Was reading an article on Common Short Codes, Marketing Thr' the Mobile Medium found the essence of the data given to be worth to share.. So im sharing the same.. :)

COMMON SHORT CODES:

Although at an early stage when compared with more mature advertising mediums such as television, radio, print, and even the Internet, mobile is quickly emerging as an impactful advertising channel. According to industry estimates, well over one billion dollars will be spent on mobile advertising globally in 2007, and by all accounts the mobile advertising market is poised for exponential growth over the next several years.

There are several obvious reasons for this growth; the most often cited is the rate of mobile phone adoption itself, with global penetration of mobile phones on track to surpass three billion in the next few years, according to industry estimates. As is often the case with advertising, it is the lure of massive numbers of eyeballs fixed on a "third screen" that is drawing brand marketers to this medium.

The attraction here is not merely about the sheer number of devices in the marketplace, it is about the specific nature of the mobile phone as a potential marketing medium. And, like the Internet before it, the mobile phone has the potential to be an unprecedented platform for marketing. Its portable, intimate, and data-intensive nature makes the mobile device the perfect personal connecting point in an increasingly digital world.

The question advertisers ask about mobile, as they did when television, cable, and the Internet started to aggregate audiences, is: What type of advertising should I buy, and what type of marketing activities is this new medium best suited for, given my products/services and target market segments? This white paper lays out the numerous options for a marketer seeking to interact with mobile subscribers:

• Messaging (SMS, MMS)

• WAP (Search and Banner Ads)

• Downloadable Applications (e.g., Games)

• Mobile Video (Broadcast TV)

Few methods can make as compelling a case for adoption and usage than Common Short Code (CSC)-based messaging outreach. Among the many advantages CSCs provide a brand advertiser today are:

• Easy access to large, addressable audiences

• Integrated marketing communications around a prevalent, ubiquitous activity (text messaging) vs. a niche one

(e.g., mobile browsing)

• Unique advantages in terms of simplicity of use and cost to execute

Consumers are increasingly inundated with advertisements: each of us sees more ads in one day than people of 50 years ago saw in an entire lifetime. In this world of increasing competition for both eyeballs and mindshare, the mobile phone - almost always switched on and accessible - presents a unique opportunity for brands to cut through the clutter and engage consumers in meaningful, one-on-one dialogues.

• It Is Digital: As mobile devices become more like miniature PCs and less like phones, their ability to facilitate marketing objectives only grows, including everything from storing credit card data enabling mobile payments to tracking complex click-streams of consumer responses to ads. Such an ability puts the mobile platform, along with the Internet, far ahead of more traditional media options (such as television and print), which are less measurable. The digitization of content also allows brands to make advertising messages more personalized and more interactive.

• It Is Targeted: The vast reach of the medium, combined with its potential to offer location and presencebased targeting, combined with behavioral/purchasing habits, offers marketers the opportunity to deliver on the fabled mantra of reaching the "right consumer with the right message at the right time."

• It Is Convergent: Sitting at the nexus of voice, the Internet, and media, the mobile phone is unique in its position as the convergent device that will be the consumer’s main connection point for friends, their favorite content and entertainment, and engaging in a host of activities and interactions. Today, technology is being woven into the very fabric of our social culture, offering advertisers the ability to extend their reach to consumers much more effectively and immediately.

It Is Uniquely Personal and Portable: Given media fragmentation and consumers’ increasing desire to control their media and entertainment consumption, advertisers are recognizing that they must have closer interactions between their brand and the consumer to get their message across. The portable and personal nature of the phone combined with its expanding capabilities places it prominently among consumers’ most important possessions. This unique combination creates fertile ground for brands to want to place relevant, contextual messages.

The Mobile Revolution: Personally Connecting with the Next Billion People

The past five years have borne witness to a mobile revolution around the world, with penetration levels exceeding 80 percent in most developed countries. Underlying this growth are several key developments, which together have driven many marketers to begin reviewing the role mobile has to play in their marketing mix. Primary factors contributing to the growth of this marketplace include:

• Global Footprint of Mobile Phones to Grow to More Than 3 Billion: The phone’s ability to provide global reach to consumers is only increasing: the global market for mobile phones is poised for strong growth over the next several years, with several projections estimating 40 percent growth between now and 2011.

• Mobile Phone Penetration Passed Critical Mass in United States and Western Europe: According to M:Metrics, approximately 86 percent of the population (age 13+) in the United States own a mobile device (as of Aug ’07). In The EU 5, the penetration numbers are equally high: 89 percent for the UK, 88 percent for Italy, 87 percent for France, 85 percent for Spain, and 65% for Germany.

