Cell phone promotions and alerts begin gaining U.S. momentum.

Visitors to V's Martini Bar in Clearwater have their fingers on the pulse of 21st century marketing - coming soon to a cell phone near you, if you haven't seen it.

"It works great," said Vincenzo Longo, the bar's owner, who for a year has been using text-message marketing to tell his clients what's new at the V. "Nobody complains, and it's cost effective."

Longo sends short messages to the cell phones of about 450 of his customers once or twice a week, telling them about drink specials or upcoming events. Sometimes they get a coupon for a free drink. At 8 cents per message, it doesn't take too many customers buying that second drink for Longo to get his money back.

"While European and Asian cell phone users have let advertisers send information to their mobile phones for years, the practice is only now catching on in the United States."

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