We mentioned the growth of mobile technology in other countries in our weekly wrap-up. Here is Fast Company’s take on the whole situation- it’s a big deal and business owners need to move now or they will be left even further in the dust when it comes to mobile tech.
Archive for the ‘Statistics’ Category
The Mobile Pandemic
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011Smart Phone Usage Grows and Creates More Multimedia Advertising Opportunities
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
Advertisers would be wise to note the growing number of smart phone owners when strategizing the best mobile campaign. While still a minority in the U.S., smart phone owners are increasing their numbers quickly, and a recent Nielsen survey indicates that the majority of mobile phone subscribers aged 44 and under are now smart phone owners. Mobile users aged 25-34 account for the largest segment of smart phone users, so optimal marketing for this group requires an easily navigable mobile website that consumers can browse at any time.
A separate finding by Nielsen shows that many of these smart phone owners are multitaskers, using their mobile device while watching television. During their shows, people frequently use their phones and tablets to check email, visit social networking sites, browse content related and unrelated to their program, and research advertised products and deals. Interestingly, the study indicated no appreciable difference in the amount of online activity people conduct during their actual program and the amount conducted during the commercial, ultimately suggesting a fairly consistent level of engagement with their mobile devices throughout the entire program.
This can be good news for companies that rely heavily on TV advertising. The best marketing campaigns recognize the overlapping, multimedia nature of consumers’ mobile shopping habits and plan their marketing accordingly. Roughly 20% of smart phone and tablet users reported researching a product or ad during their TV viewing. Advertisers can translate data about mobile surfers who are willing to follow a TV ad to a mobile site into profitable results for its brand by recognizing, for one thing, that a customized mobile website is essential—one that is not just a scaled-down version of a desktop site, but takes into account the tactile nature of mobile usage and the limited screen size, and thus organizes its information in the most concise and efficient manner possible. And while simple-click checkout is always preferable for ensuring the consumer completes the purchase transaction, many mobile users prefer the “find location” feature, which enables them to browse products, conduct product research, or obtain coupons from their mobile device, but then purchase products on site and eliminate shipping costs.
Research Study Shows Digital Coupon Users Are More Affluent and Educated
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011The recently released Digital Coupons Trends Report for 2010 from Coupons.com reports some very interesting data about consumers’ use of digital coupons and the digital coupon industry overall, including mobile coupons usage. Here’s why digital coupons are very valuable to both consumers and brand marketers.
Digital Coupons are the Fastest Growing Coupon Segment in 2010
More than $1.2 billion in digital coupons savings were issued from Coupons.com last year, representing a 41 percent growth over 2009. Compared to newspaper coupons growth, which was only 7 percent, digital coupons dramatically outpaced print by almost 6 times. Since Coupons.com is the largest online digital coupon network, this data is representative of the digital coupon industry overall.
We can also make a case that much of the online digital coupons data from this study might also be mirrored on the SMS or mobile coupon segment specifically. Steven Boal, CEO of Coupons.com, said that “more and more consumers are making digital coupons a part of their shopping routine, accessing them across the entire digital domain—including the Web, in social media, with consumer electronics, via their mobile phones, etcetera. At the same time, brand marketers are increasingly engaging with consumers via digital offers, wanting to influence shoppers throughout their path to purchase.”
Digital Coupons High Brow
Traditional coupons are perceived as low-brow. The research from this study, however, shows that digital coupon users are more educated and have higher household incomes than noth newspaper coupon users and the overall general public. Digital coupons, in other words, can help marketers reach an upscale market.
Digital coupon users have an average household income of $105,000 — 26% higher than the U.S. average. 36% of them have a college degree, compared to 28% of those who use newspaper coupons and 26% of the general population.
Digital Coupons Help Marketers Reach Non-Print Users
Over 16% of the US population — more than 49 million Americans — now use online coupons. Moreover, nearly one-third of these consumers say they haven’t read or looked into the Sunday newspaper in the last 6 months.
Mobile Coupons Serve Up Grocery Savings to Consumers on the Go
The top categories for coupons accessed via mobile phones include cereal, snacks, and household items.
It should be noted, however, that most other categories outside of the grocery store also have high redemption rates. One Dunkin’ Donuts SMS coupon marketing campaign, for example, generated a 21% offer redemption rate.
High mobile coupon usage is seen even in cities — such as Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and Philadelphia — that aren’t ranked high on the Top 20 Frugal U.S. Cities list. There are heavy mobile coupon users in all regions of the country as well.
