For some time we’ve been looking at how our clients obtain, build and manage their lists of mobile numbers.

Most accumulate subscribers by asking people for their mobile number and  manually uploading the details into textburst.

This works well, but does require manual work to get the contacts loaded into textburst.

And it doesn’t easily allow the subscribers to opt out of the list. A person still has to call and request their removal, and in turn our customer has to login and delete the relevant person.

It’s all a bit cumbersome and littered with possibilities for error e.g. not dealing with an un-subscribe request.

What can we learn from email marketing?

Think about how email marketing lists work:

1. You add your email address on a form
2. You receive an email confirmation
3. To opt out you click a link at the bottom of an email

The whole process is fully automated and controlled by the person joining the list, it puts the end user in charge of their subscription, and makes it far easier for the list manager.

This has become the standard for email marketing and justifiably so. It’s quick, easy, requires no manual intervention, is fool proof, and very cheap.

Let’s do the same with SMS Marketing

To bring the same standards to SMS marketing we’ve made a few changes to our online SMS product textburst.

1. You can now login and set your own keyword or keywords on the shortcode 84433.
2. Configure your own automated responses.
3. To join your list a subscriber texts your keyword to 84433.
4. The subscriber receives an automated SMS response to confirm your subscription, and instructions of how to opt out in future.
5. To opt out a subscriber simply texts “STOP” to 84433 at any time. It’s fully automated.

So now a business owner can put up a sign, advertise, ask, or by however means they wish, advertise they offer an SMS marketing list.

All their clients do is send a text in to join the list, and send a text to leave.

Our clients can login to textburst, see how many and who’s in the list, and send text messages to everyone.

So what’s the big deal?

Auto responses and opt outs are nothing new in the SMS market, so what’s the big difference here?

First off, we’ve automated everything, from choosing your keyword to setting the auto response and managing opt outs.

And secondly, with this level of automation we can pass the savings onto our customers.

We will only charge you for the messages you send to the subscribers.

• Access to the shortcode is FREE
• Choose a keyword, or as many as you like FREE
• The auto response to the subscriber FREE (yes, a free text message)
• The opt out mechanism FREE

With this update you can actually now build a database of mobile numbers completely free of charge, the only time you’re charged is when you send out marketing information.

So now there’s no excuse, login to textburst, click “campaigns” and reserve your keyword for free.

During that period everything will work just fine, the techies will be monitoring the platform, online purchasing will be up and running and you can send texts till your hearts content.

If you do need to contact us during Christmas send an email to hello@mediaburst.co.uk or submit a support ticket.

The mailbox and support system will be checked in on in the morning, lunch time, and evenings, hence it may take a little longer to respond than normal.

If all else fails you can email the boss (me, Gary) on gary@mediaburst.co.uk.

(But not for you recruitment consultant. Sorry, but you’re not in our plans, so don’t contact us about this.)

Our SMS API is shipping faster than ever before. Florence, our healthcare app is gaining momentum in the NHS. Textburst is finding an audience like never before, and we’ve got a completely new app on the cards.

But, arhhhh!

We just can’t find the time to do all the stuff we really want to do. We need some help, and you might be what we need.

What we’re ideally looking for is a web app developer.

You need to have some (not necessarily loads of) relevant qualifications and experience.

You definitely need to know some languages and frameworks, not necessarily these, but things like PHP, c#, .Net, Ruby.

Knowledge of MySQL or similar database will also be looked upon favourably.

We’re also big fans of wordpress and have a number of plugins available to our clients. If you know wordpress then you’re already in our good books.

But most important is your desire to get involved in something. We’re not just tapping lines of code out, we’re making products that people use every day of their working life. Your ideas and desire to make things better are what we want, they’re more valuable than your qualifications.

So if you live and breathe the web, spend your spare time dreaming of quirky web apps, playing with open source software or mashing API’s on programmable web, then we need to hear from you.

You can help us

What’s it like to work at mediaburst?

None of us at mediaburst are here to pass the time of day and collect the cheque.

Coming to work is a pleasure, we enjoy what we do. We want to make our products better, gain new customers and take good care of the existing ones.

We’re not here until the wee hours, you’ve got a social life and we respect that. We also don’t want you to wear a suit and tie unless you really want to, but then again, if you did, you probably wouldn’t fit in.

Our office is completely open plan, there are no walls or secrecy, you can chip in if you like and share your thoughts. We want you to make a difference to the things we do and the stuff we sell, you can’t do that well unless you know what’s going on.

We don’t have accolades like Investors in People, or bureaucratic review procedures. If you want something then ask, if you have a problem, speak up.

Salary

Yes we’ll pay you, but the internet is no place to discuss financial arrangements, let’s discuss in private.

How to apply

Get the ball rolling by sending us an email. Tell us about yourself, include your CV if you like, show us your twitter or facebook or last FM or Google+ or whatever you’re on or into.

Send us a link to any projects you’ve been involved in or sites you’ve developed.

And, yeah, let’s talk.

hello@mediaburst.co.uk

We rank about 3 on Google for the search term “first ever text message sent“, just behind Wikipedia, so we picked up a bit of traffic.

I wonder if you can optimise for future questions!?

We’d fought off competition from a plethora of iphone apps by the likes of Tesco, Manchester City FC, Racing Post, and Waitrose.

Apparently the standard of entry was exceptionally high but Florence stood out way beyond the competition.

I guess no matter how cool your iphone app is, or what latest trendy technologies you use, you can’t beat the simplicity of SMS, and you can’t beat savings lives.

Happy days!

Naturally we want to expand this valuable SMS project but with healthcare there are steps you have to take, you can’t expect to launch a system that medical staff and patients can rely upon without some kind of 3rd party validation or independent assessment.

In the case of Florence The Institute of Digital Healthcare based at Warwick university will be conducting the evaluation.

The evaluation project is being led by Jeremy Wyatt, an experienced hand who’s worked in health informatics for 25 years. His research explores use of evidence and new models of care to innovate in clinical practice.

Using SMS for healthcare is so cheap yet effective that we’re confident Florence will fit the bill.

To help us understand the Institutes’s approach we asked Jeremy a few questions:

Have Warwick evaluated any other significant telehealth systems?

Yes, we have looked at a number of telemedicine and similar systems, eg. teledermatology to reduce unnecessary clinic referrals and an instant messenger channel to communicate with NHSDirect nurses. We are also looking at telestroke in Scotland and persuasive web sites for promoting exercise and the NHS Organ Donation register.

What in particular interests you about Florence?

The fact that it is quick and easy for people to sign up to with almost no technology, is very flexible, and is strongly supported by West Midlands NHS.

What approach will you take to evaluating Florence?

We always try to match our evaluation approach to the questions or decisions that need to be made. In this case, the key questions are around acceptability and impact on the use of GPs and other services.

We are starting with a simple form for every patient using Florence and their community based nurse to fill out, and will then validate the responses with data collected by Florence and by the West Midlands data warehouse. We will also planning some specific studies around certain patient groups, aiming to explore the different methods Florence uses to alert care givers.

We’re confident Florence will pass with flying colours, so as soon as the evaluation is complete we’ll let you know the results.

Since VTUK introduced SMS into their apps, hundreds of estate agents have embraced text messaging to run more efficient offices. Caroline’s run’s Alphabet City and has become an advocate of text messaging, it’s had such a positive effect on their business you can’t help but take notice.

So we spoke to Caroline to see what we could learn:

How was the transition to SMS?

Very smooth, all our tenants and prospects are happy to leave a mobile number for contact. People lead busy lives, traditional mail is too slow, with email you’re fighting to get noticed amongst the endless stream of work emails and spam. That’s why SMS is a winner, it’s so immediate it works perfectly.

We started using SMS to notify of rent arrears. In a short space of time it’s revolutionised how we collect rent. No more postal reminders and chasing by phone. We send polite text message reminders to everyone who misses a payment.

Most have genuine reasons for late payment, they tend to ring us within 30 minutes apologising and pay on the phone. We know we have a problem with the ones that don’t call, and that’s where we focus attention.

Managing arrears in this way is the most efficient we’ve ever been, the money comes in quicker and we identify and focus on problems with ease, we couldn’t work like this without SMS.

The bonus with SMS is reviewing and due diligence, we have a record of every text message, they’re only short bursts of information, it’s easy to go back over the account to get a full picture.

How else do you use SMS for the business?

We use SMS to match tenants to new listings. To be successful you have to get quality tenants into properties as quickly as possible. We’ll normally match a new property with 15 to 30 applicants and send a single SMS blast.

It’s amazing to think before SMS we’d ring around individually, 30 phone calls would be your whole day, now it’s a 5 minute job. Even better those that are interested will contact us immediately. Seriously, we can identify a list of genuinely interested prospective tenants within an hour of listing a property.

