Text Message Advertising Slow To Catch On In The US

Authored by Jay Baage on October 16, 2006 - 8:38am.

New York, NY. In a recent study of the effectiveness of text message advertising to cell phones, marketing research firm eMarketer found that a sizable percentage of mobile subscribers are responding to short codes placed in advertisements or other media. However, the US and Germany fall far behind countries like Spain and the UK in the effectiveness of using this medium as a platform to deliver advertising.

Of the five countries surveyed, Spain topped the list with 29% of mobile users responding to ads, followed by the UK at 18.5% and France at 10%. The US and Germany were both under 10%.

"These numbers are not unlike what we saw in e-mail response during the mid-1990's as the Web emerged [as] an advertising medium," said Will Hodgman, CEO of M:Metrics.

Contests — such as game or reality television shows or chances to win free merchandise — were the leading driver of responses, with 18 million subscribers across the geographies reporting they participated.

Comments

USA Text Message

Submitted by Anthony Wayne (not verified) on October 17, 2006 - 5:13am.

We have been following the world of text message advertising for a year now on the blog. I continue to believe that it is coming soon, especially with products that target younger buyers. Anthony Wayne Text Message Blog http://www.textmessageblog.blogspot.com

Advertising Agencies and Text Messaging

Submitted by Bob Bentz (not verified) on October 17, 2006 - 5:19am.

We meet with a lot of advertising agencies and talk text messaging to them. They are very anxious to meet with us and see the value in it, but then they have to sell it to their customers. Hence, the sales lead time is longer than we'd like it to be, but we are seeing more and more advertising agencies get back to us now and we believe that 2007 is going to be a big year. Bob Bentz Advanced Telecom Services http://www.advancedtele.com/mobile.htm

SMS Ad Network

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on July 9, 2007 - 6:22pm.

With SMS "open rates" above 90%, advertising on a text message is obvious. What is not obvious is how you get an ad on an SMS - especially if it is from a 3rd party.