Digital Coupons’ Future Is Tied To Mobile
While digital coupons in general are being adopted very rapidly, it’s fair to say that increased mobile usage will drive future digital coupon use. Coupons.com’s report highlighted NFC (near field commmunications) and RFID (radio frequency identification) technologies in mobile devices, as well as the growing mobile apps category, that enable easier coupon redemption at point of sale.
If your organization doesn’t utilize mobile coupons or send SMS marketing offers yet, now may be the time to consider it, since research proves that digital coupon users are a high value market.
Coupons delivered via SMS or mobile apps can help marketers drive customers to retail locations, improve offer redemption rates, launch new products, and increase customer loyalty. If you add in-store advertising that informs users to text in for a mobile coupon they can redeem right there and then, you’ll not only improve sales but can add new mobile marketing list subscribers (with their opt-in permission). Because text messages are convenient and easy for mobile users to forward, SMS coupons also tend to be virally shared as well — making the ROI of a mobile coupon program even higher.
Top Mobile Internet Trends from Mary Meeker
Saturday, February 12th, 2011For mobile technology trends analysis, there may be no greater single source than former Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, whose mobile trends presentations (and their accompanying charts and bar graphs) have been cited far and wide. Meeker’s presentation on Top Mobile Trends this year for Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer provides the ammo for mobile marketers and everyone else interested in the mobile industry to invest in the mobile space and determine their mobile marketing (including SMS marketing) strategy. It is, in short, a great and timely resource on the mobile market. Some highlights and commentary from the 56-page slideshow that was presented at a Google event last Thursday:
1. Mobile platforms have hit critical mass.
Meekers attributes Apple’s iOS products (iPod, iPhone, and iPod) as changing the mobile industry forever, and each subsequent Apple mobile product has sold exponentially better than other iOS devices.
Android devices, with over 70 million shipments in the first 9 quarters after launch, has hit critical mass as well. Not only are a lot of people buying mobile devices, they’re ready and willing to adopt them right after launch.
In other words, mobile’s time has come.
2. Real-Time Social Features Are Accelerating Mobile Usage Growth
Location sharing (e.g., checking in to FourSquare), communication (e.g., Twitter), music sharing (e.g., Spotify) and doing all of the above in one application (e.g., mobile Facebook) are what’s driving mobile usage — KPCB dubs it “SoLoMo”, for Social, Local, and Mobile. Those are the 3 trends, definitely, that everyone is betting on.
Right now:
- Facebook has 200 million mobile Facebook users, compared to 50 thousand in September of 2009. And mobile Facebook users are 2X as active as desktop Facebook users.
- 50% of Twitter’s total active users are mobile, and 40% of all tweets are from mobile users.
- 50% of all Pandora users subscribe from a mobile device.
The takeaway is social media platforms are being driven by mobile users. Likewise, access to these social media features on the go is driving mobile usage. Marketers interested in either social media or mobile marketing need to pay attention to both.
3. Mobile Data Traffic to Go Through the Roof
We’ve come a long way in mobile adoption, but the next 5 years will show even more incredible growth. According to the presentation, there will be as much as 26x compound annual growth in mobile data traffic over the next 5 years.
4. Mobile Advertising has Higher Efficacy vs. Other Advertising Media
Mobile advertising bests other advertising media (by a long shot in most cases) in terms of reach, targeting, viral, and transaction efficacy. You’re likely to be more successful and get more for your money with mobile marketing.
As efficient as it is, though, no one is saying that mobile should replace traditional media completely. Mobile can augment other media, making it more measurable and effective. The classic example, and most widely used practice, is to incorporate text message marketing with television or other traditional media: the SMS call to action in the ad prompts the user to send a text message in to redeem your offer (and possibly join your mobile marketing list for future SMS marketing offers). Integrating SMS marketing with other marketing initiatives strengthens your program all around.
5. Mobile is Revolutionizing Commerce
Mobile, particularly smartphone mobile adoption, is changing the way consumers shop for products and interact with brands. The Top Mobile Internet Trends presentation highlighted 4 significant mobile commerce developments:
- Location-based services — e.g., driving opt-in users to stores in real-time with LBS coupons (e.g., Shopkick)
- Transparant pricing — e.g., shopping/coupon apps that enable consumers to compare local store prices by scanning product barcodes with their smartphones (e.g., ShopSavvy)
- Discounted offers — social coupons and flash sales for local services and products (e.g., Groupon)
- Immediate Gratification — instant digital product or content delivery (e.g., download an MP3 to your iPod over the air)
Summary
This year, the tipping point will be reached — more than half of the people in developed markets will have smartphones (and smartphone sales have already eclipsed PC sales, earlier than expected). Tech advances for richer mobile experiences, like HTML5 and NFC developments, will only add to the growing move towards mobile.
