Most of us in the mobile space saw the humorous Windows Phone 7 commercial that recently debuted.  In the video, mobile users young and old are shown texting while jogging, in the shower, in bed ignoring their spouses, and just about every other stereotyped scenario involving the hyper-connected.

Windows's position in the ad is that the user should run his or her phone, not the other way around.  The mobile marketing ecosystem should thank Microsoft for the free press satirizing what we've been preaching for years.  (Thanks MSFT!) The spot underscores the reality that the modern consumer is tethered—day and night—to their mobile device.

We hear all the time about today's hyper-connected consumer, approached from all angles with advertisements and marketing messages delivered across a myriad of platforms.  Billboards line our roads and city streets, radio provides the soundtrack to our morning commute, magazines and television shows complement our leisure time, and computers provide interactive marketing at home and work.  Yet, with all these messages chasing consumers from one platform to another on every type of media imaginable, there's only one device common every step of the way: the mobile phone.

She may have her radio on in the car, but her phone in the cup holder next to the dial. He may be navigating city streets under mammoth illuminated billboards, but he has his phone in his jacket pocket and checks it for directions or the time. She may be browsing the web on her laptop at Starbucks, but she has her cell on the table next to her latte. And, when all other devices are powered down and everyone resigns to their bedrooms for the evening, everyone places their phone to charge  on the bedside table beside them—still powered on just in case.

Whether you are pro-hyper-connectivity, or feel that stories of teenage girls stumbling into manholes while texting are prime examples of this phenomenon gone too far, the reality is that mobile is always there, rarely turned off, and the unrivaled companionship today's modern consumer gives to his or her mobile device must be recognized.  If you aren't targeting via the mobile devices, you're missing one of the most intimate marketing relationships you can have with your customers.