The growing use of cell phone text messaging as an advertising medium and the speculation that satellite radio will soon team up with an MP3 player format could have a major impact on the marketing strategies of many companies.

According to a Upoc Networks study reported in an Advertising Council press release dated June 3, 2004, 74% of young adults in the U.S. own a mobile phone, and 43% of them regularly use text messaging. These figures so impressed the Ad Council that when they devised their Register and Vote 2004 campaign, they made sure one component of the campaign was an opt-in mobile community created by Upoc.

The Ad Council press release stated, "The text message component of Register and Vote 2004 features reminders for upcoming voter registration deadlines and election dates, interesting tidbits about voting throughout history and pop quizzes on voting facts and figures. The mobile features aim to continue keeping young adults and voters politically engaged and interested in the 2004 presidential election.”

Certainly any company marketing its product to young adults would be smart to consider this medium. Text messaging as an advertising medium has been on the rise in other countries for quite some time now, especially in Britain, where almost 2 billion text messages are sent monthly. In 2003, the British Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) announced guidelines for mobile marketing, which include only sending SMS (short message service) messages to mobile phones that have specifically opted-in to receive them.

The guidelines pointed out that SMS media has a successful history of generating high response rates. Large volume “on-pack” promotion response rates range from 8% to 20%. Responses from “opted-in” mobile number databases have averaged 15%. Typical response rates from conventional direct mail are 1% and from eMail are 6 to 8%.

On the satellite radio front, a February 9, 2005 money.cnn.com report quoted Mel Karmazin, CEO for Sirius Satellite Radio, saying he had discussed adding satellite radio to the popular iPod with Apple CEO Steve Jobs. While Karmazin reported that Jobs nixed the idea, media analysts say that the combination would be “the killer application.” For Sirius or its competitor, XM Satellite Radio Holdings, a deal with Apple would be huge. There are more than 10 million iPods out there, and a recent Pew Internet & American Life Project survey reports that a quarter of the iPods and MP3 players are in households with average earnings of more than $75,000.

Karmazin pointed out that satellite radio’s advantage over AM/FM radio is the fact that it offers dual revenue streams – from subscription and advertising. While its music channels don’t run commercials, its talk and sports channels do -– 55 of Sirius’s 120 channels. If Sirius connects with iPod, the potential reach for an advertiser is almost astronomical.

<< back to "mwfusion"