It’s these small things that add up to competitive advantage, both our tenants and landlords receive top class communication, we keep them all happy.

Any tips for anyone considering SMS?

It’s definately the most direct form of communication and gets instant results, the advantages are obvious. So I’d say stop worrying, just give it a go.

If you’re interested to know more about how Estate Agents use SMS then you can also read about how Walton Robinson use SMS to Boost profits.

VTUK integrated SMS by using the mediaburst SMS API.

Do you use mediaburst for SMS and have an interesting story to tell? Get in touch, let’s do a case study.

This time 160characters, the SMS and mobile messaging association has selected us from an international line up to win the prestigious “Effective Use of Mobile Messaging for Healthcare”.

This is the first time Florence has been put into a global award scenario, entries were literally from all around the world so taking a prize was no mean feat.

We also got a “highly commended” in the Innovation in Messaging category.

Here are the winners logo’s:

What’s particularly cool is, this is the second award for Florence in a single week, having scooped the award for “Best Public Sector Project” at the Big Chip Awards last Thursday. In the case of the Big Chip Awards we were up against not only SMS Providers but also digital agencies from all over the North of England.

As I always say, we’re not in this for the awards, but undoubtedly recognition from your peers is a great motivator and will help spur us onto even greater wins, which, in this case is improving patient lives and saving the NHS heaps of money.

So a glittering prize studded week at mediaburst, happy days!

This is great news for us, although we don’t work for awards, gaining recognition in this way is a welcome pat on the back, and helps motivate us through the next stages of development.

We fought off stiff competition but ultimately the judges loved our application  and could see the benefits it brings to both patients and clinicians in the NHS. The judges said of Florence:

“The winner in the Best Public Sector category is a deceptively simple yet innovative application of SMS technology, which delivers significant cost-saving benefits to the commissioning client and potentially life-saving benefits to its users.”

It’s still very early days for Florence but we’ve already managed to signup 14 primary care trusts, and as their patients start using the system we’ll have success stories to share of not only big savings for the NHS but also quality of life improvements for their patients.

And to top it all off, I received a note from the 160 Characters organisation just this morning to say we’ve been short listed for their Global Messaging Awards too, fingers crossed there’ll be more recognition to come.

Here’s some photos from the night.

The latest release of fmSMS puts the mediaburst API on their SMS Gateway list.

Millions of people use FileMaker to manage information on Windows, Mac, and the web. With the fmSMS add-on you can send and receive text messages direct from FileMaker.

It’s more than a basic integration, fmSMS supports single and bulk SMS sends, alphanumeric sender ID, delayed delivery and delivery receipts. It’s a complete package to get text messages direct to the mobile phones of your Filemaker contacts.

In the words of fmSMS:

“We know FileMaker is a great Customer Relationship Management tool so it makes sense to integrate the ability to communicate via SMS within your existing FileMaker solution.

SMS is a great means of direct communication with customers, staff, suppliers, students. It’s personal, quick and more immediate than email/fax/letter.”

But there’s a problem brewing, there’s a group of people conspiring to ruin it for you. Even worse, they’re going to succeed. You can be sure of that because they’ve already done it with the internet, so there’s no reason to believe it won’t happen again.

Annoying distractions

You know what I’m talking about, adverts. Adverts on your mobile phone. Popups, banners, buttons, sliding moving flashing annoying distractions getting in the way of us doing the things we really want to do.

They’ve already crept onto mobile websites, they are on apps, sometimes on the end of text messages. But it’s a massive growth market for advertisers so it’s not going to get any easier on us.

Inconvenient

Now let’s face it, you bought the phone so you could check emails, update facebook, send SMS, use maps, play games. What you didn’t do was buy it to read adverts, they don’t make life easier, they’re an inconvenient distraction. Devised to grab your attention from what you were doing and lurch off to show you the latest offer or product or another app or a link to this or that.

Adverts suck

Let’s face it, adverts suck, they just get in the way of doing the stuff you wanted to do in the first place.

What do you think, do you know of any that didn’t distract from the mobile app or website you were using?

Neil, 22 years old at the time simply sent “Merry Christmas” from his PC over the Vodafone network….and with that simple step a whole sub-culture, language, social media, and SMS industry spawned.

The irony is that SMS was actually intended for business use due to the expense, yet 18 years later it is very much the norm for the public and the business community is still just getting to grips with its use.

Anyway, not massively interesting, but it’d seem odd for us not to mention today.

If you want something more interesting try our list of SMS marketing tips

Thanks Neil, and Merry Christmas.

A number of our customers have a large focus on students so it’s worth posting a link to this article on eMarketer.

A recent survey of undergraduate students not only shows 62% own a device with mobile web access but the increase from 2009’s 51% is staggering. Pretty soon they will all have some kind of smart phone.

How things have changed, the best I could manage at Uni was 10p a and trek to the phone box.

We did a successful brochure request via SMS a few years back for Salford Uni but since then it seems things have changed.

So what does this all mean?

Bulk SMS is already pretty big in the student community. But if you deal with, interact with, provide services to students then mobile optimised websites and apps for the iphone and android should be high on the list.

The good news is you now can.

Brands can now take advantage of running a unified shortcode across the UK and Ireland with ease.

Comreg have taken over as the premium rate regulator for the Republic of Ireland and have untangled a long standing snarl of regulations for standard rate SMS competitions and promotions.

At last you don’t need to apply for a premium rate license for a standard rate service in ROI just because you are using a shortcode.

There are a couple of service types that will still need prior permission such as: subscription, aimed at children, of sexual nature, Quiz TV or Internet Dialler software….But for your standard on pack prize draw promotion life couldn’t be rosier.

Here’s looking forward to a few more unified promotions.

Comreg Prize Promotion Requirements see Section 8.2

If you’re interested to know what it was like before this change then this post on running SMS promotions in ROI has all the answers.

It’s plain text, restricted to 160 characters, crikey, you even have to pay for it.

But despite all the scaremongering it’s continued to outstrip all best expectations. Every day Bulk SMS volumes grow and new companies sign up and start to feel the benefit of bite sized bursts of information.

So what about Facebook and their combined user clout, could unified messaging be a nail in the coffin for SMS?

You can read the information Facebook have released by clicking here.

Well the answer is a resounding no.

In the main because SMS is one element of the service, it’s the combination of email, instant messaging and SMS that makes the proposition interesting.

In a way it’s like the fire triangle, if you take one element away then the whole thing falls apart.

So we welcome Facebook Messaging, and more years of growth in the SMS market.

This time our application Florence has helped our collaboration partner Stoke NHS become a finalist in the Health and Social Care Awards, Transforming Community Services category.

Wow, this is great news.

Update: 8th October 2010 – winner!

Its like a great big pat on the back from a panel of external experts, “well done guys, you’re on the right track, keep up the good work”.

This external validation is worth its weight in gold particularly in the early stages of a product lifecycle, not just for PR but also for motivation.

So we’re really pleased to see our new mobile healthcare application Florence getting the recognition it deserves. Our collaboration partners NHS Stoke On Trent have been nominated for a HSJ Award in the Quality and Productivity category.

What’s a HSJ Award?

They are all about recognising innovation, best practice and inspiration in the healthcare profession.

According to the highly revered Sir John Oldham:

“The HSJ Awards are a goldmine for the best examples of a variety of best practice around the country ”

So there you go, it’s still early days but we’re clearly on the right track, and I think there’s a fair chance of winning!

Focus on the patients

As you know, mediaburst has been developing a very simple healthcare application that patients can get on their phones. Part of our demonstration was a Q&A session with three patients who’ve been using the system during the initial trials.

I’ll be completely honest and admit that during the development we focused purely on the needs of medical staff. We wanted to help them save time and improve the quality of healthcare they provide.

We’d not really considered the patients. Sure our partners at NHS Stoke were doing this, but we weren’t. It wasn’t a conscious oversight, patients don’t buy the system so we didn’t consider them. It was that simple.

Listen to the patients

So this demo was the first time I’d met some of the patients and heard first hand accounts of how they benefit from the application. And, having listened, I’m now completely blown away, totally bowled over. In their own words, we’ve given them their lives back.

COPD monitoring

Two of the patients were long term sufferers of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). They were housebound other than frequent visits to hospital and their current care plans impeded significantly on their daily lives. But now, using our application, they can lead much fuller, much more normal lives.

When I say ‘normal‘, I’m talking about the kind of things you and I take for granted. Going to the shops, visiting relatives, having a night away and going on holiday.

Previously they were tied to monitoring machines at home. Now they are up and about again, enjoying those simple pleasures. You can’t put a value on that.

