If you listen to Millennials, it's an easy decision not to send commercial messages on their mobile phone. Most Millennials pay for their text messages. As Marty Predd, Research Associate at Brand Amplitude puts it, "They ration text messages like bread in WWII".
Yet, SMS has powerful potential for delivering just the right message at the right time. The sheer volume of text messages is impressive. In Q2 2008, the average text messager sends or receives an average of 357 text messages per month, the average teen, 1752 messages a month. That's more than the number of phone calls. ("Realizing Potential", September 2008).
What about advertising messages? The numbers here are also impressive. Well over half of all U.S. cell phone users have a text message plan and 16% of texters in the U.S. see some form of text-message advertising each month. (The number shoots up to 35% for teens). Consumers are not only seeing text message ads, Nielsen says 45% have responded in some way. The most popular response to mobile advertising (text, video, Internet, etc.) is sending another text-message; one-quarter of responders sent another text-message. These figures make a compelling case for figuring out how to overcome Millennial's barriers to text marketing messages.
There are some successful cases worth looking at. A subsequent Nielsen report ("The Short Code Opportunity", Dec. 2008) points out that President-Elect Barack Obama’s “V.P. pick” text message remains the most notable example of short code marketing in the U.S. In August 2008, the campaign attempted to announce Joe Biden as the vice presidential candidate over SMS text message. Nielsen estimates that the Biden text was received by 2.9 million mobile phone users in the U.S. over the course of that weekend. The next most prominent example of a text message-based effort is is Coca-Cola’s My Coke Rewards program. This program had engaged 1.1 million AT&T and Verizon Wireless customers as of Q3 2008.
"Through My Coke Rewards, Coca-Cola customers collect unique codes found on various Coca-Cola products and enter them into an account they’ve registered at mycokerewards.com. When they reach certain point levels, they are able to redeem points for rewards. The mobile component of the program allows consumers to enter the codes over their mobile phone on the go. Coca-Cola’s mobile users typically send and receive about 32 messages a month to Coca-Cola. Importantly, it’s not just kids or teens who are an active audience for short code marketing. In the Coca-Cola example, nearly half (47 percent) of users were 35 or older. That age diversity is not unique to Coca-Cola either. Overall, 53 percent of those engaging with free (standard rate) short codes, such as those used by brands in marketing, are sent by texters 35 and older."Subway, Arby’s, Jiffy Lube, BestBuy, Papa Johns, Village Inn, and other major brands have also provided special offers through text and multimedia messaging.
Papa Johns, Domino’s Pizza and Pizza Hut all allow customers to register ordering details online and then order pizzas over text message. Nielsen estimates that 552,000 AT&T and Verizon Wireless subscribers texted with Domino’s Pizza, 279,000 texted with Pizza Hut and 182,000 texted with Papa John’s in Q3 2008Short codes are not limited to brand marketing. Traditional media is also using text messaging to enhance participation (e.g.“American Idol”). In radio, Nielsen’s tracking of short codes showed more than a million transactions in 2Q 2008 with the short code “A-L-I-C-E” (or 25423), a short code assigned to the station Alice 97.3 KLLC-FM in San Francisco. Alice listeners are invited to send text messages directly to the studio to make requests, win prizes, and enter polls.Foot Locker sends special offers to its “VIP program” participants—they sent those texts to approximately 306,000 AT&T and Verizon Wireless subscribers in Q3 2008.
Subway’s FRESHBUZZ service allows Subway customers to receive news and promotions via text message. Nielsen estimates that Subway sent these sandwich deals and news flashes to 212,000 AT&T and Verizon Wireless subscribers in Q3 2008.
Given Millennials adamant stance against text message ads, any marketer considering using SMS should take a cautious approach and make sure that the messages are both useful and welcome. But these marketers have shown it can be done.
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Interesting post on text messaging.
ReplyDeleteSeems like a key ingredient is having the consumer initiate the contact after the initial registration process. I get a Coke reward, I send a text message to check out what I won. I'm watching American Idol? I send a text message to vote.
The Obama example seems the exception. It's a one-time very valuable piece of information. After the VP pick, I doubt anyone would want updates on who he's picking for his White House staff.
The trick is being able to hone in on those isolated times when the contact is actually wanted. That's hard to do.
It goes back to what i was saying about mobile Internet being passive in nature. Passive in the sense that I'm not planning my use of it in advance, but when a need arises (where's the nearest coffee shop?), I can go out and fetch any bit of information I want within 60 seconds. It's rarely a planned or scheduled thing.
Seems like the successful text marketing attempts you point out are those that make text messages passive in this way - put the consumer in the driver's seat. Otherwise, you have a company that is guessing when you want information from them...they're likely to be wrong most of the time. This costs you money, wastes your text messages, and is generally very annoying.
Relating back to a beer brand...I don't want them to send me messages about bar specials randomly. But say it's thursday night and i had a terrible day at work. What if i could text a short 'code' that would return the best bar specials in my zip codes tonight. THAT would be useful!