Time: The Joy of Text

There appears to be a lot of resistance to wireless marketing in the US, however here in the UK it is being embraced by marketers, and even to a point by users. My strong advice is not ignore the potential of this medium, or right it off, until you've seen it in action. Done well, it can deliver very impressive results.

Companies are increasingly desperate to get their messages across in a media- saturated marketplace. SMS marketing, combined with conventional ads, gives advertisers an edge because mobile phones are nearly always with their users, allowing them to immediately respond to what they see on TV, billboards or in-store campaigns. Global brands such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, L'OrČal and Stella Artois have all discovered that SMS is an efficient and cost-effective way to reach the high- spending 14- to 35-year-old demographic. And SMS marketing will become even more compelling as mobile phones with color screens allow for the transmission of images as well as text. "2003 will be the year that any global brand trying to reach the 14-to-35 market won't be able to do without SMS," predicts Cyriac Roeding, chief marketing officer and a co-founder of Germany's 12snap.