Resettlement

The next patient we met was nervous presenting to us, she had tears in her eyes and needed the support of her care worker to speak. But her passion was such that she wanted to share her experience.

She’s a long term sufferer of mental health issues, was cared for at residential homes, frequently turned to drugs and alcohol and generally depended on others to get her through the day.

With the assistance of our application she’s now living in her own flat, has learnt to cook and clean, is doing voluntary work, has stayed clear of drink and drugs and, as you can imagine, her self-esteem is through the roof.

Referring to our app she said, “you can’t take it away from me, if you do I’ll cry”.

Changing lives

As I said, I’m completely blown away. This isn’t normal business, these are real lives and we’re changing them.

Changing lives is new ground for mediaburst, but with it our motivation levels are sky high, and we’ve learnt a lesson in mobile healthcare.

To make things really work, focus on the patients.

We’ll put more details up here in the next few weeks as the application goes through trials, but for now here’s the teaser page.

http://www.getflorence.co.uk/

Once again we’ve worked with the excellent Phil Thompson and he’s produced something that echoes the main mediaburst site.  It’s simple, attractive, and most importantly fits nicely onto an iPhone screen.

If you need a link it’s on http://www.mediaburst.co.uk/m/

Let’s get straight into some screen shots…

As you can see the site’s very much iPhone orientated. Google analytics showed that 95% of our mobile visitors are using iPhones, hence anything other than an apple orientated site would be illogical.

That’s not to say it doesn’t work on other smart phones, we’ve tested on Blackberry and HTC’s with no problems at all.

We also made an assumption based on our own iPhone browsing habits. That is, none of us searched for products on iPhones or bought using our credit cards. We all tended to read article type information, be it on blogs, wiki or news sites. We use it more of an instant research tool, perhaps to flick through while our better halves are trying something on in the changing rooms.

With this in mind we have made the site really simple by focusing on:

• Who are mediaburst? (home page)
• How to get in touch with mediaburst (it’s on the bottom of every page)
• Some quality reading material (case studies and the blog articles)

So we hope you like it, go and have a play, send us your feedback and let us know what you think?

In recent months the number of requests for a iphone/smartphone version have been increasing. So too has the usage of textburst from the whole range of internet enabled devices.

So it’s moved up the priority list, and we’re on with it.

I’ll get some screenshots posted in my next blog.

Exciting times ahead!

Big sends, instant response.

Rather than making you wait around while we process large bulk SMS sends, the send page now responds instantly. 

We now process the send in the background. It means you can keep working while the send processes.

Manage scheduled messages

In the past if you wanted to cancel scheduled message you had to call us and we’d do it for you. 

You’ll now find a list of all scheduled messages within the application and can cancel them up to a few minutes before they’re sent.

Up to date groups

If you schedule a message to a group we’ll now pick up the list of group members at the time of send rather than schedule.

This means you can continue to manage your groups and the send will be up to date with your latest contact list.

Additionally, to make this change work we now deduct message credit when we process the send.

Faster uploads

We’ve made a few behind the scenes tweaks to how uploads are processed.  In our tests an upload of 50,000 contacts now completes 10 times quicker than before.

Bigger uploads, bigger sends

There used to be a limit of 10,000 people in a single upload or send. 

With the speed improvements above we’ve removed this limit and so far have tested with groups of 100,000 contacts with no speed issues what so ever.

Summary

So there you have it hopefully you’ll enjoy the benefits, but as always contact us if there  is something we can improve.

A blog about Mobile, Advertising and Social media. Its creator Murat Mutlu is also a user experience designer so logically (and thankfully) we get a nice looking easy to navigate site. Murat has worked in agencies with a whole host of well known brands and his credentials and experience help to produce and informative yet fun read.

If nothing else you should get up to speed with this kettle that tweets, or “twettle” concept. It’s already creating quite a buzz.

Run by Ewan Macleod a daily serving of news and opinion. Originally the site was SMS Text News but as the market changed so too did their focus. There is regular content about all aspects of the mobile industry but what we like most is unbiased opinion, and it comes in bucket loads.

Today they have over 250,000 readers, and well worth tuning into.

It’s far from the prettiest of sites but as a relative newcomer it’s worthy of mention and certainly a visit.

The site is created and run by Daniel Nordberg who is head of business development at Sony Ericsson and a board member of the European branch of the Mobile Marketing Association. So while he may not be the best graphic designer he’s certainly well connected in the industry and carries an inherent interest in market growth.

He posts successful and creative examples of mobile marketing campaigns. There is a good site index down the right hand side making it easy for you to find campaigns in your particular area of interest.

Not masses of opinion but a great source of inspiration.

Here’s a popular site with a global attitude. They cover all things mobile including campaigns, strategies, company reviews, news, tips and interviews.

Although there is a lot of big company news, Microsoft, Apple, AT&T etc there is also a good helping of small business information and success stories.

The picture is completed with a newsletter and links to free guides such as “Mobile Marketing Industry Glossary” Text Marketing to Cell Phone users” and “Mobile Web Developers Guide”

Another basic site that carries some great content. There is plenty of advertising but thankfully the simplistic design places the content firmly as the centre of attention.

There are stacks of updates containing, opinion, news, company wins, and campaigns in a scrollable format.

American based news and blog site dedicated to the mobile industry. Clearly it has a focus on USA based campaigns but you’ll find a whole range of articles and news in an easy to navigate format.

They also have daily news alert which some may find useful.

The only downside is the excess of online advertising detracts from the content, but I guess you’ve got to fund yourself somehow.

Part of the well known Techcrunch site this blog covers hardware software and services of the mobile industry.

This site does tend to have a large focus on hardware and in particular, smart phones. But many of you will find this useful to keep abreast of the ever changing handset market. Perhaps relevant to look at new features and functionality that you can leverage for mobile campaigns.

No prizes for originality on the name, but there is no doubt, it is what it says it is.

What we like is accompanying the news and campaigns are a series of Mobile Marketing tips and tutorials covering in the main, SMS & proximity marketing.

This kind of resource is great for clients doing some research of what can be achieved with mobile.

Summary

So there you have it 8 great mobile marketing blogs…

wait…

did I not say 10….

the truth is we struggled beyond 8 so have 2 remaining spots, so leave your suggestions below and we’ll have a look, see if we can fill the final 2.

The reason for blogging was my disappointment at the standards that are currently being set and inaccuracies in the teaching material.

Examples:

• One suggests SMS messages could not be branded. You can actually append your brand name on the end or as the message header.
• Another quotes PhonepayPlus’ maximum fine as £100k, in actual fact it is £250k,
• And, one informed that it is possible for a sender to identify when an SMS has been read. This is completely untrue, unless of course you look over someone’s shoulder.

The list goes on…

My concern is that these bodies are teaching the future stars of our industries. It’s these students that with proper education and experience will create and run groundbreaking campaigns. They will take mobile to the next level, to new markets, new and old companies, to a whole new audience.   

But this won’t happen if they are not taught well from the outset.

So it’s vitally important that industry bodies who teach mobile as part of their syllabus do so in a responsible and accurate manner.

Now I don’t work in the education sector but I imagine this requires thorough research, regular reviews to align with a changing environment and market, and regular discussion with those in the industry.

So come on industry bodies, let’s up the standards please, let’s give the stars of the future the best possible chance to create some amazing campaigns.

The notification has come direct from Orange and will occur while they carry out changes to their SMS network.

During the outage there will be a total loss of SMS services on the Orange network for approximately 3 hours, starting at midnight 7th April and ending at 3am on Thursday 8th April.

During the outage, outbound text messages for delivery to Orange customers will be rejected by the Orange SMS Gateway and will fail to deliver. Messages originating from Orange customers will be stored by Orange and forwarded as soon as the connection is back up.

Orange appreciates the inconvenience that this will cause and has made assurances that they will work as quick as possible to bring the service back up again prior to 03.00.

It’s fortunate that they have chosen to conduct this work during a low volume period and hence the disruption will be kept to a minimum.

You do not need to do anything other than alert your technical teams or customers if applicable.
If you have any queries then please get in touch.

Volvo

Their advert offered a brochure if you texted in. So I did.

I got a response, to which I replied with my address and postcode, they confirmed back by text, ”your brochure will be with you in a matter of days”.

It never arrived!

What did arrive was phone calls offering me test drives.

Being honest, not delivering the brochure isn’t a good start to my investigations, and following up with phone calls is a tad inconsistent with my chosen medium (SMS), but not the end of the world.

