Three Quarters of the World's Messages Sent by Mobile

Worldwide communication in the future will be done through mobile devices.
According to TNS Global, 74% of the world’s digital messages were sent through a mobile device in January 2009, a 15% increase over the previous year.

Have Students Graduated from Emails?

More than six out of 10 US high school and college students surveyed “never” or “hardly ever” read marketing e-mails, according to an October 2008 survey by eROI. The majority of respondents said companies were not effectively speaking to them personally through e-mail.

Italian Government Sends Food Prices by SMS

With food prices soaring across the globe, consumers are understandably concerned. To help ensure that retailers don’t pass on more of the price increases than is strictly necessary, Italy's Department for Agriculture, Food & Forestry is offering transparency by text message. Its SMS Consumatori service tracks prices for over 80 types of fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy products, fish, etc and lets consumers access them when they’re out shopping.

To use the service, shoppers send a text message to 47947, typing the name of the product they want a price for. They instantly receive a reply listing both a wholesale price and average retail prices in the North, Centre and South.

Pitching Consumer Goods by Mobile in the UK

The mobile advertising scene is changing in Europe, according to a study by comScore M:Metrix. Its August 2008 Benchmark report showed a sharp increase in European mobile ads for goods that previously had little exposure on the mobile channel, such as food, clothing and consumer electronics.

The ads in question used SMS, not a Web-based technology. But the survey showed that in the year to August 2008, food advertising on mobile phones grew 53%, while ads for clothing and fashion rose 38.2% and restaurant ads 37.3%. Overall, advertising for consumer goods and services on SMS was up 15.2%, while advertising for mobile products such as downloads and entertainment fell by 9.6%.

Sports fans make Great Mobile Targets

Sports fans jump at the chance to keep up with teams via mobile.

Mobile phone usage in the US is so widespread that most of the country could be viewed as a potential audience for mobile marketers.

Yet sports fans are particularly avid mobile users, and their demographic characteristics have already drawn marketers’ attention in the form of some high-profile campaigns. Nielsen//NetRatings’ 2007 “NetView” study found that sports fans were predominantly male and tended to be more affluent, educated and technically savvy than the total population.

Top Tactics for 2009

The Web will be the hottest tactic among advertisers and marketers in 2009 according to executives surveyed in January by Reardon Smith Whittaker. One-third of respondents said so, based on an open-ended definition of the term encompassing growth and interest. In contrast, only 5% said TV would be tops.

Asked which tactics most interested the marketers themselves, nearly seven out of 10 said online marketing, and one-quarter said mobile marketing.