One out of three mobile phone users in the U.S. can recall seeing or hearing an ad on their handset in the last three months, according to a new survey by mobile entertainment provider Limbo.

The “Mobile Advertising Report Fourth Quarter 2007”, fielded with the help of GFK/NOP Research, found that 78 million U.S. consumers could remember having received an ad message on their cell phones in Q4 2007. That’s about 31% of the 250 million mobile phone users currently in the U.S. population.

Of that group who said they’d been pitched via cell phone in the final three months of last year, the largest proportion (17%) said the ad had come via text message. Nine percent reported getting a multimedia message service (MMS) ad; 8% reported receiving advertising via mobile Internet; 5% said it came as mobile TV or video; and 3% recalled getting an ad via mobile radio.

The Limbo report also found that short message service (SMS) or text messaging continues to lead all other non-voice data or communications services with 141 million U.S. users, or 56% of the total group, describing themselves as SMS users. And while SMS use skews young—82% of the response group under 25 said they were active text massagers—nevertheless all age groups under 50 showed more than half their members using SMS.

The report also detected specific brand recall among consumers who had seen a mobile ad during the quarter. Those brands and their categories included mobile carriers (Verizon, AT&T), handset makers (Motorola, Blackberry), entertainment (BET, Fox MTV, various movies and music titles), consumer goods (Coke, Pepsi) and sports brands (National Football League, Nike).

One out of three mobile phone users in the U.S. can recall seeing or hearing an ad on their handset in the last three months, according to a new survey by mobile entertainment provider Limbo.

The “Mobile Advertising Report Fourth Quarter 2007,” fielded with the help of GFK/NOP Research, found that 78 million U.S. consumers could remember having received an ad message on their cell phones in Q4 2007. That’s about 31% of the 250 million mobile phone users currently in the U.S. population.

Of that group who said they’d been pitched via cell phone in the final three months of last year, the largest proportion (17%) said the ad had come via text message. Nine percent reported getting a multimedia message service (MMS) ad; 8% reported receiving advertising via mobile Internet; 5% said it came as mobile TV or video and 3% recalled getting an ad via mobile radio.

The Limbo report also found that short message service (SMS) or text messaging continues to lead all other non-voice data or communications services with 141 million U.S. users, or 56% of the total group, describing themselves as SMS users. And while SMS use skews young—82% of the response group under 25 said they were active text massagers—nevertheless all age groups under 50 showed more than half their members using SMS.

The report also detected specific brand recall among consumers who had seen a mobile ad during the quarter. Those brands and their categories included mobile carriers (Verizon, AT&T), handset makers (Motorola, Blackberry), entertainment (BET, Fox MTV, various movies and music titles), consumer goods (Coke, Pepsi) and sports brands (National Football League, Nike).

For more coverage on research