SMS Advertising for Non-Mobile Products Grows as Mobile is Integrated Into Marketing Budgets for Consumer Goods and Services
RESTON, Va., Oct 31, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, reports that the mobile marketing landscape in Europe is evolving as fewer consumers say they are receiving advertisements for mobile products and services while more receive adverts for consumer goods such as food, fashion, restaurants, travel and financial services. Over the past year, the number of people receiving SMS adverts for mobile products and services fell nine percent in Europe, while the number receiving offers for non-mobile consumer goods and services climbed 15 percent. Overall, slightly fewer Europeans report receiving an SMS ad, with a decline from 112 million in August 2007 to 110 million in August 2008.
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The fastest-growing category of SMS advertising since August 2007 is food, at a rate of 53 percent, followed by clothing/fashion at 38 percent and restaurants at 37 percent. Advertisements for restaurants and food also boast the highest level of response, with 16 percent of those receiving an advert for a restaurant responding and 13 percent of those receiving an offer for food, such as grocery coupons, responding. Meanwhile, the number of consumers responding to an offer for a mobile product or service remained flat, at four percent.
"While the majority of SMS adverts are still for mobile products and services, the mix is beginning to shift toward consumer goods and services," observed Alistair Hill, analyst, comScore. "Mobile advertisers are beginning to show a higher level of sophistication in their targeting efforts, as the targeting criterion is no longer 'has mobile phone' but is based on knowledge of consumers' tastes and behaviors. Clearly, consumers are responding as the quantity of SMS ads decreases and the quality increases."
SMS Advertising Audience and Response Rates
Three-month average ending August 2007 and August 2008
Mobile Subscribers in EU5 (U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain)
Source: comScore M:Metrics
% Responded
Received SMS Advert (000's) to SMS Advert
Point
Aug-07 Aug-08 %Change Aug-07 Aug-08 Change
Downloads for
mobile phone 40,792 35,915 -12.0% 4.4% 3.9% -0.6
News or
information 25,929 22,122 -14.7% 2.8% 3.2% 0.4
Mobile phone or
plan 32,222 31,574 -2.0% 4.6% 4.7% 0.1
Entertainment 12,644 11,230 -11.2% 4.3% 5.1% 0.7
Total Mobile +
Media Sectors 111,587 100,841 -9.6% 4.1% 4.1% 0
Clothing/Fashion 3,982 5,503 38.2% 5.8% 6.4% 0.6
Restaurants 1,037 1,424 37.3% 11.6% 15.5% 3.9
Cars 4,407 3,731 -15.4% 11.2% 7.9% -3.3
Food 1,413 2,162 53.0% 9.2% 12.6% 3.4
Financial services 8,963 9,956 11.1% 3.7% 4.7% 1.0
Consumer
electronics 3,957 4,647 17.4% 6.3% 6.7% 0.4
Travel 5,779 6,602 14.2% 4.9% 5.8% 0.9
Total Non-Mobile
or Media Sectors 29,539 34,024 15.2% 6.2% 6.8% 0.5
comScore also announced the results of its August Benchmark Study. Mobile social networking posted double-digit growth in all markets except Germany, which happens to show the lowest number of mobile social network users (as a percent of all mobile subscribers) of the five European countries measured by comScore.
comScore Mobile Benchmark Study
Three-month average ending August 2008 vs. Same Period in 2007
Mobile Subscribers in EU5 (U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain)
Source: comScore M:Metrics
Germany Spain France
Activity % Users Change % Users Change % Users Change
Watched video 3.7% 3.6% 7.9% 1.5% 5.5% 6.9%
Listened to music 19.3% 0.4% 24.1% 1.4% 16.2% 2.2%
Accessed news/info
via browser 6.6% 0.6% 9.3% 7.7% 10.8% 9.4%
Received SMS ads 29.2% -2.3% 73.6% -0.7% 62.8% 0.2%
Played downloaded
game 7.9% 1.4% 11.3% -4.7% 4.2% 4.5%
Accessed downloaded
application 2.9% -0.9% 3.4% 2.8% 2.1% 22.1%
Sent/received photos
or videos 22.1% 1.0% 33.2% 2.0% 25.4% 7.7%
Purchased ringtones 2.9% -6.6% 4.1% -1.9% 3.2% 3.7%
Used email 7.3% -1.4% 10.5% 2.8% 7.1% 8.1%
Accessed social
networking sites 1.9% -1.8% 3.5% 20.8% 2.5% 10.4%
Italy UK
Activity % Users Change % Users Change
Watched video 7.4% 6.9% 5.2% 4.4%
Listened to music 16.8% 2.0% 22.2% 1.5%
Accessed news/info via
browser 9.3% 12.1% 16.7% 2.4%
Received SMS ads 54.3% -2.1% 38.2% -1.4%
Played downloaded game 8.5% 3.0% 10.5% 1.5%
Accessed downloaded
application 5.1% 1.4% 4.0% 6.4%
Sent/received photos or
videos 32.8% 4.0% 31.8% 1.2%
Purchased ringtones 3.3% -7.5% 3.1% -1.1%
Used email 11.9% 3.5% 9.6% 1.9%
Accessed social
networking sites 3.0% 17.6% 7.3% 10.0%
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate.
SOURCE comScore, Inc.
http://www.comscore.com/
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