Text message marketing in particular, and mobile marketing in general, is making a bigger impact on American consumers.
The Mobile Advertising Report, put out jointly by research agency GfK Technology and mobile social network Limbo yesterday, said that “four out of 10 Americans with a cell phone, 104 million, recall seeing advertising on the device between July and September 2008.” This is the first time that such a group of consumers broke the 100 million mark within a three-month period, the report said.
And it seems that text ads are benefitting the most from this new consumer awareness. The report said that 60 million people remembered seeing an SMS marketing message–which was an increase of 42 percent within nine months.
Moreover, consumers also recalled mobile Web ads–but “only” 31 million. The report concluded that mobile Web ads have half the reach of SMS messages. Marketers, then, shouldn’t have to wait for smart phones to have near-100 percent penetration before embarking on mobile campaigns–thanks to SMS.
And don’t think mobile campaigns only resonate with the young. While 43 percent of those who recalled ads were younger than 34, 52 percent were between ages 35 and 65.
“The U.S. is the world’s dominant advertising market but has traditionally been behind Asian and European markets in terms of consumer use of mobile devices,” said Colin Strong, head of Mobile Communications Research at GfK Technology. “The latest [report] shows that U.S. consumers are accelerating their use of the mobile device and advertisers are hot on their tails, using the new medium to reach consumers in pioneering ways.”
Unless marketers want competitors to gain an advantage, they’d better start incorporating mobile marketing–and especially SMS marketing–campaigns into their overall strategies.
Eydie Cubarrubia, Marketing Communications Manager, mobileStorm
“I’d rather you text me”