Jeff Hasen, CMO, HipCricket
Myth #7: Texting is a young person's activity.
Reality
The average age of a texter is 38, and the fastest growing group of texters is age 45-64. Consider that kids often text their parents, who are then highly motivated to receive those messages and respond to them. There's no technological barrier to broadly diffused texting either, since more than 96 percent of mobile phones in the U.S. are currently capable. In fact, more than 150 million people regularly send and receive information via wireless text messages.
Advertisers looking at the mobile space may want to consider making their traditional media interactive by adding a call-to-action via wireless. For example, it's easy to ask people to text a special word to a short-code destination and, in return, to serve those interested consumers a mobile coupon they can cash in at a local retailer.
Myth #8: Mobile is still operating on a trial basis and not providing advertisers with significant ROI.
Reality
There's plenty of interest and plenty of ROI for those who seek it. For example, according to a survey from Ad Infuse, as many as 81 percent of respondents say they're going to run a mobile campaign in the near future. Meanwhile, leading advertisers are already tapping into the ubiquity of mobile to drive revenue today.
For example, a radio station in Cleveland now encourages its advertisers to make mobile marketing a part of every pitch, and in eight months it has helped them produce an extra $1 million in revenue. In Salt Lake City, advertisements for country music artist Brad Paisley mentioned a ticket contest sponsored by DaisyMaids, a housecleaning service. Those who entered the contest by texting "brad" to a short code were asked if they wanted to know more about DaisyMaids' offerings. Seven hundred people said "yes," and 80 percent of them signed up for cleaning service! Your results may vary, but offering a mobile link to more information and more offers gives consumers an easy opportunity to open an ongoing dialog with your brand.
Jeff Hasen is CMO of HipCricket, a mobile marketing partner that is currently generating revenue for more than 100 broadcast stations in markets of all size.