And far from Seat’s problems that I’ll detail below…

Kia

Next up was: KIA to 64118 and a response from 84118

“Welcome to the World of 7 Year Warranty from Kia. For a free Kia brochure, pls text your TITLE, FIRST NAME, SURNAME, HOUSE NO. & POSTCODE. Privacy:”

Why did the response come from a different number? Why do they need so much information, thought this was supposed to be easy? Oh forget it, I’m not interested in a 7 year warranty anymore!

Here’s my suggestion:

“Welcome to the home of the 7 Year Warranty from Kia. For a free brochure, reply with your NAME, HOUSE NO. & POSTCODE. Privacy:”

I’ve changed “World” to “Home”. This was to align correctly with their corporate message on their website, which seems logical.

Changed “pls text” to “reply with” because it’s instructional rather than a request and actually informs the consumer where to text to.

I also think just name, house no. and postcode, is fine for a mailing address. Consumers have only got 160 characters to reply with.

As for the response coming back from the same number you texted into. This ensures the consumer instantly recognises the source of the new message. And for smartphone users the two messages show consecutively in the same thread.

In truth I don’t think this is a bad example but can’t help but feel a little more thought could have improved brand consistency and increased the number who took up the brochure request.

Citroen C3

I then texted: NEWC3 to 64118 and, pleasingly received a response from the same shortcode.

“Thanks. For a New C3 brochure or test drive reply with your FULL NAME, HOUSE NO. & POSTCODE. We don’t spam.”

Great, this one’s consistent, and shorter!

But read on, it gets ugly…..

Seat Ibiza Cherub

I saw this great advert (see it here) and I texted: CHERUB to 84118.

The response I got was:

“Info in post. 4 a test drive rply TRIAL. Nearest: Citroen Manchester South, Cross St, M33 7JR, 01619690214. Others: 0800262262. 4 no news rply STOP”

What?

Citroen?

In the post?

I didn’t give them my address?

I requested info on a Seat Ibiza not a Citroen.

Again, why did it come from 64118 when I texted 84118?

This made no sense until I realised, this was on the same night I texted in for the Citroen C3 above. But crucially I didn’t send in my postcode or house number for the C3.

84118 and 64118 are the same service and they got mixed up what came from where.

When I texted ”CHERUB” to 84118 they thought I’d replied with my address and postcode for the Citroen.

They mixed up their shortcodes, keywords, and two very large car brands.

The service must have recognised my mobile number from the Citroen enquiry and bam “info in the post”!

My verdict: What can you say, I’ve not even got into the message structure and content, but promoting a competitors brand, I bet this wasn’t part of the brief!

Alfa Romeo

And finally, I watched an advert for an Alpha Romeo Mito.

Poised, mobile in hand, I waited for the shortcode and keyword.

But alas, it did not arrive.

They don’t use shortcodes on their adverts.

And this, I believe, is the biggest mistake of all.

Next in line is Outlook Mobile Service.

With the forthcoming release from Microsoft of Outlook 2010 they have made some enhancements to the SMS side of the product.

Naturally we’ve included the functionality into our service, had it checked, and approved by Microsoft. I think we are the 3^rd company in the world this time to get approval, (note to self, must be first next time).

So the improvements are thus:

• Support for concatenated SMS (long SMS).
• Outlook 2010 will have an object model available to developers allowing them to build applications on top of it.
• SMS functionality is extended to the alert feature in Sharepoint.
• There is now batch mode to help with Bulk SMS. In short, it will improve the speed of delivery of multiple SMS.

Admittedly they haven’t gone as far as we would have liked. We’d still like to see functionality to customize the originator from within Outlook, and perhaps a direct link to purchase more messages from your chosen SMS provider. The idea being that these improvements alone would mean users could manage most of the SMS aspects directly from Outlook without having to log into the web front end of the SMS provider.

For now Outlook 2010 is another giant leap in the right direction for PC originated SMS. Our customers who have adopted Outlook Mobile Service in version 2007 find the efficiency of sending SMS from their email software much more convenient than signing into a web application. We should see 2010 build on that convenience.

Now although this will slot into our fun category in the blog this is no light hearted event. It’s sponsored by LG and offers prize money of US$100,000. There are 26 competitors from 13 different countries competing in teams of two.

Korea were the eventual winners followed by USA and Argentina.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj0_Kg-3M3c

Portuguese competitor Pedro Mateus managed to break the world record of texting the standard English paragraph used to measure texting speed using a single thumb in less than 2 minutes.

The interesting stat is one of the USA contestants is quoted as having sent 16,000 text messages in a single month (circa 533 a day), before her parents instructed her to take this down to a mere 10,000.

Surely it can’t be long before texting is an Olympic sport?

So where does mobile come into this, there has to be some relevance to the blog of an SMS Provider?

In the infrequently asked questions Gates addresses the question, “should companies help the poor”.

The very obvious point he raises is that companies are there to build great products and sell them, and therefore only consumers that have money can buy them. Hence the poorest are excluded from the cycle and benefits that can be derived from the products.

He argues that companies should invest a proportion of their R&D into work that directly helps the poor, and derive the benefits that come from investing in lower cost models and markets.

So here’s the mobile link:

He suggests that communications companies could benefit by figuring out how the cell phone could help with health needs.

And there we are, he’s stepped on the holy grail of mobile. It’s an area that so far no one has successfully managed to figure out. Don’t believe me? Manchester University has even setup an M-Health Innovation Centre to act as the UK focus for such initiatives.

We are talking serious stuff here, helping people get better, improving lives. Forget all the premium rate muck that plagues the industry this is where we should be heading.

But the problem is healthcare is complex and longwinded, we all have different needs, differing ailments and issues.

Then you’ve got healthcare providers, government bodies who enshrouded themselves in an impenetrable layer of red tape.

We need to find a chink in the armour of bureaucracy, a way in. Perhaps someone who believes in the benefits so much that they help you unlock the door and guide you through the corridors to the right department.

And that’s what mediaburst have found, someone who understands what can be done with a mobile phone.

Someone who understands healthcare and can correlate the apparently unconnected.

Someone who’s drawn the parties together to collaborate and develop.

So watch this space, healthcare is coming to your mobile.

The jargon trap

We’ve liked all our previous websites but they have all been based on providing information on mobile technology. We’d fallen into the trap of using industry jargon and overcomplicating everything. This made it difficult for those new to mobile to understand our products. We’d used cliché photo’s of mobile phones and a site structure that didn’t lend itself to growth. Have a look here

So as well as making everything simpler and easy to understand, the key driver was to allow users to sign up and buy online. Such a radical change in direction for a website required a complete overhaul. The conundrum we faced was to retain all the useful information but create a site structure users could easily follow to the products they are interested in or obtain the information they are looking for.

The result

I think we’ve done this exceptionally well. The navigation into key products is easy, each product page contains links to relevant supplementary information, and pricing is crystal clear. Alongside this we’ve beefed up the blog and will use it to publish articles on how to get the most from mobile as well as company news and interesting facts and figures.

We’ve now got a dedicated section for agencies regarding mobile marketing. This area is small but crystal clear in what we are offering and how we can help agencies in the mobile marketing arena.

There is a dedicated customers section to showcase the brands using mediaburst and relevant case studies. Over the coming months we’ll be adding more content.

Significantly there is now a SMS API section. Not only does this contain the API code and samples but also an online signup mechanism and a showcase of products that are already using the API.

What do you think?

So there you have it, a new year, and a new site. It’s the most significant customer facing redesign we have ever made. It’s the culmination of 6 months of hard work, and we hope you like it?

Beyond the visual

Over the past 6 months we’ve really got into User Interface design. We’ve gone beyond visual appearance to understand how our products are used and how we can help users get more out of them.

This revamp of textburst has led to an interface that is built around the most used functionality.  We didn’t want to cram in tonnes of new but unused functionality. If we did that we’d create an unusable monster. We are all busy people these days and so simple interfaces help us quickly benefit from the tool we are using.

Oh, an on the visual appearance, we couldn’t help but apply some polish, it needed it!

Improvements

So what have we done?

The menu system is paired down to the key functions and logically structured. We’ve included a hot link to the send message page and tips on how to get the most from the product.

We’ve streamlined the Account Setting and Options to put the various features under logical headings that are easily understandable and configurable.

Uploading contacts in now streamlined and you can continue using the product while the upload processes.

Due to popular demand we no longer log you out after 20 minutes of inactivity. Once you have logged on in we’ll remember for up to 8 hours.

A significant difference is the elimination of a user guide. Instead we’ve included instructional micro-copy to guide users through the product. This is much a change in company ethos as an elimination of a user guide. This decision is about being honest with our self. Users don’t want to trawl through instruction books, they want something they can use instantly. The theory is, if you need a guide to get started on our products, then it’s us who’ve designed them wrong.

So if you see something you don’t understand, tell us, we’ll look at it and make it understandable.

