Mobile marketing take-up increase likely with SMS and voice channels

Peter Dinham
Friday, 03 July 2009 08:11

Your IT - Mobility

Mobile marketing services company, Ad.IQ, says Australia is the first country to get a local rate number range which consumers can call or SMS, following the release of the 13/1300/1800 number range for SMS, and Australian marketers now have a comprehensive opportunity to reap the benefits of mobile response.

Ad.IQ’s Managing Director, James Critchley, says that previously, the 13/1300 range was restricted to voice traffic while the 191 to 199 range is premium rate and is limited in its access.

Critchley says that, in every other market in the world an advertiser is required to use a different number for SMS and voice, while “the benefits of adding SMS to advertising on local rate numbers include a dramatic increase in response as well as interactive tagging and measurement of advertising.”

According to Critchley Ad.IQ has pioneered mobile response since 2002, and while researching the Australian telecommunications market in 2006, the company resolved that the 13-number range “jumped out as the ideal solution for Australian marketers.”

“The 13-number was used for voice response, is charged as standard rate to consumers, and is also perceived as an extremely respected and trusted number range.

“During the course of an industry pilot staged in Australia in 2007-2009 under the auspices of the Communications Alliance, consumers were able to send SMS messages to a limited number of corporate local-rate (13/1300) numbers.
 
“Forty numbers were released during the course of the pilot and 39 of these elected to use Ad.IQ, including Quit Smoking, Defence Force Recruiting, Ford, BMW and The Victorian Government. Results demonstrated a significant increase in response to advertising through the inclusion of SMS.”
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