Third-party content aggregators key to SMS campaigns, says carrier

Companies not already using wireless SMS messaging to market their brands are missing a huge opportunity, say marketing experts, though small content players are cautioned not to expect any great help from wireless carriers. Production houses that want to exploit text messaging as a marketing tool should consider approaching one of Canada’s half dozen or so wireless content aggregators to help them negotiate a tricky path to users’ handsets. At the August 20 Mobile Marketing Boot Camp produced by Aperture Group Inc., experts from content aggregators such as m-Qube, ImpactMobile, MyThum Interactive and others, along with representatives of Rogers AT&T Wireless, presented their case studies of successful implementations of wireless messaging using SMS with clients such as CHUM Television, Staples, EdgeFest, CinePlex Odeon, and the Ottawa Senators. Participants were particularly struck by Rogers’ VP of consumer marketing John Boynton’s presentation showing the volume of messages growing by 24% every quarter. SMS messaging uses short text messages typed into wireless devices to communicate interactively and can be used to market products. Mobile Marketing Boot Camp attendees were filled in on a campaign by office supply chain Staples, for example, in which users can text message the company with a request for a coupon, have it sent to their wireless handset, and show it to a store cashier right on the device to receive discounts. A key discussion of the day surrounded short codes - five- and six-digit numbers that replace long-distance telephone numbers and that have become ubiquitous on television shows such as TSN’s CFL program and Canadian Idol. Earlier this year, Canada’s four mobile phone carriers agreed to work together to provide short codes that would work across their respective subscriber bases - a key factor cited by Mobile Marketing Boot Camp speakers in the recent surge of companies using them. (For more on short codes, see the March 31, 2003 issue of CNM affiliate publication Report on Wireless.) At Rogers, as many as 27 million SMS messages are sent by its subscribers every month and the company has employed five full-time marketing staff to keep up with the demand for SMS campaigns. "We can’t keep up," Boynton told the audience. "Every indication is that the interest level is far higher than we can keep up with." Speaking with Canadian NEW MEDIA, Boynton says the sheer volume of companies that want to take advantage of SMS means smaller production companies should consider working with third-party aggregators that have existing relationships with the carriers. "If I can draw a parallel," he says, "the same thing happened in the Internet industry. All these guys had ideas and small apps and content and they wanted to deal directly with the Internet service providers. It’s really an issue of bandwidth. How can you possibly deal with every guy who has every possible kind of content around the world? The only way to efficiently deal with it is to deal with aggregators." Another presenter at the conference, an interactive producer with CHUM Television, Richard Kanee, echoes the advice. "When the conversation comes around to, well, is this expertise we need to build in-house? There’s a full-time job managing relationships with the carriers. And that’s not a full-time job I would wish on many people," he says. " have the expertise - whatever there is to be had in Canada, because obviously not a lot of it is built on experience, to date. But certainly, the relationships overseas, they’ve done all the legwork to find out what works, what doesn’t, what’s the best implementation strategy," Kanee tells CNM. Several speakers noted that contracts are now standardized, and they see shares of incremental revenue going in fair measure to all of the parties involved.

Third-party content aggregators key to SMS campaigns, says carrier

Broadcast | August 28, 2003

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