketing campaign for its well-received mobile banking service using USA Today's new text (aka SMS) message marketing.

The article is brief but gives a little more detail:

"The Citi mobile ads appear in text messages containing stock and mutual fund prices, and consumers can text for details about their balances or the location of nearby ATMs.

According to Zaw Thet, founder and CEO of mobile search and text-messaging firm 4INFO, which helped USA Today build its platform, the response rate to interactive mobile ads is in the 15 to 20 percent range, several times higher than response rates for direct mail or direct TV. "When ads are integrated into content that is relevant, people respond very well to it," he said."

It will be fun to watch the banks put their deep pockets and advertising expertise into play in order to drive the growth of mobile banking. Especially if they keep doing innovative campaigns like this one.