The company used Twitter (Twitter), Facebook (Facebook) and e-mail lists to promote the campaign, promising the in-game weapon to players who would text “WEAPON” to 44144*. When a player complied, he or she subscribed to the mobile marketing list and was given a code to unlock the item in the game. Ubisoft saw its mobile subscriptions triple after the promotion went live, and it’s planning to try to repeat its success with the upcoming Prince of Persia game.

The campaign was handled by Waterfall Mobile, the same company that was behind the mobile messaging campaign for the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove. That was the campaign that got attention when the filmmakers held up a sign with the campaign’s texting number on the air during the Oscar awards ceremony.

These text messaging campaigns are a segment of new media marketing that hasn’t gotten much attention until recently. Do you think this is a good way to promote content and products, or are the Splinter Cell players unsubscribing the minute they have their new weapons?

The Muppets have been tearing up the Internet of late, with covers of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Ringing the Bells,” as well as their own iPhone app and Beaker’s musical take on YouTube (YouTube) commenters. And, from the looks of things, these furry icons are showing no signs of slowing down.

The competition was announced in December 2009 as a way for citizens to show pride in their hometowns by creating detailed 3D models of their communities. The contest also served as a cheap way to add more 3D content to Google Earth (Google Earth) and as a nice platform for showcasing the capabilities of two Google (Google) 3D modeling tools: SketchUp (a 2006 acquisition) and Building Maker (a Google product launched in fall 2009).

Teams in Barranco, Lima, Peru; Braunschweig, Niedersachsen, Germany; Donostia-San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Spain; Dursley, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom; and West Palm Beach, Florida, United States have all made the cut. It’s interesting to note that the Spanish team is the only entrant with multiple contributing members; every other town modeled was a solo project.

Users will have until May 1, 2010, to cast their votes for the best-modeled town. To help you decide, each entry comes with a one-minute demo video, a KML file of models in Google Earth, a showcase of the models in Google’s 3D Warehouse and a gallery of real-world photographs from each team — presumably to allow non-residents to judge the accuracy of the 3D models. The winner will be announced on or around May 15.