Creative Text Messaging Campaigns Key to Mobile Marketing

WAP and MMS, Mobile Internet, banner ads and embedded product placement in mobile games are all buzz words currently associated with Mobile Marketing.  Wow, it’s all so fancy and whiz-bang!   Yet let us not forget the humble text message, potentially the most powerful tool in mobile marketing. 

For those brands and agencies looking into mobile marketing in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />U.S., make sure you understand the actual number of consumers you can reach today and in the near future with various mobile data applications.  In this sense, whiz-bang (WAP, MMS, mobile internet) gets whupped by text messaging for the near term. 

To get to real numbers, consider handset/device capability and consumer uptake of mobile data applications. 

In regards to handset/device capability, more than 90% of all mobile phones in the U.S. today are text-capable, or roughly 186 million of an estimated 207 million total subscribers (click HERE for details).  Approximately 60% of U.S. mobile phones are Internet-capable.  A smaller percentage of mobile phones are MMS capable.  Winner – text messaging.

As far as consumer uptake of mobile data applications, Telephia (click HERE for details) reports that 41% of U.S. mobile subscribers were using text messaging at the end of 2005.  Comparatively, 22% of U.S. mobile subscribers paid for mobile web access and 13% for MMS services at the end of 2005.

So strictly applying these percentages, a mobile marketers’ addressable market in the U.S. would be 84.8 million consumers for text messaging, 45.5 million for mobile internet and 26.9 for MMS.  However, both the mobile internet and MMS numbers are skewed.  The mobile internet users number includes mobile email devices, like Blackberry and Treo, and is not reflective of the true number of mobile subscribers who browse the mobile internet.  Telephia again provides an estimate for that, reporting that 34.6 million subscribers actively use mobile internet (click HERE for details). Telephia reports that Yahoo email is the most visited site, with MSN Hotmail also in the top 5.  When it comes to MMS, the traffic reported is almost entirely person-to-person messaging (sending photos, etc.).  The wireless industry is working to establish procedures and acceptance to enable Mobile Marketing MMS. 

So addressable market of consumers for mobile marketing applications looks something like this – <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

n        Text, 84.8 million subscribers

n        Mobile Internet (sans email), 34.6 million subscribers

n        MMS, potentially 26.9 million (today this number reflects primarily person to person picture messaging)

With all of that said, all of these exciting new areas of mobile marketing will grow including good old text messaging.

So it doesn’t look as sexy, so what?  Making text messaging applications work in marketing will take a new mindset for advertisers; unlike the more familiar internet methods used for MMS and mobile internet applications. This is where the creative marketing minds for America’s brands and ad agencies will make the U.S. market the biggest mobile marketing market in the world.  The creatives need to explore the multitude of text applications available to them.  A sampling – interactive TV, voting, polling, quizzes, sweepstakes, push alerts, callbacks, embedded URLs, location based services, intelligent interaction (ongoing CRM), sponsored flirt and chat, prescription reminders, bank account balance check, appointment scheduling.

Marketers need to educate themselves about text applications and vendors out there that can help them tap into the 84+ million Americans already predisposed to text messaging.

Mark Beccue is an independent business development & strategy consultant with expertise in helping advertising agencies and brands develop mobile marketing strategies and secure vendors and infrastructure.  His email is [email protected] or visit http://www.markbeccue.com.