Methods and systems for transmitting video messages to mobile communication devices

A method of transmitting video messages to a mobile phone, the method comprising:

• receiving over a network from a user terminal an identification of a message recipient, wherein the message recipient is associated with a mobile phone, text to be included in a message, and selection of video content to be included in the message:
• creating a message object corresponding to the message and storing the message object in computer readable memory;
• accessing a data store to determine what campaign the message is entitled to, wherein the campaign indicates if the user is to be charged on a per message basis;
• identifying a telecommunications carrier associated a user telephonic device;
• if a determination is made that the user is to be charged on a per message basis for the message:
• at least partly in response to the determination that the user is to be charged on a per message basis for the message, causing, at least in part, an authorization notification to be transmitted to the user's telephonic device,
• wherein the authorization notification indicates that the user needs to provide authorization for the video message to be sent;
• if an indication is received within a first period of time that the user has provided authorization for the message to be sent:
• initiating the transmission of the message to the recipient's mobile phone;
• and
• determining if a transmission confirmation is received with a second period of time, and if the transmission confirmation is not received with the second period of time, storing a successful delivery indication in memory, and if the transmission confirmation is not received with the second period of time, storing a delivery failure indication in memory.

A method of transmitting video messages to a mobile phone, the method comprising:

• receiving over a network at a message management system a request from a user that a video message be sent to a recipient mobile phone;
• transmitting an authorization request message to a mobile phone associated with the user, wherein the user needs to provide a user authorization response in order for the video message to be sent to the recipient;
• and
• at least partly in response to receiving an authorization response from the user, initiating the transmission of the video message to the recipient mobile phone.