As the teens and 20-somethings transition from voice-to-text, major city resources are doing the same. Brian Bernardi, Sgt of the Louisville, KY, Metro Police Department, who was interviewed in Fox News’ article realizes that the target demographic wouldn’t normally dial a Crime Stoppers line to report a crime. Departments are hoping a more familiar and discreet medium, like text messaging, will encourage use.
More than 100 communities, including Boston, Cincinnati, Tampa, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Indianapolis, New Orleans, and Detroit have implemented the system. Fox reports that in the 12 months since they launched the system, Boston police have logged 678 text tips, nearly the same as the 727 phone tips in the same period.
And tipsters aren’t shy when it comes to providing information. Police have reported tips that include specific times, drug information, names of suspects, locations, and license plate numbers.
Best of all, text tips still carry a cash reward.
- Ainsworth
Boca Raton, FL (PRWEB) – 6/30/2008 – 3Cinteractive, a leading creative mobile marketing company, announced it is powering the innovative consumer awareness campaign for the HD Digital Radio Alliance. The expanded marketing campaign is aimed at accelerating the adoption of HD Radio. The Alliance is featuring a text messaging call to action in more than half of all of its radio ads nationwide.
3Ci’s mobile messaging platform is creating real-time, measurable conversations with consumers by promoting listeners to “Text UPGRADE to 34343”.
“By establishing a direct, instant relationship with consumers who show an interest in HD Radio, we are activating a whole new category of catalysts,” said Peter Ferrara, President and CEO of the HD Digital Radio Alliance.
Radio ads within the new $57 million, 13-week marketing campaign are running in 100 markets on more than 700 stations. A full 65% of the radio ads invite consumers to text UPGRADE to 34343 with the remainder issuing the familiar call to action to visit www.hdradio.com.
Continue reading ‘3Cinteractive Powers Innovative HD Digital Radio Alliance Conversion Campaign’
Boca Raton, FL (PRWEB) – 7/7/2008 – 3Cinteractive, a leading mobile marketing agency and application development company, announced it has completed a successful 9 month trial of the company’s patent pending Text Collect™ service. As a result, 3Ci is announcing an immediate full scale launch of the product. Text Collect combines Interactive Voice Response, SMS and Premium SMS (PSMS) mobile billing, producing the only service that allows collect calling and operator services providers to complete collect calls to mobile phones.
Prior to Text Collect™, the ability to complete collect calls to mobile phones has been a major challenge to the collect calling industry. With the number of mobile lines quickly outpacing the number of landlines in the U.S., the solution could not have come soon enough. Collect call completion ratios have been steadily declining for years due to the rapid growth in mobile phone usage. According to David Ellerstein, 3Cinteractive’s Text Collect™ General Manager, “Text Collect™ has driven significant positive results for collect calling providers and all of the major mobile carriers participating in the trial.”
Continue reading ‘3Cinteractive Completes Trial for Industry Changing Text Collect™ Service’
Before the onset of short code messaging, marketers and consumers were able to send free messages to consumers using e-mail-to-sms gateways. This allowed users to send an e-mail to phonenumber@carrier.com that would be converted and delivered as an SMS. As you could imagine, this became a prime target for internet spammers, which led the carriers to develop robust filtering systems to protect their consumers. This was the dawn of the short code and a new process that allowed carriers to pre-screen and certify legitimate mobile marketing campaigns.
As a result we now have a ubiquitous infrastructure for cross-carrier SMS messaging. As part of this project, the carriers charge fees for short code messaging, which is different than the free email gateway service, but free isn’t necessarily better; it’s far worse.
E-Mail Gateways:
- Heavily filtered and monitored by the major carriers. Each carrier systematically scans for message content and monitors volume by IP address.
- No delivery confirmation. Each message is “fire and forget” much like blast e-mail.
- No carrier information. You must know the users carrier to send through an e-mail gateway. Numbers turn over at a rate of 8% per month causing failed send attempts.
- Low throughput limit. Throughput is limited both by IP throttling and infrastructure issues.
- One-way only service. There is no interactivity or opt-in process that creates a targeted database.
The base of an effective, compliant mobile marketing program, is an opt-ed in database. This can only be accomplished through the two-way interaction offered by Short Code messaging. While short code messaging comes at a fee, it provides an interactive experience that influences the consumer. The success rates of mobile marketing campaigns are attributed to the highly targeted nature of Short Code messaging and not the broad spectrum SPAM messages from e-mail gateways.
Short Code Messaging:
- Certified and approved by aggregators. Each aggregator pre-approves message programs to ensure that all messages are delivered once the program is approved.
- Message delivery confirmation. Each message delivery status can be delivered in real-time as it is queued for delivery.
- Carrier information pre-determined before delivery. Each phone number is “dipped” for mobile carrier delivery to ensure the number is properly labeled for delivery.
- High throughput limit. Throughput is not limited by short code allowing messages to be delivered faster.
- Two-way interactive service. Users can text-in or reply to mobile marketing campaigns creating a more enjoyable end-user experience.
While e-mail gateway services carry the appeal of “zero cost” they do little to enhance or activate a brand’s current marketing initiatives. Instead, e-mail gateway messaging becomes an extension to a traditional e-mail marketing campaign. In contrast, a well structured Short Code campaign functions to both independently engage users or activate existing traditional marketing campaigns.
- Ainsworth
Matt Gardner, who recently celebrated his one-year anniversary at 3Cinteractive, is the company’s Business Integration Director. Matt has an extremely diverse set of day-to-day responsibilities which include everything from artistic design of the 3Ci web and print branding - to the design and layout of all 3Ci internal and external interfaces - to the technical integration of client facing reporting.
Matt’s broad range of expertise and talents range across multiple functional areas of 3Cinteractive and have had a significant impact on the company’s success. Matt began developing his wide-ranging skill set in high school when he began working in web design. He continued his work in web design while at Virginia Tech, where he took several computer science courses and completed his BA in graphic design; giving him the wide range of web and graphic design and programming backgrounds.
Matt is an avid reader who is constantly looking to soak up knowledge in a variety of topics. Fitness also plays a big role in Matt’s life, as he is in constant training for triathlons and is hoping to compete in an Ironman competition next year. Matt is a native of Virginia and his family includes his parents, Gene and Nancy, and two older siblings, brother Dan and sister Jen.
- Jeff Michaud
3Cinteractive was the proud sponsor of the first ever Advertising Agency panel discussion during the Mobile Marketing Forum in New York City June 10 & 11 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square Hotel.
3Ci Business Development VP, Jeremy Martin, was the moderator of the panel that included advertising execs from agencies such as The Hyperfactory, Starcom USA and GroupM. “Being able to host the first ever agency focused panel discussion at the MMF was a great experience for myself and 3Ci as a company,” said Jeremy Martin. “Just by the types of attendees at this show, it was clear that now is the right time to have this ad agency panel. The number of advertising and media agencies here are clearly
at an all-time high, and that signifies the clear understanding of the agency world that they must have mobile solutions for their clients,” Martin added.
The panel discussion touched on topics such as how the business models that most mobile marketing companies use is far different than that of the traditional agency model. Most importantly, the majority of the discussion was focused on how to best integrate companies like 3Ci, who are specialists in mobile, into the agency process. The large crowd who stayed to hear the panel at the end of the last day of the show further displayed the agency world’s focus on mobile.
- Jeff Michaud