The opportunity in mobile is huge — for advertisers, marketers, developers, publishers, and even users. Mobile is a massive phenomenon, and it may be the best platform to give consumers what they want, when they want it, wherever they are.
Holiday Shopping Goes Mobile- Officially
Friday, February 4th, 2011For holiday mobile shopping, the results are in. Last fall we wrote about the increasing desire among shoppers for mobile engagement, and we predicted a big spike in mobile shopping during the 2010 holiday shopping season. Many businesses have reported that mobile-based sales increased two to four times that of the previous year, while mobile click-throughs also rose dramatically. There is no question that 2011 will see an even bigger spike in mobile shopping as the number of smart phone owners and mobile shopping opportunities continue to develop and grow. If you haven’t delved too deeply into the world of mobile marketing, this year is the time to start. Here are some tips for thinking ahead to the 2011 shopping season.
Customize your site for mobile as soon as possible. A mobile site is a must for any business that wants to be competitive. As smart phone usage grows, people expect to do more browsing and shopping directly from their handset. A mere size-reduced version of your desktop site is not good enough; a successful mobile site must take into account the fact that mobile shoppers are multi-taskers who shop while they walk, talk, or ride to work. Hire a qualified mobile web developer to build you a custom site that appeals specifically to shoppers on the move and displays pertinent information clearly. Remember, too, what mobile shoppers are looking for when they access your site: quick, easy-to-find information about prices, locations, contact info, as well as simple click check-out.
Start an SMS marketing campaign in order to build a subscriber list. If you haven’t begun text marketing, or if you use it inconsistently, now is a good time to start consistent SMS maketing campaigns that communicate your offers directly with your customers. Use the year to grow your list with seasonal sales, contests, and voting campaigns so that by the time the holidays are here, you have a sizeable list of subscribers who are most likely to redeem your offers. More than 25% of consumers own smart phones and can be pushed to your mobile site directly from a text message.
Take advantage of that convenience. Also, use your physical store to promote your virtual campaigns by placing signs and ads right in the store so that the calls-to-action are seen by the people already interested in your products.
Venture into the world of mobile coupons. Mobile coupons are the most effective way to track the effectiveness of an SMS marketing campaign. Advertise a call-to-action that invites people to text a keyword in exchange for a coupon. Not only can you add respondents to your subscriber list, but you can now analyze the redemption rate of various offers to see which ads work best for you. More sophisticated campaigns utilize applications that allow barcode scanning, but if you don’t have that capability yet you can still record the coupon redemption and user’s phone number at the point of sale for later analysis.
A great way to grow your subscriber list and build customer loyalty is to try to entice people directly at the point of sale with a special offer that they can only get through mobile. The offer is a one-time deal so make it too great to pass up. Studies of mobile shopping habits have found over and over that once a person joins your SMS marketing campaign, he or she is likely to return to your site and continue to take advantages of offers.
While it may seem early to start planning for the 2011 holiday shopping season, a substantial subscriber list takes months to develop. Don’t wait until the holiday season is upon us to start thinking of how to be competitive; begin text messaging your customers early and regularly to build your list, establish customer loyalty, and promote offers. By the time fall arrives, you will already have a well-conceived mobile marketing strategy in place. Take advantage of growing consumer desire for mobile shopping and the proliferation of the technology that makes it possible.
Why SMS Marketing Campaigns Fail
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011A recent survey conducted by the Association of National Advertisers and the Mobile Marketing Association found that 88% of respondents plan to use mobile marketing in 2011, as compared to 62% in 2010. The bad news is that many of those companies entering the mobile arena for the first time will produce some truly terrible SMS marketing campaigns.
Text messaging is a unique marketing channel… but the factors that cause an SMS marketing campaign to fail are actually quite similar to the ones that plague traditional marketing efforts.
Not Promoting the SMS Marketing Campaign
According to Mobile Marketer, only 39% of companies with a mobile offering prominently mention the offer on their websites. The companies go to the trouble of developing smartphone apps and mobile websites for their customers, and then don’t bother to tell those customers about it. Then the marketing departments are surprised by their low mobile conversion rates!
Text message marketing works best when combined with other marketing channels. Mention your offer and call to action on a TV commercial or add a QR code to your billboards, and odds are you’ll see a huge jump in mobile response.
