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E-advertising proves popular in Ireland
Tuesday, July 16 2002
by Matthew Clark


Over 500,000 Irish people have received advertising through their mobile phones
and most of them seem ready for more, new research indicates. 

Irish consultancy and research firm Amarach completed a survey between April and
May of this year, questioning 1,000 adults throughout the country to find that
one in five mobile users has already received at least one SMS advertisement.
"But what's interesting is that they seem receptive to receiving more,"
explained Senior Analyst Bettina MacCarvill. 



With over 70 percent of Ireland's population using mobiles and almost 70 percent
of those users regularly sending text messages, Amarach points out that
advertisers are keen to attract consumers through SMS, a technology that is cheap
to utilise but personal in its ability to reach potential customers. 



In the survey, which stemmed from Amarach's quarterly technology tracker Consumer
TrendWatch, the company asked respondents if they would be interested in
receiving text message advertising for a range of products and services. Twenty
four percent said they were interested in receiving messages about tickets for an
event or concert. Holiday and travel ads were of interest to 22 percent and 19
percent of users respectively. Special competition ads would be positively
greeted by 18 percent of users, as would a special offer in a shop. 



Coming in at the low end of the spectrum, just 9 percent of users would welcome
information about a car and only 5 percent cared to see ads about financial
products. 



What may be more interesting, however, is that only 44 percent of the respondents
said they had no interest in any advertising, suggesting most users would welcome
some kind of ad. 



The higher end figures, for tickets and holidays, were particularly popular with
under-24s, the age range most familiar with SMS and the heaviest SMS users.
Conversely, Amarach said the less-welcomed ads, for cars and financial products,
are also likely to be the most expensive items, which probably would not be
popular with a younger age group.



Indeed the report noted that people "'not at all interested' tended to be from
older age groups and low users of SMS." In fact Amarach advised that "SMS
commercial communications should be directed primarily at youth users and deliver
relevant and persuasive offerings. The importance of being able to only target
youth mobile owners will be a key issue for companies interested in using this
marketing medium, so as not to alienate older disinterested groups," the firm
said.



Citing potential obstacles to the rollout of compelling m-advertising, MacCarvill
said that since most of Ireland's mobile users are prepaid, the telecoms know
very little about particular users.  She recommended that the likes of O2,
Vodafone and Meteor ask prepaid users if they would be willing to opt into
advertising, offering users benefits if they agree to provide a profile of
themselves. The opt-in approach would meet with legal requirements and what is
now an unofficial of code practice for m-advertisers.