Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2003 12:13:17 -0500
From: Gary Johnston <johnston@xxxxxxx>
Subject: On great. What next...
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
http://www.msnbc.com/news/990920.asp?0cv=CB20
New ad frontier: Cell phones
Marketers bet consumers will ask for text messages
By Yuki Noguchi
THE WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 They?re not supposed to call or send a fax to your
home. E-mail may soon be off limits, too. So, spurned marketers are now
training their sights on cell phones. But they won?t call you. They?re
betting you?ll call them to participate in sweepstakes, get coupons or
answer surveys.
THEY?VE STRUCK a deal with the nation?s 12 largest providers of
wireless phone service to set up a five-digit call-in system. Consumers
dial a ?short code? promoted by the company on its products and
advertisements to get the company to send them back a text message that
appears on their cell-phone screens.
More than 150 companies have applied to register short codes
numbers from 20000 to 99999 in the two weeks they?ve been available.
Consumer advocates fear that once a customer uses a code to snag a
coupon, that cell-phone number could go on a list and be sold to
telemarketers, making the cell phone just another target for junk
solicitations.
There are no ?white pages? with cell-phone numbers so they have
remained relatively free of come-ons. Because most users pay extra to
send and receive text messages, unwanted promotions could be not only
annoying, but also costly.
Many of the companies that have registered for short codes so far
have pledged not to share cell phone numbers with others or use them to
market products unrelated to the original promotion.
Procter & Gamble Co. is using 3-2-7-3-2 DARE2 to promote its
Clairol Herbal Essences hair-color products. The Weather Channel has
registered to secure 4CAST, STORM and RADAR for on-demand weather
updates. Coca-Cola Co. already is inviting people to call COKE for a shot
at winning prizes. (It set up its four-digit code before the five-digit
standard was established.)
TEXT MESSAGES CHEAPER, LESS INTRUSIVE
Marketers don?t plan on having people return messages. The
marketers will just send text, which they can do for much less money.
Also, they say, text is less intrusive.
Coca-Cola last month launched a trial by printing its 2-6-5-3
short code on posters and cardboard displays at stores to promote its
sweepstakes. Customers punch the code into their cell phones and are then
prompted to type in the numbers printed on the inside of their drink
caps, which indicates the number of points they?ve earned.
Coke keeps track of a user?s points in a digital account
associated with that cell phone number. The customer then uses the
cell-phone number to register on Coke?s promotional Web site and redeem
points for prizes.
Coke wanted to tap the growing audience of teenagers who use cell
phones to send text messages, said Doug Rollins, associate brand manager
of the Coca-Cola trademark. If the trial succeeds, he said, Coke might
use the codes more broadly in other advertising and promotional programs.
Coke asks those who register on its Web site for permission to
send additional messages to their cell phones. But it is treading
carefully on what it knows is now private space. Coke has pledged not to
sell its list to other marketers, or to send unwanted messages. ?We?re
not going to push a bunch of messages,? Rollins said. ?Consumers are
paying for each text message we send. We can?t lose that confidence.?
MARKET COULD BE $5 BILLION IN 2 YEARS
Other marketers agree and say the messages will be sent only to
people who request them. But they think they will be a bonanza. The
business of marketing to cell phones could be worth $5 billion in two
years, said Peter C. Fuller, president of the Mobile Marketing Association.
[snip]