Poorly Designed or Nonexistent Mobile Web Site
When you text an offer or a bit of information to your customers, odds are that they’ll browse to your website on their phones just to learn more about your company. If you don’t have a mobile web site, or if it’s badly designed, your customers are likely to give up in exasperation.
A well designed mobile web site is easy to read and navigate, even on a tiny cell phone screen. It should be optimized for all the major smartphones (which means that your design team needs to check the site on every single phone type before they declare it done). And it needs to highlight any text message campaigns you’re currently running, since one of those campaigns is probably what brought the customer to your site in the first place.
Vague Call to Action
If you don’t tell your customer how to respond to your offer, they won’t do it. That might sound obvious, but it’s sadly common for SMS marketers to promote their offer without spending enough time promoting how to get it!
First, you need to pick a good keyword – one that will tend to stick in the customer’s memory – and then you need to make that keyword easy for the customer to find. That means adding “Text KEYWORD to CODE” to your print advertising, corporate web site, newsletter, etc. If you’re not running a specific keyword campaign at the moment, you still can and should still promote your short code, so that customers know how to reach your company via text message. Promoting your short code is becoming just as important as promoting your website URL.
In fact, it may even be more important. In 2009 SmallBusinessNewz described a case study in which an aquarium ran four different TV commercials promoting a new aquatic show. Three of the commercials used the aquarium’s web site as the call to action, and the fourth asked viewers to text their response. The aquarium received three times as many entries via text as they did via website, despite the fact that the text call to action was featured in only 25% of the TV ads.
Bad Offer
Of course, even if you promote your campaign all over the place, that’s not going to do much good if your customers just aren’t interested in what you’re offering. Usually the best way to find out is to ask! Social media is a great tool for this kind of customer feedback. Ideally, you can come up with a few different potential offers and then present them on Facebook, Twitter, or another social media outlet. By giving the customers the chance to pick their own offer, not only do you get them interested and involved, you can also be fairly sure that the offer is something that other customers will want as well.
Sending Text Messages Through SMTP Isn’t Worth It
Thursday, January 20th, 2011When you shopped around for a text message marketing company, you probably noticed a few firms offering super-low monthly fees and unlimited texts. Sounds too good to be true? That’s because it IS too good to be true. These firms are sending their client’s messages via SMTP, violating a mobile marketing best practice.
In brief, there are two ways to send text messages to cellphones. The first, SMS, is the standard protocol. This is “true” text messaging using short codes, and is closely regulated by cellphone carriers. The second protocol, SMTP, isn’t really text messaging at all. Instead, it’s a way to send an email that looks like a text message. Because it’s not really texting, it doesn’t require a short code and is not charged by carriers as a text message. Using SMTP messaging is a bad idea for quite a few reasons.
First, it might be illegal. Since these are emails rather than text messages, they are subject to the FTC’s CAN-SPAM Act. If you use SMTP to send unsolicited messages, you can be fined by the FTC for up to $11,000 per message. And because SMTP messages don’t provide an opt-out mechanism as SMS messages do, they usually do qualify as spam under the CAN-SPAM Act.
Second, cellphone carriers can and do block SMTP messages. The SMTP delivery channel for cellphones was never intended for receiving commercial messages. Carriers monitor this channel and if they detect your messages (as they eventually will) they will block you out. They won’t even notify you. Your messages will simply stop arriving.
Third, sending via SMTP requires you to know the cellphone carrier’s domain name. Should the carrier change domains, your lead list will suddenly be useless. SMS messages don’t have the same potential issue since they are sent directly to the recipient, not to the carrier’s domain. As with point #2, the carrier won’t notify you that they’ve changed domains – why should they, when you’re not supposed to be sending SMTP messages in the first place?
Fourth, a text message marketing company that uses SMTP instead of SMS is likely to be extremely shady. SMS senders must go through a rigorous screening process and must comply with Mobile Marketing Association rules. SMTP senders just need an email server and a high-speed connection. There’s probably a reason why the firms using SMTP didn’t make it through the SMS screening.
Fifth, one of the biggest benefits of SMS marketing is its reliability. About 95% of SMS marketing messages reach their intended recipient. With SMTP marketing messages the number is more like 40%-60%. So that cheap SMTP service actually costs about twice as much per received text message as you’d think from their advertised rates.
And sixth, using SMTP messaging will annoy and anger your prospects, since they have no control over the messages. They can’t opt-in simply by texting a code, as they can with SMS messaging, and even worse, they can’t opt-out easily either. Your company is likely to wind up with a bad reputation if you use such questionable marketing tactics.
