Who exactly dosen’t text?

According to Deloitte, the age group know as “millennials” are the heavest users of SMS texting.  SMS texting is sending video, pictures, or sounds to your friends and family. 

According to NOP 83% of 18-to-24-year-olds and 85% of 25-to-34-year-olds were sending text message at the end of 2008.  This is well above the 61% average of all mobile texting users.

According to Scarborough Research only 48% of mobile phone subscribers texted in 2008, and Yankee Group put the figure of weekly mobile phone texters at 45%.

Among highschoolers and college students texting is the preferred form of communiation, accorign to eROI – beating out email, social networking, and instant messaging.

The New York Times recently reported that the average teen sent and received an average od 2,272 text per month in Q4 of 2008.  To put this in perspective, J.D. Power estimated the average mobile user in the same peroid (all ages) sent on 98 messages.

So what are marketers to take from this?  We need to embrace several forms of mobile campaigns including mobile coupons.  See the chart below for how US marketers have embraced interactive tactics.

Are mobile ads effective.  The early data suggests yes, and it seems to be effective for most age groups.  Over a year ago auto manufacturer Land Rover/Jaguar made a muli-million dollar invetment into mobile marketing.  iPhone App users, you know whay I am talking about.  You can’t escape these ads.