Rap mogul Snoop Dogg is using the mobile channel to drive sales of his CDs, DVDs and ringtones, giving away free mobile video content and wallpapers and running a sweepstakes.

The rapper’s agency Cashmere has partnered with mobile entertainment content provider Myxer to promote the upcoming release of Snoop Dogg’s CD and DVD combination More Malice, the follow-up to the Malice N Wonderland album. As part of the promotion, Snoop will use Myxer’s MobileStage product to deliver exclusive, behind-the-scenes branded mobile video content.

“Snoop Dogg was looking for an innovative way to use mobile marketing technology as well as work with a company that has a huge mobile audience,” said Steve Spiro, vice president of marketing at Myxer, Deerfield Beach, FL. “With Myxer, he was able to find both.

“Plus, for Myxer it was great to have such a prominent artist rally behind our recently introduced MobileStage, which is great for indie artists as well as artists from our other partners like EMI, Warner Music and The Orchard, to name a few,” he said.

“Snoop Dogg wanted to try something interesting and new for his upcoming release of the CD + DVD combo More Malice, so his great marketing agency, Cashmere, came up with the idea for a mobile contest whereby words were delivered along with the video, and when deciphered, it leads to an opportunity to attend the premiere screening.”

Founded in 2005, Myxer is a consumer destination for mobile entertainment and content personalization, with a catalog of ringtones, wallpapers, videos, applications and games.

The company recently launched MobileStage as a free, customizable mobile Web site for artists.

Myxer users download more than 90 million pieces of content every month. The company has recorded more than 1 billion downloads to date over its platform.

Snoop Dogg’s tenth studio album Malice N Wonderland was released on Dec. 8, 2009. More Malice, Snoop’s deluxe CD + DVD release, will be released March 23 from Capitol/EMI.

More Malice features five songs from the previously released Malice N Wonderland, along with five entirely new songs and two remixes.

More Malice features songs and remixes with Jay Z, Kid Cudi, Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em and Bun B. Also included in the More Malice release will be a never-before-seen mini-movie entitled Malice N Wonderland.

The movie, which features Snoop in the title role as the super hero Malice looking to save his home land of Wonderland, features all star cameos including Jamie Foxx, Xzibit and Nipsey Hussle.

More mobile content
On the eve of the launch and mini-movie release, Myxer has created a More Malice MobileStage content channel at http://m.myxer.com/malice, which features exclusive videos of the making of the Malice N Wonderland mini-movie, ringtones and wallpapers.

The More Malice mobile portal is accessible to more than 30 million music fans within the Myxer community.

The video clips are free and exclusive to Myxer. Snoop Dogg music ringtones—not from More Malice—are priced at $2.99 each.

Additionally, there are embeddable widgets featured on numerous major music and hip-hop Web sites and on Snoop Dogg’s various social networking platforms for easy access to the mobile downloads, as well as custom text keywords.
Snoop Dogg fans will also have an opportunity to fly to Los Angeles and hang with Snoop based on hidden word clues after the videos are downloaded.

“With Myxer’s 32 million users, there’s already a giant built-in audience to join the contest and/or download his ringtones,” Mr. Spiro said. “The promotion is about mobile content and the contest.”

Myxer will be featuring Snoop Dogg as the main Pick of the Day a number of times over the next two weeks.

Plus, Snoop Dogg has a permanent channel on Myxer at http://www.myxer.com/theme/SnoopDoggMoreMalice, which is heavily promoted on the Myxer home page.

Additionally, Myxer has more than 65,000 Facebook friends that have been informed of the promotion, and Myxer has also spread the word via its other social media outlets.

“The plan is for Snoop to also reach out to his large following on Twitter and Facebook, as well as his many other contacts, as this is the promotional centerpiece for the upcoming release,” Mr. Spiro said. “And finally there will be cameo videos with a number of leading artists and friends of Snoop Dogg that will be circulated around the Internet, directing people to the contest.

“We will be primarily focusing on online and mobile, but as interviews are conducted in those other media outlets, there will be pickup there,” he said. “We will run some house ads to our mobile audience regarding the contest.

“With GroundTruth just naming the Myxer mobile site as one of the top 10 most visited mobile sites, we’ll get plenty of traction just internally with our own customers, in addition to all of the other outreach I’ve mentioned.”