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[IP] On great. What next...




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]

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