More of an internal factor is that we’ve consolidated various web applications (Web SMS, Promobi, textburst) into a single product, still called textburst. With a single web application with harmonised price plans it’ll make support more consistent and upgrades both easier and offered to all users.

Grand designs

So as you’ll see this isn’t Changing Rooms slapping a quick coat of paint on. It’s more like Grand Designs building something for the future that goes beyond the visual appearance to consider how you use the end product.

We’re confident you’ll like it, so take a look around and let us know what you think?

So why does this still happen, why is our industry still blighted by these people?

Let’s take a look at the most recent adjudication, case reference 773809.

PPP received 127 complaints for a service run across 2 shortcodes. They investigate, deem it as a very serious case, uphold breached of fairness and legality, issue fines and ban the information provider from operating premium rate services for 12 months.

Excellent, it would appear job well done.

Now let’s take a look at the financials involved. The information I use here is taken directly from the adjudication itself.

Revenues generated by the combined service fell in the bracket of £350,000 to £750,000.

The combined fines imposed amount to £305,000.

So a very rough calculation shows that profit after fines falls in the bracket of £45,000 to £445,000.

And here lies the very reason the industry still suffers from the scammers.

It would appear PPP need to be able to fine the total value of revenue received on a service, what do you think, how else do we clean the premium rate industry?

Gone are the days of huge pdf files and big print runs. The Online version is well structured so you can easily find the sections you need. If you need something specific then there is also a handy search facility.

To make life easy there is a large bank of example code covering all the different integration protocols.

Additionally, the online guide covers both SMS and MMS.

The service, powered by O2 and SMS Provider Mediaburst, will allow lettings agents to contact large numbers of tenants, potential tenants, contractors, suppliers and landlords at the click of a button through the GEMINI software.

Peter Grant, Managing Director of VTUK said, “Working with O2 and Mediaburst, we have found ways to not only improve and streamline the SMS service, but to make it cheaper too. Using text messaging, agents can contact landlords, keeping them up to date with property and tenant information, as well as using it to contact their supply chain, tenants and potential tenants looking for a home.

“Everyone has a mobile phone these days, and using the SMS service is easy, cost-effective way of getting an instant message to virtually anyone you want to, about anything.

“We are constantly looking for ways to improve our software, and we wanted to make our SMS service more streamlined, easier and cost-effective for agents. We are committed to providing our customers with a service that is second-to-none, and this new service, on top of our recent ancillary services offering, will help to make business easier and more profitable for our customers.”

Launched in July this year, VTUK’s ancillary services offering, is a one stop shop for all services required to let or sell property, allowing agents to order EPCs, floorplans, inventories, gas and electricity safety checks, insurance, referencing services, utility services (gas, electricity, water and council tax notification) and much more from a single web portal. The ancillary services portal is unique, simple, saves time and can earn agents money on each order placed.

O2 is the UK’s most popular mobile phone network. Mediaburst is an award-winning mobile marketing company, specialising in providing SMS messaging facilities for businesses, software developers, and network operators.

The new definition is:

“A set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.”

According to the MMA the crux of the new definition lies in two key parts:

1. The “set of practices” now includes “activities, institutions, processes, industry players, standards, advertising and media, promotions, direct response, relationship management, CRM, customer services, loyalty, social marketing, and all the many faces and facets of marketing.”
2. To “engage” now means to “start relationships, acquire, generate activity, stimulate social interaction with organization and community members, and be present at time of consumers expressed need.” Additionally, engagement can now be initiated by the consumer (“Pull” in form of a click or response) or by the marketer (“Push”).

Did you get that?

You can read the official article here

He was selected from a pool of 46,281 entries and had a chance to win £250k.
All he had to do was drop kick from 30 yards and hit the cross bar.

So he goes down in his socks and has a go.

I don’t think he believed what happened.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMkimxS_swA

With the growth of mobile internet use it can only make sense for Google to cover it’s bases.

view the announcement here

Over the past year we’ve been migrating customers smoothly to the improved platform. Once migrated customers benefit from significantly higher message throughput and complete resilience.

With no single point of failure, multiple sites, multiple supply routes, and multiple backups there is no safer route for corporate SMS or MMS communication.

The platform also provides detailed and faster month end billing. Invoices are now distributed in a matter of days after month end with unsurpassed accuracy.

Over the last few years we’ve seen SMS and MMS message volumes increase by over 300%, and it’s not stopping. To align with business growth we have focused on delivering a high capacity platform that is infinitely scalable. Today marks the day where all our clients benefit from this investment.

The concept is interesting and perhaps quite forward thinking. The idea is “People Powered Mobile Network”. Cheap prices on a decent network but no customer support.

So how can Giffgaff operate with no customer support? Well it’s not that difficult to image given the increase in use of social media and forums on the internet. The truth is when something goes wrong these days it’s often quicker to search Google for an answer than spending hours on the phone to customer support in a far off land

Google’s power is quite something but it’s the social media content it returns that is fed by us consumers. Type in any problem and Google will show you a forum on which someone had the same problem and found an answer.

Giffgaff could represent the single biggest test of community based support we’ll ever see, and the chances are it’ll work.

www.giffgaff.com

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QjH3gqkE_s

Apparently, Apple shifted 1.9 million of the devices in the second quarter of 2009, a growth rate of 1,041% compared to 2008. Compare this to Nokia who, although sold 14 million devices didn’t experience any growth.

This certainly makes it clear where we are headed with devices. Bearing in mind Apple is reported to have sold over 173 million iPods since 2001 it might not be long before the whole world has an iPhone.

In regard to iPhone apps, a company called swebapps has launched an online app builder, and with a price of around US$200 you could launch an app for your brand with minimal cost and a minimal amount of time.

On the face of it the service seems pretty interesting and may well suit small businesses. The reality is it’s quite restricted and you certainly won’t be hitting the high ranks in the app store. You could as the site suggests put your restaurant menus on for customers to download and store, but from a customer’s perspective I’m not sure this really adds value to a restaurant. Still, at $200 it’s a very cost effective way of establishing a presence in the iPhone apps market.

TomTom is the first off the mark with the launch of its iPhone apps.

TomTom's iPhone app in action

The app features all the usual location based functionality, speed camera alerts, voice instructions, and automatic re-routing if a turn is missed.

They have also capitalised on iphone functionality by including portrait and landscape modes, a pinch-to-zoom map and the ability to navigate to addresses in the iphone address book.

The app costs £59.99 for a the UK region and maps for the whole of Western Europe cost £79.99.

TomTom has also indicated it will release an iphone car kit, with enhanced GPS receiver, mount, speakers and charge cable, which basically transforms the iphone into a traditional satnav device.

What’s also interesting is the rise in what might be termed premium iphone apps. Whereas most apps cost in the region of 50p to £3 these are apps costing up to US$900. They are normally specialist apps geared to specific industries, but we are now seeing more expensive apps geared toward the consumer market.

Hello from Earth, an Aussie website, has been set up that allows you to send SMS messages to Gliese 581d, the planet that is supposedly the most Earth-like planet outside the solar system.

One sobering message, from Sandeep in Abu Dhabi, said: “Please do not come to earth, it’s too polluted and the planet has almost reached its end.” Nothing like a bit of optimism eh?

We’re also not sure which network operators cover Gliese 581d, so couldn’t help but wonder what the delivery rates are.

This comprehensive guide will be of interest to not only brands but agencies interested in bringing rich format mobile communication into their strategy.

As well as covering user experience and MMS elements, the guide also provides an insight into the current MMS market, citing some important case studies from BMW and the latest iphone.

Mediaburst have been ahead of the trend, having launched MMS onto their second generation mobile platform at the beginning of 2009. By providing simple applications such as email to MMS and an easy to implement MMS Gateway, rich format messaging is now a real option.

Get your copy of the guide here.

Charity short codes benefit from different VAT treatment by Network Operators. So long as the use of the short code meets certain criteria, the donation is VAT exempt so the charity will receive a greater proportion of the donation.

The same conditions apply in that Service Providers will need one short code per price point for charitable donations.

Full details are available here

or contact your local SMS Provider for more info

PwC partner David Lancefield, outlined that the media landscape is changing at a previously unseen rate of knots.

Mobile is again grabbing market share as more established digital media is in decline – UK 2009/10 online ad spend is projected to dip 3.2%

PwC also highlights just how many small media businesses have fallen prey to the recession: the downturn has claimed some high-profile victims as we know but PwC reports that a frightening 910 smaller advertising and media businesses have gone bust in the past two years, 525 in the last 12 months-

• Advertising: 211 in 12 months to June 31 (50 percent up annually). 352 in the last 24 months.
• Broadcast: 81 in last 12 months (40 percent rise).
• Publishing: 260 in last two years.
• Music: 18 in last two years

The future may be uncertain, but it definitely is mobile

As yet there is no mention of it on their site and no clear guidance on what has been updated.

