3Cinteractive Blog

I spent the weekend with several very successful franchisees in our area, and of course, they commented on my heavy use of text messaging. As you could imagine, the conversation veered into mobile being such a youth-oriented technology that “doesn’t make sense.” As the conversation developed I couldn’t help but think of the recent Limbo Mobile Advertising report, that addressed this misconception. Here I was, spending a lovely Memorial Day weekend in the Florida Keys at one of their many, large, resort-like homes; I needed a tactful opportunity to let them know they were misled. Alas, the opportunity arose, when the champion of the bunch needed to know more: “So, what is it that you prefer about text messaging?”
My explanation covered a few key areas: First, text messaging is asynchronous so I can communicate with a friend in the background without disturbing other activities or the people around me. Second, text messaging gets my attention but doesn’t require my attention. In other words, I’m inclined enough to check it and respond, but not to the point where I’m annoyed. For a busy businessman, that explanation made sense, and I now had a segue into a few interesting stats about text messaging.
I started out with a bit of the basics - special thanks to Limbo, GFK, and NOP for pulling together this survey.

1. Over 50% of the 255 million mobile phone owners use SMS
This alone shows how widely adopted the SMS medium is. This means, that an audience of ~130 million users has near-constant access (~24/7) and familiarity with this medium. Even better, mobile marketers have the ability to touch these users within minutes, just enough to generate attention, without requiring it. It’s intrusive, but not annoying. So what? If 82 percent of those under 24 use SMS, what does that mean for marketers interested in the older demographics?

2. 50% of SMS users are 35 or over
For 25 or over, that number turns to 75%. This is an astounding figure, as these demographics have purchasing power that can be activated with targeted messages. When I mentioned this to the inquisitor, it became a bit more clear. Those consumers with the most purchasing power are often the most distracted and hardest to activate. Knowing that a call-to-action can be delivered and consumed at a precise moment is previously unheard of. His franchises are focused on chain restaurants so we spoke at length about his current marketing campaigns. Then I asked, “When a businessman gets up from his desk for lunch and asks the inevitable, ‘Where are we going,’ what is he more likely to recall: your competitor’s local advertisement during halftime of the game last night, or the mobile coupon you just delivered to his phone?”

3. 82 Million US subscribers recall seeing advertising on their phones in the last 3 months
SMS marketing is a relatively young medium, but that does not mean it is uncharted territory. And speaking of purchasing power, as Limbo reports, the women aged 25 to 34 had the largest area of growth - talk about a group with purchasing power! He wanted to know a bit more about SMS, since this statistic was a bit broad, and Limbo covered it:

4. 19% of all mobile users recall seeing advertising through SMS
This means that nearly half of the regular users of SMS, have recalled an advertisement in the past three months. At that point, he realized this was a powerful medium. Of the other mediums: WAP, MMS, Mobile TV, and Mobile Radio, SMS is the only technology ubiquitous across all carriers; this is why the recall is so high. In addition, the top two (SMS and MMS) are the only two technologies that allow marketers to PUSH alerts, where as the others require the user to PULL content.

So what do these four stats mean?
As we both concluded, there is a fine line between getting someone’s attention and annoying them. The fact that SMS is such a widely adopted and ubiquitous technology, is a benefit to marketers. Even more so, knowing that SMS is growing in demographics with purchasing power, increases its value. Finally, advertisers like knowing that they can deliver a message to a targeted database when they want, and be almost sure the message is opened. As the adoption rate continues to grow, the question becomes, “How well do consumers recall brand impressions in SMS?” I will address this next week.

- Ainsworth