Have you subjected yourself to the latest advertising fad, SMS messages containing marketing slogans? (“Blah blah blah, brought to you by Tide fabric softener.”) Apparently it’s all the rage these days in advertising, specifically mobile advertising. It seems admen aren’t too happy with the lousy click-through rates of traditional online advertising (never mind that people are conditioned to hate ads in the first place), so they’re moving toward opt-in text message systems. For example, you see a commercial on TV where a “txt 12345 for more info” message is prominently displayed. Once you txt for info, you’ve opted-in to receive all that hot, advertising goodness.
A few companies are trying to bring such advertising to as many cellphones as possible, including 4INFO, which recently partnered with Yahoo!
There’s still some kinks that need to be worked out, like how to properly advertise in only 160 characters, the usual limit for SMS? Also, how to convince people to essentially pay for privilege of being advertised to?