Our best guess is it fixes the SMS vulnerability that has been widely reported since the 3.0 upgrade.

According to reports in addition to the offers of free music, free calls may also be part of the deal.

The deal is expected to be confirmed soon.

Fair play to Orange, they can innovate.

It’s latest promotion, the Stealth Sound System, aimed at teenagers allowing them to play and communicate via a series of sounds supposedly inaudible to anyone over the age of 20, achieved 400,000 mobile downloads.

You know when you’ve been mobiled…

Burma is a nation of fear and poverty despite its wealth of natural resources. Its rulers are intolerant of free speech and many of the journalists and activists shown in the award-winning Burma VJ film face prison sentences of up to 65 years.

The individuals imprisoned include Htin Kyaw, Su Su Nway, Ohn Than, Si Thu Maung and Ko Win Maw together with over 2,100 others in Burmese jails including Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who have been imprisoned simply for peacefully calling for democracy and freedom in the country.

The Co-operative does not trade with Burma, Co-operative Travel has delisted the country as a tourist destination, and The Co-operative Bank will not finance any organisation supporting the Burmese regime.

The digital campaign is being delivered by digital marketing agency Substance of “Shine a Light” fame, supported by mobile messaging company Mediaburst.

Gary Bury, Mediaburst’s managing director, comments:

“Clearly, Mediaburst is pleased to be working with Substance and The Co-operative on this campaign, which represents yet another innovative use of mobiles to generate response and interaction from the general public.”

The campaign was created by our good friends at Multiply UK based in Edinburgh. According to Highland Spring,

“Our exciting new on-pack provides the chance for a lucky individual to enjoy a once in a lifetime experience they’ll never forget.”

We think so too, and are certainly looking forward to Wimbledon next year.

http://www.foodbev.com/news/highland-spring-issues-alert-on-murray-mania

Their new app called “find it”, enables prospective eBay purchasers to send a photo of an item they want to buy and then matches it with the closest item on sale, sending back a picture plus the sellers details.

ebay was simple enough before but this is brilliant.

Watch out now for more happy snappers in your local retail stores.

The winning teams are; Proxama with Minima Design, Therefore Product Design with Imagination Technologies Limited, Rodd Design with TTP (The Technology Partnership) and Data Transfer Communications and PDD Group Limited with You Get It Back.

The purpose of the scheme is to help the UK reduce the impact of ID fraud as we get ready for MCommerce. The winning teams will aim to produce market-ready solutions which may include hardware and software for handsets, new services and other innovations, which will be showcased and promoted in early 2010, with a view to widespread and rapid take-up by the market.

According to the British Crime Survey, a mobile phone is stolen in half of all robberies. Another recent survey found that 80% of people carry information on their mobile phone handsets that could be used by criminals to commit fraud -and 16% keep their bank details saved on their phone, yet only 4 in 10 people currently lock their mobiles using a PIN. Such sensitive data includes website passwords, bookmarks, emails, personal security data and locations/addresses on map applications.

The free app available via Orange is designed to provide music fans with the ultimate guide to the UK’s biggest summer festival. The app will allow music fans to personalise their own artist schedule and they can also access an interactive map of the site, as well as essential festival news, advice and alerts. In addition, at noon every day a ‘bull’ icon will appear on the GlastoNav map showing where festival goers need to go to find a life-size bull on site. Once at this secret location, music fans are encouraged to click the icon on the map and enter a code word written on the bull to be in with a chance of winning VIP access for one of the featured performances. lets hope for the mud, that the future really is bright

You text and follow a menu which prompts them to purchase electricity at the value of their choice. They can then use their swap wallet account created when they register or a linked credit card.

This eliminates late payments, vouchers can be delivered by SMS to the mobile, anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day

The mobile operator is set to launch a new offering that will allow advertisers to brand ‘points of interest’ on its mapping service later this summer.

Although this is in the early stages Vodafone claim to be in discussions with potential advertising partners so that users will be able to download an offer coupon for a restaurant or shop as they walk along.

The operator’s trial of in-map advertising marks the first time it has given brand owners access to the service, which is available for £49 a year or can be downloaded in part for free.

The launch coincides with a boom in mobile marketing, with the latest figures from the IAB showing the sector grew by 99.2 per cent last year to £28.6 million.

Since 2000, Promptext has been providing text messaging services to Britain’s SMEs. With Mediaburst launching new products such as Outlook Mobile Service and MMS, the acquisition of Promptext’s customer base makes commercial sense.

“The acquisition of Promptext’s UK customer base is a significant development for Mediaburst and demonstrates our ability to plug-in additional customers and consolidate mobile messaging volumes,” says Gary, Mediaburst’s managing director. “Promptext customers now have access to an enlarged product range and to first class customer services and support.”

Robert Ling, founder of Promptext, adds: “Promptext is a profitable business and has grown well in the UK, we now feel that we can better serve our customers by passing them into the very capable hands of Mediaburst. It has possibly the finest set of SMS and MMS services available, and an exemplary reputation for customer support and service.”

“We have worked hard to identify a suitable acquisition for Mediaburst,” says Ian Freeman, managing director of Harlequin Corporate Finance. “Promptext met the criteria agreed with Mediaburst and I am convinced that the transaction will benefit customers of Promptext and add real value for Mediaburst’s shareholders”

www.promptext.co.uk

The fundraising service which was set up right after the earthquake.

The money was collected on behalf of Italy’s department of civil protection and the telecommunications companies did not charge any fees for the charity service.

SMS is clearly a powerful medium for donating. Red Nose day in the UK also used it to huge advantage. They key issue, as always, is that not all charities have sufficient weight to get the network operators to pass on 100% of the donation.

One can only imagine how much additional funds charities could earn if they were to change their stance.

Visitors to the Adidas website are encouraged to download an app which directs them to enter their friend’s race number so that information including their start time and average speed is then available via the app. The application works by sending subscribers SMS updates about the location of a runner as they tackle the 26.4 mile course.

This is a development on the initial application used for the first time last year which saw 4,320 people use it on the day with 10% of runners tracked.

Closest I’ll ever get to a marathon.

It’s been eleven years since the first Big Chip awards were made and they have since gained a reputation for strict judging standards, integrity and impartiality. An important element of this is a clear specification of the judging criteria for each award category so that judges can easily measure and compare the quality of the entries.

Rather than awarding prizes to the “best” website, for example, entries – whether website or some other digital project – are judged on the extent to which they have achieved objectives or made use of a particular feature such as animation or new technology. Last year, there were no “best website” categories of any form.

A consequence was that some entrants who had designed a website that they felt very proud of weren’t sure which category to enter. “Look” they said, “it’s just a great site”. The answer is of course that that’s very much a matter of taste.

So this year sees the launch of the “Tasty Website Award.”

As they went through the record number of entries for the main categories, the judges noted websites that really appealed to them, for whatever reason. Simply a matter of taste. They then selected five and now it’s up to you to decide which one should win the award:

Nominations:

• Code Computerlove crownpaint.co.uk CROWN
• Code Computerlove originalsource.co.uk SOURCE
• LOVE lovecreative.co.uk LOVE
• LOVE dmbootdesign DOCTOR
• Stardotstar hearmanchester.com HEAR

So, get involved. Just visit the five sites selected, choose which one you think is the tastiest. Then simply text the codeword using SMS to 84433 (standard network rates apply). Full details at:
www.bigchipawards.com/shortlist.asp.

Voting will stay open up to and including Big Chip Evening itself on 18th June when the winner will be announced.

The anonymous survey of 21 companies found that mobile display ad formats, including banners, text links, and video, accounted for £14.2m last year whilst paid search advertising was estimated to account over 50% of revenues at £14.4m.

Interestingly the survey excludes spend via SMS and MMS advertising as it seeks to be comparable with other media channels.

The IAB claims the survey demonstrates that mobile ad spend has grown by almost 100% year on year, based on practical 2007 figures collected and it sought to draw parallels with its first internet ad spend study in 1998, which was worth then £19.4m but last year accounted for £3.35bn.

Jon Mew, head of mobile at the IAB, said the study was an important step in the maturity of format. “The sector is in its infancy but is considerably bigger than the market was expecting,” he said. “Thanks to these landmark figures, we know the real value of the mobile ad industry and will now be able to chart the medium’s growth with confidence.”

When we also look at MMS ad applications www.mediaburst.co.uk/mobile-marketing-mms.cfm we start to see just what a powerful little blighter this mobile chap is.

