36.5 million mobile subscribers responded via SMS to an ad

mMetics: Across the five countries for which it measures mobile content consumption, monthly use of text message short codes in response to ads was as high as 29.1 percent of mobile subscribers. A sizable percentage of mobile subscribers are responding to short codes placed in advertisements or in other media, with Spain topping the list at 29.1 percent, followed by the UK at 18.5 percent, France at 10.1 percent, the United States at 7 percent and Germany at 3.4 percent.

These numbers are not unlike what we saw in e-mail response during the mid-1990's as the Web emerged an advertising medium. The growing adoption of major brands using SMS and the substantial consumer response rates indicate a couple of important trends: mobile as a commercial medium is on steroids; and multimedia convergence is real.

Source of Short Code Ad: August 2006
	France		Germany		Spain		UK		US
	Projected Subs	% Segment	Projected Subs	% Segment	Projected Subs	% Segment	Projected Subs	% Segment	Projected Subs	% Segment
Television	3,212,330	7.5	865,250	1.9	6,632,898	21.7	4,747,001	10.9	8,740,129	4.5
Radio	502,843	1.2	154,542	0.3	728,929	2.4	1,025,866	2.4	2,074,555	1.1
Magazine	967,628	2.3	271,888	0.6	1,139,167	3.7	1,079,488	2.5	1,837,851	0.9
Newspaper	263,838	0.6	150,288	0.3	605,246	2.0	594,052	1.4	775,950	0.4
Unknown	291,291	0.7	313,328	0.7	1,094,403	3.6	1,015,634	2.3	2,385,117	1.2

Source: M:Metrics. Copyright © 2006. Survey of French, German, Spanish, UK, and U.S. mobile subscribers. Data based on three-month moving average for period ending August 2006, n= 12,458, French, n=15,078 German, n= 12,228 Spanish, n= 15,051 UK, n= 35,016 U.S. mobile subscribers

Contests are the leading driver of short code usage, such as game or reality television shows or chances to win free merchandise, with 18 million subscribers across the geographies reporting they participated. Again, Spain shows the highest rate of participation, at 17.8 percent, followed by the UK at 10.6 percent.

Type of Short Code: August 2006
	France		Germany		Spain		UK		US
	Projected Subs	% Segment	Projected Subs	% Segment	Projected Subs	% Segment	Projected Subs	% Segment	Projected Subs	% Segment
Contest	2,369,351	5.5	703,319	1.6	5,434,395	17.8	4,603,128	10.6	4,872,668	2.5
Downloads for device	1,074,209	2.5	448,846	1.0	2,899,149	9.5	1,302,113	3.0	5,302,334	2.7
Entertainment	1,252,033	2.9	206,281	0.5	741,923	2.4	1,255,263	2.9	3,567,218	1.8
News	351,838	0.8	190,832	0.4	458,548	1.5	501,434	1.2	2,085,459	1.1

Source: M:Metrics. Copyright © 2006. Survey of French, German, Spanish, UK, and U.S. mobile subscribers. Data based on three-month moving average for period ending August 2006, n= 12,458, French, n=15,078 German, n= 12,228 Spanish, n= 15,051 UK, n= 35,016 U.S. mobile subscribers

The numbers for those who received an SMS ad are even greater. In Spain, 66.8 percent of mobile subscribers reported receiving an SMS ad. France follows at 50.1 percent, then the UK at 36.8 percent, Germany at 29.6 percent and the United States at 12.8 percent. The largest source of the ads by a wide margin is mobile operators.

Remember the early days of the Internet, when spam was still a meat by-product? asks Hodgman. At that time your Internet service provider was the major commercial e-mailer in promoting their services. It appears that the mobile operator is functioning in the same capacity today on mobile. It will not be long before brand advertisers supersede the mobile operators, though, given the robust activity and consumer response rates we are already seeing in the medium after only a few years of the existence of common short codes.

Monthly use of text message short codes Publ 20061003