Mobile advertising by SMS is 30 times better than on-line display, according to T-Mobile

T-Mobile has released results from a pilot SMS/MMS advertising program it ran in the Czech republic. 22 advertisers including huge brands like Coca-Cola, Nestle and Ford,  participated in the pilot project. T-Mobile is considering launching an official SMS/MMS advertising service on the strength of the pilot.

What were the results?

The pilot offered 3,133 respondents free minutes/SMS for participating. T-Mobile claims that the success of the campaigns was, on average, 27 times better than internet display campaigns:

• 22 advertisers ran 32 campaigns for the pilot
• The average response rate was 2.72%
• The most successful campaign got an 11.78% response rate
• The least successful campaign got 0.29% - which is almost three times in excess of the average response rate for Czech internet display campaigns

From the release:

“Mobile phones have been used as a marketing tool rather rarely despite the fact that they are personal, interactive and always accompany their owners,” says Michal Nemec, Vice President Mobile Portal & Content Services. “Unlike television or print advertisements, ads delivered to mobile phones precisely address the target group (no lipstick for men, no football jerseys for women), bring a relevant message to the recipients and offer the recipients an opportunity to respond immediately. These are the main reasons why our pilot project confirmed the high successfulness of mobile phone advertising, as expected.”

“A successful mobile campaign requires a combination of suitable mechanics, clear communication and attractive implementation. For example, Coca-Cola joined the pilot project with the goal of increasing awareness and the number of registrations in relation to its internet loyalty program MyCokeZone.cz, which is well established in both the Czech and Slovak markets. This program focuses on the generation using the newest technology and experimenting in the virtual world. This pilot project has fulfilled our expectations while taking into consideration that our target group is at home in the mobile environment: awareness of the program (clicking through the page) 5.87%; registration 3.45% in relation to the people addressed,” says Adriana Jahnakova of Coca-Cola.

What we think?

I have mixed feelings about this release. On the one hand, it’s typical of this kind of release. Yes, a mobile SMS campaign CAN be effective - but results are inflated when the campaign is run amongst a tightly targetted, small test audience. And while 3,133 people isn’t a small test audience, remember that those people are spread out amongst 32 separate campaigns. My thought has always been that these kind of results show how successful very small campaigns can be.

The reason my feelings are mixed is because it’s T-Mobile who have run and validated this pilot. If a mobile operator is looking at creating a system that will enable large numbers of small, targeted SMS campaigns…. well, that’s something I’ve wanted to see for a long time.