It has just become freely available for download, enabling you to type messages that automatically get generated into mind-bending art that you can share via MMS.

The Text Art app is the brainchild of artist Marius Watz. Creating generative art desktop wallpaper, simply by talking, moving your arms, or in this instance typing.

By downloading the app you can create a message up to 40 characters long. The app transforms the words into a unique piece of MMS art that you can save and share with friends and family.

We have launched a new skin for our website today to improve navigation and highlight our business model as a leading provider of bulk SMS services.

A key addition to the upgraded website is the introduction of low-cost SMS packages for use with Outlook 2007. Businesses can purchase SMS packages at an entry cost of just £5.00 and securely send text messages from Outlook 2007 to mobile phones. No downloads or plug-ins are required. A link is now included on the homepage to a dedicated microsite for signup, message purchase and support.

New prices also extend to our SMS API and our popular textburst application.

With Outlook 2007 having an estimated 7% of email market share, we’re addressing a potential customer base of 1.4 million businesses in the EU alone with this Outlook service. Over time, as businesses upgrade from previous versions to Outlook 2007, the user base can only increase, and significantly.

With more than 50 million mobile phones in Britain, it was inevitable that a charity one day would begin to use mobile messaging for fund raising purposes. After all, the mobile phone is the one device that we all have and carry, and text and video messaging generates six times more responses than direct mail.

Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice in Farnham is launching the first mobile charity campaign ever in Britain on 11th May and passengers at Farnham station that day will be the first to experience mobile charity marketing.

The campaign has been helped by a grant from Help the Hospices, the UK’s leading charity supporting hospice care, which was funded by the Towergate Charitable Foundation.

Serving a population of more than 600,000 across West Surrey and North East Hampshire, Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice has been offering specialist palliative care to adults facing the end of their lives and to those who love and care for them for the last 30 years. Pallative care is more than just controlling symptoms and pain; it’s a holistic approach that embraces every aspect of the needs and worries of the terminally ill as well as the needs of their families.

Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice is an independent charity and treats 100 patients and families every day of the year at a cost of seven pounds per minute, or £10,000 per day. Only 16% of funds received to cover operational costs come from the NHS. The rest comes from legacies, sales at its 12 charity shops, fund raising events and local businesses.

The mobile campaign is being launched in the background of the Hospice needing to provide more much-needed help and support to patients and their families beyond the physical space of the Hospice. Donations received will help enable it to be more mobile in its operations, providing more care to the terminally-ill in their homes.

“Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice believes that while we can’t add days to life, we can certainly add life to days,” says Elle Georgiou, the charity’s communications manager. “In the Hospice’s 30th birthday year, we’re looking for new and innovative ways to raise the funds we need to achieve our vision of providing specialist care in the location of the patient’s choice, which is usually in the comfort of their own home. We believe that harnessing the immediacy of mobile phone technology to engage with our community could well become an effective way of generating immediate responses and donations.”

The mobile campaign uses the mobile services of mobile marketing company Mediaburst and will be repeated on 18th May at Guildford Station.

Donate, Donate Donate – how it works

By texting HELP to shortcode 84433, users will immediately receive a mobile response containing a link to view a mobile video. After viewing the video, they will be encouraged to donate by texting GIVE to shortcode 80556 and agree to be billed five pounds. They then receive back an SMS thanking them for their donation.

As from 1st July SMS messages sent while roaming abroad will cost no more than 11 euro cents, compared to 28 euro cents today.

Data roaming will be capped at 1 euro per megabyte downloaded, however this is a wholesale rate for inter operator charges, so the end user will pay more. The cap is to be reduced to 50 euro cents by 2011 so should lead to further end user price reductions.

This is great news, not only for regular travellers but more significantly for occasional travellers who suffer “bill shock” when they get home.

This is of particular relevance for brands and content providers because it means their audience is more likely to be switched on regardless of their location.

Another step in the right direction for mobile usage.

All I can wonder is how long it took him to type a 6 page text out.

Interestingly, Orange found that click-through ads are the most popular form of mobile marketing, with 47% of participants preferring to click on ads that go straight to a brand’s website; 43% preferring to click on voucher codes or coupons and 34% using click-throughs to enter competitions.

Bucking the youth perception of mobile the average age for mobile media users is 36 and 81% use mobile media more than once a week, with 46% using it daily. Mobile internet pages viewed most often are search engines, e-mail, news, music and film, although 55% of people browse mobile internet with no specific agenda. How long before mobile browsing replaces the PC?

BMW showed how an MMS campaign sent to an audience of 117,000 promoting the use of winter tires in Germany, generated $45 million in sales. A ROI of $750 dollars for each dollar spent.

Not only does this makes a strong case for companies to add mobile to their marketing mix, but it demonstrates how although more expensive than SMS, the rich format of MMS can yeild spectacular results.

In 2007, research undertaken by industry analyst Plimsoll Publishing showed Mediaburst entering the top twenty list of digital agencies for the first time as a result of deploying a new business model aimed at establishing Mediaburst as the mobile partner of choice of advertising, marketing and media agencies to support their brand campaigns.

The latest example of its successful business model emerged last week when Mediaburst and Zut Media of Merseyside announced a strategic alliance enabling Zut to integrate mobile into its brand campaigns.

“Each year, Mediaburst invests strongly in state-of-the-art technology to ensure that agencies and brands get the mobile capability they rightly demand,” says Gary Bury, Mediaburst’s managing director. “Mediaburst’s position in Crain’s top ten validates our strategy and we fully expect to move further up the list in 2009.”

The service would be for non-emergency crimes and include criminal damage, graffiti, anti-social behaviour, theft and low-level burglary. The police will reply by text message with a non-emergency phone number and details of local police or community support officers. The calls will be answered by an operator, who will take details of the complaint. A police officer must address the complaint and call back within 24 hours. If no officer is available, callers can leave answer phone messages.

I have to admit, as a recent victim of burglary I wouldn’t be happy waiting 24 hours for a call back or indeed leaving an answer phone message. However, it does provide a means of contacting the police that is more in touch with an increasingly mobile world.

If you really want you can go whole hog and send MMS but unfortunately it doesn’t link to your existing contract meaning you have to purchase credit seperately. I was never a big sender of MMS but I do like being able to receive the odd picture of snow covered roads or friends on holiday, and now I can!

More than half a million texts were sent in the five minutes after 8am. Vodafone reported a 58 per cent leap in texts to over 30 million Employees contacted bosses, family and friends to tell them they had been snowed in, or were unable to get into work. There was also a surge in MMS picture messages with people sending images of their snowy surroundings. Network 3 saw MMS double as people took photographs and uploaded them to blogs or social network profiles.

The association has also published an array of industry research, educational tools and guidelines, fuelled by an increase in mobile marketing receptiveness and adoption among consumers worldwide. The mobile internet audience has grown by 61% since Q3 2007 in the UK, according to Nielsen research, with one in five UK mobile users now recalling seeing a mobile ad. Laura Marriott, president of the MMA, said: “2008 has been one of the most productive years for the industry, the MMA and our members. We’ve experienced tremendous forward momentum in mobile marketing education and guidelines, and further extended our global reach, creating greater opportunities to leverage knowledge and experience across our member base. “As I prepare to leave the MMA in 2009, I’m confident that by continuing to collaborate and innovate as an industry, across geographies, companies and trade organisations, it is realistic to expect mobile to represent a significant portion of media budgets within the next five years.” With significant traditional advertisers reporting declining revenue in core advertising sectors it is interesting to see how many previously sceptical players are now seriously watching the mobile channel and wanting to engage with a mobile partner such as Mediaburst.

The mobile channel is already used by a greater proportion of the population in many counties to access the internet than fixed access points, and that is likely to become the global norm. Nokia estimates that by 2015 some 5 billion people will have access to an “always on” mobile internet connection and there will be an incredible 100 fold increase in mobile network traffic. Within Western Europe alone Forrester Research predicts 125m will have access to mobile internet on their mobiles, with 1 in 4 utilising 3.5G enabled handsets.

The challenge however facing mobile internet access will be the ability to provide search and discovery facilities comparable to that experienced for internet access via a PC and fixed line.

The second challenge is then how to monetise mobile search and discovery. The answer will be mobile advertising. The mobile advertising market is admittedly still in its infancy but it is being carefully studied by all participants engaged in the mobile value delivery chain: brands, agencies, mobile service operators, application service providers, content providers etc. Juniper Research is forecasting direct advertising revenue of some $1.5bn this year to nearly $5bn within 5 years. The annual growth rate is forecast at an impressive 27%.

