One thing’s for sure—teens and young adults love sending text messages.
According to Deloitte, millennials were more likely to use SMS texting features than any other age demographic.
GfK NOP and Limbo (now Brightkite) estimated that 83% of 18-to-24-year-olds and 85% of 25-to-34-year-olds were sending text messages at the end of 2008.
The figures are significantly higher than texting data for all ages, which showed an average of 61% of mobile phone users text.
By contrast, Scarborough Research reported that only 48% of mobile phone subscribers texted in 2008, and Yankee Group put the figure of weekly mobile phone texters at 45%.
In 2008, an eROI poll found that text messages were the preferred method of communication of high school and college students—topping e-mail, social networking communications and instant messaging.
Nielsen data cited by The New York Times stated that teens sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in Q4 2008, shattering the J.D. Power and Associates estimate of 98 messages received per month among all mobile users.
So teenagers and young adults text more than the rest of the population—what are marketers doing to capitalize on that?
A PROMO magazine poll on interactive tactics used by marketers found that while more than one-quarter of them were investing in SMS and digital coupons, that trailed far behind other digital media such as e-mail, blogs, display and search.
Not embracing mobile marketing further may be a strategic error, however.
Limbo and GfK research indicates that nearly one-half of mobile phone users ages 18 to 34—the country’s most active texters—also remembered mobile ads.
Marketers attempting to get the attention of young people might do well to try and hook them by the thumbs.
Never miss a thing. Learn more about an eMarketer Total Access subscription, today.