So how can you tell for sure if your text message marketing company is using SMS? Simple. The company will use a short code for each and every message, and they will charge you a per-message fee. The exception to the per-message fee model is the text message marketing firms that include a small ad in every text they send for you. Don’t take the marketing firm’s word for it, as many will claim to be using SMS when they are actually using SMTP.
To summarize, any mobile marketing company that uses SMTP messaging is bad news and you should definitely not do business with them. Stick with SMS – it’s safer, it’s more legit… and you get what you pay for.
TextBoard Leads SMS Marketing By Example
Wednesday, January 19th, 2011TextBoard has been running successful SMS marketing campaigns since 2009, offering SMS services to businesses throughout the US. Unique features such as the patent-pending staggered delivery campaigns, voting/contest campaigns, scheduled messaging, and sophisticated analytics have not only helped our clients reach more customers directly, but have also given businesses valuable data about the advertising methods that do and do not work best for them.
A SUCCESSFUL SMS OPERATION FOR WMBF NEWS
WMBF News Myrtle Beach, an all-digital news station that serves eight counties in South Carolina, began using TextBoard in August, 2010 to send out text alerts regarding news and weather to its viewers. The station advertised its text campaign primarily through TV commercials, website and mentioned their call-to-action during on-air broadcasts. They invited viewers to text BREAKING to a short code established through TextBoard and were excited to see 200 subscribers in the first week alone. Within only five months, the number of subscribers grew to 2900.
WMBF sends two weather alerts each day and breaking news alerts as they happen. As many as eight breaking news text alerts have been sent in a single day. In order to maximize the effectiveness and wide reach of the text campaign, the station began pushing people to their mobile site by including tiny URLs in the daily text messages. The website was customized specially for mobile devices so that subscribers with smart phones could get up-to-the-minute reports on current events, local news, sports, and weather forecasts. WMBF saw an average 18% click-through rate, meaning that almost one out of five subscribers followed the link to the station’s mobile site. Most email marketing campaigns do not see results like this.
WMBF further optimized the text marketing campaign by using TextBoard to not only send out SMS alerts, but to automatically update the station’s Twitter and Facebook accounts as well. WMBF has since made TextBoard features available to their own clients and sells SMS services to other companies.
A SUCCESSFUL SMS OPERATION FOR LEGENDS IN CONCERT
Legends in Concert, a live celebrity tribute show, offers celebrity impersonator performances in many different locations throughout the U.S. Since 2010 Legends in Concert has been utilizing SMS campaigns run through TextBoard to promote its shows. During a recent campaign launched in the Myrtle Beach region—where the target audience is tourists—Legends used five billboards to advertise a call-to-action encouraging people to join their SMS campaign for discounted tickets. Each of the five billboards used a different keyword, and TextBoard analytics were set to track the effectiveness of each. The five billboards all offered the same promotion, but the use of different keywords allowed the Legends marketers to see which billboard location reached the most people.
During a moderately busy tourist season, the Legends text campaign attracted 20 new subscribers each day. Using TextBoard analytics, Legends was able to track the conversion for each board and determine that the campaign saw a 16% average conversion rate across all billboards. It was particularly helpful to learn that the most expensive billboard produced the lowest conversion rate—data that could not have been obtained without the kind of tracking analytics that only TextBoard offers. Information about which advertising venues work hardest for them, are most visible, and generate the most opt-ins helped Legends make better decisions about how and where to spend their advertising budget.
Legends In Concert Text Message Marketing Case Study
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011Name and city and state of marketer:
Legends In Concert – Las Vegas, NV
Name and city and state of agency or marketing services firm:
TextBoard – N. Myrtle Beach, SC
Campaign/program name:
Legends In Concert Myrtle Beach SMS Billboard Campaign
Duration:
4 Months
Short code:
55958
Keywords:
BLING, POP, KING, TIM, BEACH
Objective:
Measure effectiveness of billboard advertising by using an SMS call to action to measure conversion. To build an SMS subscriber database for Legends In Concert to provide offers and fan deals for future events.
Target Audience:
Myrtle Beach residents and the 15 million annual tourists to the area.
Strategy:
Use unique keywords on each billboard to measure location effectiveness and place a coupon code within outgoing text messages to measure overall conversion.
Call to action:
Five billboards were purchased in the Myrtle Beach area on major roads and highways that encouraged any passerby to text one of the keywords to 55958 for a special offer from Legends. One keyword was shown per billboard. Each keyword related to the theme of graphic that supported the call-to-action.
