Posted: October 11, 2007

The number of brands considering message-based (SMS and MMS) mobile marketing campaigns has doubled over the past year and a half, according to new survey data.

During June and July of this year, market research firm Vanson Bourne surveyed 50 global brands representing products across retail, automotive and technology verticals–among others.

The results were compared to findings from a similar survey conducted in January of 2006–yielding an advertiser-centric view of the future of simple text and multimedia (including video, pictures and coupons) messaging campaigns.

For example, some 28% of brands were considering implementing SMS or MMS campaigns during the next 12 months–double the 14% that had considered the option last year. In terms of spending, 71% of brands expected to devote up to a tenth of their marketing budgets on mobile messaging campaigns within two years–up almost 20% from the respondents who said the same last year.

Brands’ own projections for their overall mobile marketing spending were also on the rise. Some 58% of respondents said that their mobile marketing campaign would take up to 15% of their total ad budget within the next five years, and 32% said this would happen by 2009.

The trends also extended to brands’ confidence in MMS and SMS campaigns as a way to drive both requests for more information and financial transactions–bolstered no doubt by the widely publicized user response rates to “text to enter” campaigns for shows like Fox’s “American Idol” and NBC’s “Deal or No Deal.”

Just over a third of all respondents said that they expected up to 10% of recipients of mobile marketing messages to “undertake a financial transaction”–with 52% of brands saying the same for recipient requests for “more information or a product sample.”

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