Marketing with text

This accounts for some €18 billion in turnover for mobile operators. Germany's 12snap predicts that "2003 will be the year that any global brand trying to reach the 14-to-35 market won't be able to do without SMS." (source: Time magazine, 27 January 2003)

SMS has gone way beyond the stage of personal messaging campaigns and is very much a component of the marketing mix.

Marketers are continually finding ways to get their client's messages across in a media-saturated marketplace. And, SMS marketing, combined with conventional adverts, gives advertisers the edge because mobile phones are nearly always with their users, allowing them to immediately respond to what they see on TV, billboards or in-store campaigns.

"It is not surprising that SMS is an effective way of reaching a targetted audience, while at the same time increasing interaction between the consumer and the brand," says Hutchinson of Grapevine Interactive Marketing.

A current example is the Richelieu Tour de France SMS competition. Run in conjunction with SuperSport, each day of the Tour de France there are prizes you can win one of two Richelieu prizes as well as stand the chance of winning a custom-built Tour de France bicycle valued at R30 000.

"To enter, all you have to do is SMS the word "Richelieu" to 082 000 9995. You then received an SMS reply with a quiz question. If reply with the correct answer, you stand a chancing of winning the daily and grand prizes. For extra chances of winning (there are 166 questions in the database), you can re-SMS to the same number," explains Hutchinson.

The objective of the campaign is to not only attract a broader audience, but to be more challenging, exciting and entertaining. Ultimately, the aim is to encourage viewers to come back to watch the coverage of the race each day with an element of interaction.

"According to UK research for Enpocket (a wireless communications company), permission-based mobile media is, on average, 50 per cent more successful at building brand awareness than TV and 130 per cent more successful than radio. Mobile marketing paves the way for other services on the mobile phone," concludes Hutchinson.