Not only is mobile phone penetration experiencing strong growth, mobile advertising and marketing is experiencing exceptional growth as well. According to IDC, well over one billion dollars will be spent on the medium globally in 2007, and by all accounts the mobile advertising market is poised for exponential growth over the next several years: EMarketer values the global mobile ad market at over $16 billion by 2011.

Mobile Marketing Opportunity, by the Numbers (in billions)

Global Mobile Marketing Ad Spend, 2011 $16

US Mobile Marketing Ad Spend, 2011 $2.9

Total # Mobile Subscribers, 2007 2.7

Total # Mobile Subscribers, 2011 3.9

Source: M:Metrics (based on aggregation and averaging of various industry projections)

Marketing spend is predicted to be widely distributed across several types of mobile marketing methods — from invideo advertising to WAP-based banner ads.

2. The Mobile Marketing Tool Box: Many Options to Reach Consumers on Their Cell Phones

As with any new media vehicle, mobile offers a wide variety of marketing and advertising options available to brands, each with its own strengths, weakness, limitations, and unique selling proposition (USP). In the mobile arena there are currently four major types of mobile advertising:

• Messaging (Text, SMS & MMS): This category covers any advertising message that can be delivered by the various messaging formats available. Today the messaging modality is predominantly text-based but over time it will increasingly include rich multimedia messages, called MMS, which offer the ability to offer optimal ad inventory through the incorporation of sound and video. Messaging enables brands and enterprises to deliver their messaging/content and connect with consumers in a variety of ways, including sweepstakes, surveys, voting, and even product purchases.

• Mobile Web Advertising: This category includes a host of activities that comprise mobile Web browsing (i.e., mobile search, banner ads). Very similar to Internet banner ads, WAP banner advertising is considered a rich media form that is only displayed in browsing environments, and is the predominant format for mobile Web advertising today. Mobile search in particular has attracted a good deal of advertiser attention, because it allows for contextual advertising and can prompt immediate call-to-action. For example, a search for "pizza" could return paid, location-specific results, initiate a call and offer a mobile coupon.

• Downloadable Applications: Somewhat analogous to the sponsored application model one can find on the Internet, this model requires software resident on the mobile device. These are most often interactive, entertainment-based experiences such as games, but can also be value-added services as well. Such a model is complex: consumers not only have to know how to download an application on their phone, but downloads require the consumer to incur data usage charges and/or subscribe to a data plan, and many consumers are unaware and wary of costs associated with this type of content, which limits its reach as an advertising medium.

• Mobile Video Ads: Somewhat of a holy grail, this is the placement of short (10-30 second) video advertisements or interstitial screens before, after, or during the viewing of mobile TV content on mobile phones. Due to the potential TV-like impact such ads could have, this has been an area of keen interest to advertisers.

CSCs: The Predominant Way Brands Can Reach and Interact with Consumers Today SMS, also known as text messaging, is built into over 95 percent of all mobile phones in the market place today.

Common Short Codes (CSCs) are a short string of numbers, typically fewer digits than the standard phone number format in any given country, to which a mobile user can send a message, usually in anticipation of receiving information or content in return. In the United States, CSCs consist of five or six digits, instead of the standard 10 digits associated with a phone number. In the United States, CSCs represent the only universal way for brands to connect with most all mobile users. The term "common" refers to the ability of a single short code to work across all major wireless carriers. For any brand or enterprise, this translates into "one common address, one call to action."

• Ubiquity of Common Short Codes (CSCs) as a Marketing Platform in the US: Currently CSCs represent the most scalable vehicle for brands to connect with almost all mobile users, since SMS is built into most every cell phone. In the United States, M:Metrics estimates availability to 205,975,056 of 213,000,000 unique American mobile phone users age 13 and above.

1 • Current Usage of Short Codes: Today, more than 92.5 million consumers actively text message in United States providing a fairly accurate estimate of potential audience size for a given messaging campaign.

Stacking the Various Options Up Against Each Other: With so many options, what criteria is a marketer to employ in choosing the optimal format? We believe it is useful to look at each of these applications today across a series of key attributes and functions  to best evaluate their current role in the marketing mix. There is a strong case to be made that a combination of factors must be addressed in order to find the optimal choice or mix of mobile advertising formats for any particular brand given the audience and context for interaction.