Tactics:
Legends used TextBoard’s patent-pending staggered delivery method to send a higher volume of messages to subscribers only while they were in the Myrtle Beach area on vacation. Each day after subscribing to one of the keywords the automated system would send an alert suggesting the subscriber buy tickets. Each subsequent message provided a more aggressive offer similar to “Hurry, last chance offer”.
Results:
Legends was able to walk away with two solid measurements from this SMS campaign. Legends also built their subscriber database to a little over 1600 members and is continuing to grow daily.
Conversion rate was measured for the campaign by using a unique coupon code within each text message. The combined 5 billboards provided an average 16% conversion rate of all subscribers. Resulting in roughly a 1200% return on investment.
Additionally, with differentiating keywords being used per billboard, Legends was able to measure which billboard garnished the most subscribers and the highest conversion rate. Interestingly, the most expensive billboard had the lowest conversion rate of all.
Takeaway:
Legends In Concert accomplished their goal to build a solid SMS subscriber database and to measure a previously unmeasurable advertising medium. Legends will continue to market ad retarget their current subscriber base and grow the list even more in 2011. The campaign will be added to their Las Vegas, Branson and Foxwoods locations as well.
About Legends In Concert:
On Stage Entertainment, Inc. owns and operates Legends in Concert. Celebrating its 28th year, Legends in Concert is a live musical celebration featuring the world’s greatest celebrity tribute artists. Widely recognized in the entertainment industry as the original celebrity tribute show, Legends in Concert has been performed throughout the United States, and has traveled to 18 countries on five continents, including Japan, Canada, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Australia, China, Brazil, Spain, and England, entertaining more than 20 million fans.
On Stage Entertainment operates numerous fixed-based, touring, limited-term and private engagements of Legends in Concert throughout the world. In addition to Las Vegas, Legends is presented year-round in numerous cities including Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Branson, Mo., on the high seas aboard Norwegian EPIC; and seasonally at such locations as Foxwoods Resort Casino (Mashantucket), Conn. The show has also been featured on the most popular television networks in the world.
About TextBoard:
TextBoard is a text-message marketing application designed for agencies and multi-location realtors that run complex mobile marketing campaigns for themselves and their clients. Developed by OIR Interactive in 2009, TextBoard has quickly become the industry’s leading application for SMS marketing campaigns. OIR built TextBoard in-house to allow marketers to rapidly develop, execute and analyze a variety of mobile campaign types. OIR assists companies with all aspects of mobile account creation, including short code setup and provisioning, aggregator relationships and mobile marketing strategies. With proprietary features such as click-tracking and a patent-pending message delivery method, TextBoard continues to pave the path of mobile marketing’s future.
Text Message Global Usage Study by Nielsen
Saturday, January 15th, 2011
The Nielsen Company just released their most recent report on the trends and usage of mobile internet and text messaging with youth around the world.
As you might expect, the young people of the world are fixated on their cellphones. But it’s interesting to note that they’re used in substantially different ways throughout the world.
It’s no surprise that China is the global leader in mobile internet usage. With 73% of Chinese youth (ages 15-24) using mobile devices have used the mobile internet in the past 30 days. The United States mobile internet usage of youth in the same bracket is still an impressive 48% according to Nielsen.
The Nielsen mobile marketing report also discovered gender dominance when it came to sending text messages. While female youths sent the most text messages in every country measured except in China and India where text messages and SMS was dominated by males.
The study digs deeper into teens that send text messages in the United States. The results showed that teens are texting all the time (obviously) and at a rate of over 6 text messages per hour that they’re not asleep. United States teenagers send and receive and average of 3,339 text messages per month. The survey measured cellphone bills from 60,000 mobile subscribers and 3,000 separate surveys.
No one sends more text messages than teens between the age of 13 and 17, especially females who send and receive an average of 4,050 text messages every month. Teenage males in the same group are not far behind, sending an average of 2,539 texts monthly. Young adults come in second with a comparative measly 1,630 text messages sent per month. This rounds out to about 3 text messages per hour.
When teens were surveyed by Nielsen last year as to their preference for texting instead of placing voice calls they cited “it’s fun” as their reasoning. But this year almost 80% of teenagers that sent text messages recognize it as a convenience and an easier/faster way to communicate than voice calls. With this comes an obvious decrease in voice activity among teens- 14% decrease to be exact.
Download the entire report by clicking here.
