Marketers Not in Tune With Text Messaging Madness
Mobile users, especially younger ones, are sending and receiving text messages at a frenetic pace, according to various sources. Besides the probable impact this will have on the social awkwardness of future generations, text messaging opens up a rather large opportunity that not many marketers are taking advantage of.
According to a report released by Deloitte, titled, “State of the Media Democracy Third Edition,” 86 percent of mobile phone users in the U.S. between the ages of 14 and 25 (“Millenials”) used text messaging during September and October 2008.
Seventy-five percent of users between 26 and 42 (“Generation X”) used text messaging during that time, while 55 percent of those between 43 and 61 (“Boomers”) and 24 percent of those between 62 and 75 (“Matures”) did the same.
Overall, 65 percent of mobile phone users in the U.S. used text messaging during September and October, according to Deloitte.
Text messaging trailed only digital camera (still pictures) (68 percent overall) as the most popular mobile activity for U.S. mobile phone users.
Figures from other organizations corroborate these findings. GfK NOP estimated that 83 percent of users between 18 and 24 used text messaging at the end of last year, while Limbo (now Brightkite) estimated that 85 percent of users between 25 and 34 did the same.
Others, however, have vastly lower numbers. Scarborough Research estimated that 48 percent of mobile phone users sent and received text messaging in 2008, while Yankee Group estimated that 45 percent of mobile phone users were weekly texters.
Nielsen notes that teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, far more than the 98 messages received per month by all mobile users estimated by J.D. Power and Associates.
Despite the numbers showing the pervasiveness of text messaging, marketers seem a bit slow to follow. According to PROMO magazine, 26.0 percent of U.S. marketers are utilizing SMS and digital coupons as a marketing tactic in 2009. This figure reflects a noticeable uptick from 29.6 percent last year and 13.3 percent in 2007, but still pales in comparison to other established tactics.
SEO (39.0 percent), social network promotions (34.3 percent), paid search ads (28.3 percent), Web-based sweeps, contests (28.7 percent) and viral campaigns (28.0 percent) are some of the tactics that are being used more often than text messaging.
The lag and disconnect here is understandable. SMS remains a somewhat inflexible and oftentimes annoying channel to reach consumers by.
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