M:Metrics Unveils Industry's First Definitive Mobile Marketing Metrics

Measurement Firm Finds That 36.5 Million Mobile Subscribers Responded via SMS to an Ad

SEATTLE, WA and LONDON -- (MARKET WIRE) -- October 03, 2006 -- Across the five countries for which it measures mobile content consumption, M:Metrics found that monthly use of text message short codes in response to ads was as high as 29.1 percent of mobile subscribers. The firm, which today released the first definitive metrics for mobile advertising, found that 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-1990s as the Web emerged an advertising medium," said Will Hodgman, CEO, M:Metrics, who also founded AdRelevance, the global standard for advertising measurement on the Internet. "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."

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.

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."