Short Message Service (SMS) as an Advertising Medium

Abstract

The proliferation of the Internet-enabled mobile device has extended into many parts of the world. Collectively, the mobile-network operators paid more than $100 billion for licenses to operate “third-generation” (3G) networks, which were among “the largest bet in business history on the introduction of a new technology” (Economist, 2005). This drastic move has been most illustrated by the use of short message service (SMS) and multimedia messaging service (MMS) by mobile users. For example, a recent survey indicates that SMS in the Asia-Pacific region will increase to up to 75% of mobile subscribers in 2006 (IDC Asia/Pacific, 2003). As a result, marketers and agencies are increasingly interested in taking advantage of this growth, by incorporating SMS advertising as part of an integrated marketing communications (IMC) strategy. However, there has been little academic research on mobile advertising, perhaps because its growth is still in an early stage and the technological infrastructure varies across markets. The study has two objectives: (1) to identify the factors influencing MNCs’ managerial intention to adopt SMS advertising, and (2) to test a statistical relationship between these factors and managerial intention to use SMS advertising. To this end, we conducted telephone interviews of senior executives of MNCs operating in European markets.