How Does Your Mobile Measure? A Few Wireless Whims on Overcoming Mobile Marketing Hype
Just recently, the population of the United States surpassed 300 million people. But there’s a number that’s rising even faster than the U.S. population: it’s the number of mobile phone subscribers. According to CTIA, the trade association for the mobile industry, that number has just topped 225 million. That’s 75 percent of the entire US population, not just adults.
We marketers are having an ever-harder time reaching a broad audience, as consumers are TiVo-ing and YouTubing themselves into smaller and smaller slivers. Those mobile numbers are certainly tempting: there aren’t too many other media that can reach three out of four Americans. Is the mobile phone — the most personal of all communication devices — actually the next mass medium? What do those stellar subscriber numbers really mean for marketers?
First, we need to understand what people are actually doing with their cellphones. After all, just because a person owns a cellphone does not mean that she is willing or able to receive your marketing message. At its core, a cellphone is simply another voice connection, and we are all aware of the limits of voice-based telemarketing in the age of Do Not Call. So what else are all those cellphones good for?
By a large margin, the number-one use of cellphones, aside from talk, is text messaging. The mobile research company M:Metrics estimates that 38% of mobile subscribers send a text message each month. That’s 73 million Americans who are text messaging. And the text messages are adding up: CTIA estimates that Americans sent and received 12.5 billion text messages in the month of June. Granted, we’re mashing together data from two different sources here, but both sources are generally reliable. And unless we’re completely off, that comes out to more than 170 text messages per subscriber per month. That’s almost six texts a day for every texter. Maybe one of those texts should be coming from you.
And what about all those other neat things you can do with your cellphone, like taking and sending photographs, watching video, and surfing the mobile web? Well, the numbers there aren’t quite as encouraging. Although there’s certainly growth, none of those activities approaches text messaging in popularity. After texting, the next most popular data application is photo messaging, but only 14.5% of subscribers do that in a given month. That’s 28 million photo messagers, compared with 73 million texters. And after that the numbers take a nosedive. Only 22 million have browsed news and information, 20 million purchased a ringtone, and a mere 6 million downloaded a mobile game.
Of course, “only” is a relative term. Mobile gamers are probably quite enthusiastic, and maybe they are particularly receptive to in-game marketing. All of these applications are experiencing rapid growth, and it’s early days yet in the mobile revolution. There’s no telling which application will break out to big numbers in the months ahead. But when you consider that mobile gaming is one of the most hyped corners of the mobile marketplace, the actual penetration numbers simply don’t live up to the hype. Not yet, at least.
What all these numbers suggest is that for marketers looking to make an immediate mass impact with mobile, text messaging is where it’s at. It is the most viable mobile medium for marketers looking to reach anything that could be described as a mass market.
Pages: 1 2 next page »
Article Sponsor
More Features
Reader Comments.
This article is right on target.
Text messages not only reach the broadest audience, gathering this info helps marketers build a valuable database of users for future applications.
We at the Text Message Blog applaud well written articles about text messaging like this. It is amazing that the advertising world has been so slow moving to embrace this technology.
- Pingback from Adotas » Opening the Mobile “Wow Window”: How Memorable Mobile Marketing Can Dazzle the Jaded Public
- Pingback from Brian Hecht On Mobile Gaming at QuicklyBored
Leave a Comment
Latest News
- Ad Spend Forecast Down Overall, Online Safe for Now November 20th 2008
- Will Bandwidth Limits Kill the Video Ad? November 20th 2008
- Yahoo To Power T-Mobile Portal November 20th 2008
- Jivox Reels in Two New Ad Partners November 20th 2008
- Report: Online Marketing Budgets Grew in ’08 November 20th 2008
- Google’s Lively? Not So Much. November 20th 2008
- New Yahoo CEO Must Be Willing To Do Microsoft Deal November 19th 2008
- Trulia, Placecast Partner on Geo-Targeted Ads November 19th 2008
Features
- Holiday Hootenanny: Win the Ad WAR November 20th 2008
- When Boomers, Gen Y Collide November 20th 2008
- How Google Is Jeopardizing Search Biz November 19th 2008
- Click Fraud To Shape Ad Decisions in 2009 November 18th 2008
- Got Game Ads? Why You Need Them NOW November 17th 2008
Spotlight
Turn VP: Ad Network Shakeout “Inevitable”ADOTAS EXCLUSIVE – Turn bills itself as the world’s first Smart Market for online advertising. Turn’s VP of product and [...] more...
Reader Favorites
Classifieds
Most Commented
- Targeting Is the Ad Network "Killer App" (7)
- Study: Blogs Beat Social Networks on Purchase Influence (5)
- Vengence is Mine Saith Ballmer (4)
- Marketing Secrets of an Online “Lurker” (3)
- Self-Serve Ad Exchange: This Century's Strowger Switch? (3)
- Federal Bailout Proposed for Online Ad Industry (3)
- What Obama's Win Means for Advertisers (3)
- The Coming eRevolution in Online Marketing (2)