Many industry watchers confuse Mobile Internet and its messaging derivate Instant Messaging (IM) and its relationship to SMS text messaging. Whilst IM will grow Text messaging will also continue to grow regardless. Monthly person to person SMS traffic in Western Europe is set to climb from the near 200 billion messages seen in 2008. Mobile applications compliment, they rarely compete and let us not forget it is always the choice of the consumer that will drive the market. Happy New Year Gary.

This generates a one off donation taken from the cost of the text message. Andrew Cameron, chief executive of London’s Air Ambulance said: “Although we are partly funded by the NHS and Virgin, the majority of our costs are covered through public donations, charity fundraising events and collection schemes. We hope that the new text-to-donate service will provide another method in which people can easily and quickly donate a small but important amount of money to London’s Air Ambulance”. Messages are charged at £1.50 per text, of which 90p goes to the London’s Air Ambulance, with the remainder going to the mobile network the message was sent from. London’s Air Ambulance costs approximately £2million pounds per year to run and maintain. The Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) is based out of The London Royal Hospital in Whitechapel and covers the area inside the boundary of the M25 ring-road. Martin

They also use social networks to stay in touch, with 50% saying they message as many as 250 friends on a regular basis. The majority of teenagers (31%) would most like actor Will Smith to be an online friend, closely followed by High School Musical leading actress Vanessa Hudgens, with 30% of votes. Brad Pitt came last out of the list with just 5% of votes.

“These findings back up what our community already knows: that communicating is one of the most popular hobbies among teenagers today. If technology enables them to do this more easily, then it makes the experience all the more appealing to them.” Jo

Chennai-based Dhanus Technologies Ltd, an alternative telecommunications service provider, earlier this year inked a memorandum of understanding with the 20,000-strong Kerala State Private Bus Operators Federation and has finalised a deal with the 10,000-strong All Kerala Bus Operators Organisation. People will now be able to know where the bus is on the route and how long it will take to reach their stop just through a simple SMS. Also in Abu Dhabi you can now pay for your taxis by text. Gulf News reports that under the new “Q-Cash” system available in the Emirate state, people can pay for their taxi fares by text. Even the super rich can be caught without cash… Once again – SMS simple but effective John

Although the surgeon had never performed such an operation before, he knew without the surgery the boy would die within a matter of days. He contacted a surgeon from London’s Royal Marsden Hospital who texted him step by step instructions. The surgeon, David Nott, commented, “I took a deep breath and followed the instructions to the letter. I knew exactly what my colleague meant becasue we had operated together many times.” A truely inspirational use of SMS! Gary

Westley Gillard, head of business development at Velti echoes my sentiments in a recent letter to the NMA. To quote Westley, “Worries about budgets in the current climate and fear of the unknown have seen some agencies retreat into safe territory. However, this is missing the point somewhat as mobile provides a harder-working and more accountable touchpoint in places that the internet simply can’t always reach, namely everyone’s pocket, 24 hours a day.” Couldn’t have put it better myself! Gary

More than six in ten (61%) of respondents of legal voting age, age 18 and older, would be open to voting by text. Eight in ten teens, ages 13-17, say that if they were allowed to vote in this year’s Presidential election, they would have voted via text message instead of going to the polls. There are obvious issues with authentication but accepting the progress being made in that area, you never know. Martin

In a move to cut the cost of patient DNAs (Did Not Attends) appointments, NHS Trusts across the country are beginning to embrace a two-way SMS text messaging service that securely reminds patients of their hospital out-patient appointments and allows them to reply with a confirmation or to advise that they won’t be attending.

Called MARS (Managed Appointment Reminder Service), University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and Hull and East Yorkshire NHS Trust are just two examples of how NHS Trusts are using the service to cut financial losses from missed appointments. Additionally, a consortium of NHS Trusts in the Midlands have also recently begun deploying the service this month.

A missed out-patient appointment costs each Trust £100, bringing the total wasted across the NHS to more than half a billion pounds each year. In London, where the problem is worst (visit here for details), the loss is more than £134 million. Another example is NHS Scotland where more than £30 million is lost each year through DNAs.

According to Dr. Jonathan Fielden* of the British Medical Association, missed appointments “cause huge disruption for patients and hospital staff. Patients need to have more respect for the service, but the NHS also needs to work harder to make appointments more convenient and flexible.”

As each NHS Trust has a patient treatment quota to meet, any shortfall means that forward budgets will be cut. DNAs also lead to other patients having to wait longer than necessary for treatment.

The MARS two-way messaging service is very secure and simple to use and is a significant step up from one-way systems. The service sends a text message reminder to the mobiles of patients ahead of an appointment. On receipt, patients are able to note the reminder and can reply back with a “yes” or “no” response if unable to attend.

A returned “no” response allows hospital Administrators to arrange an alternative appointment if required. They also have the opportunity to reduce waiting lists by filling cancelled treatment slots and help the Government hit its 18-week patient treatment targets.

MARS has been developed by communication company Island Communications in conjunction with the NHS, and is delivered to NHS organisations via a C&W’s Catalist Specialist Solutions “framework” contract, which avoids organisations having to Tender for the service.

The C&W MARS service uses the highly-secure SMS API messaging services of SMS provider Mediaburst to deliver appointment reminders to patients.

“MARS is possibly the most effective appointment reminder solution on today’s market and comes with an integrated management system giving hospitals instant awareness and measurable effectiveness of the service,” says Ken Higgins, managing director at Island Communications.

Cable&Wireless also provides Trusts with Island Communications’ opt-in tool to help collect patient names and mobile numbers. The data is transmitted through a secure on-line system to hospital administrators who then update the hospital or trust PAS (Patient Administration System).

About Island Communications

Island Communications is a communications company based in Larbert, near Stirling. The company develops web-based communications solutions for NHS Trusts, environmental monitoring and flood protection systems for local government, and boat monitoring and satellite tracking systems for boat owners. Island Communications is a key member of a European Consortium developing high-specification solutions for the Europe-wide treatment of Alzheimers Disease and all forms of Dementia. The Consortium is made up of representatives from Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Spain and the UK. For more information, visit www.islandcommunications.co.uk.

About Cable&Wireless

Cable&Wireless is one of the world’s leading international communications companies. It operates through two standalone business units – Europe, Asia & US and International. The Europe, Asia & US business unit (formerly known as the “UK” business) provides enterprise and carrier solutions to the largest users of telecoms services across the UK, US, continental Europe and Asia, and wholesale broadband services in the UK. With experience of delivering connectivity to 153 countries – and an intention to be the first customer-defined communications services business – the focus is on delivering customers a service experience that is second to none. The International business unit operates integrated telecommunications companies in 39 countries offering mobile, broadband, domestic and international fixed line services to residential and business customers, with principal operations in the Caribbean, Panama, Macau, Monaco and the Channel Islands. For more information about Cable&Wireless, go to www.cw.com

* In an interview published in the Daily Mail earlier this year on DNAs.

TV is the highest profile use of SMS mechanisms and if the coming together of the major broadcasters helps restore consumer confidence then it’s absolutely a step in the right direction.

The appointment of the IAB as the trade body for mobile advertising builds on the work of the IAB Mobile Council, launched in November last year, which will now seek to extend its membership to include representatives from publishers, agencies, advertisers and technology companies all active in the mobile market. Guy Phillipson, IAB chief executive, said: With the new resources we’re going to get from the mobile operators, we can really put a rocket under it [mobile advertising].

The IAB will concentrate on research and promotion for mobile advertising, while the mobile phone operators remain committed to the global Mobile Marketing Association, concentrating on best practices and the protection of consumer privacy. The IAB will also be liaising with the GSM Association on its mobile audience measurement project. As a mobile marketing innovator we are delighted at this cross network initiative and trust that the adoption of standards will only accelerate the continued growth of mobile in the wider advertising market Gary

Mobile messaging was in the top three forms of marketing communication most likely to result in respondents seeking further information. However it’s been said before but with power comes responsibility. The research also highlighted that most consumers (75%) feel overwhelmed by the number of marketing communications they receive, although they remain happy picking and choosing between them (70%).

“As the number of communications grow, consumers have become better at filtering information,” says Victoria Bytel, Head of Research at the DMA. “People are able to de-sensitise themselves from content, but in doing so they also disconnect from the brand. To avoid becoming wallpaper, marketers need to work even harder to make communications stand out.” Jo

Over seven out of ten of us admit delegating difficult tasks at work by email and text. More than half use an email or text message to apologise for mistakes. One in eight of us has resigned via email or text message while 2 per cent of bosses have fired someone with an email or text message, according to a survey by Post Office Telecoms. Also revealed is that 3 per cent of adults admit to ending a relationship by text in the past 12 months.

“Each generation’s communication style can differ dramatically, sometimes leading to inappropriate behaviour or cultural insensitivity, says Stewart Fox-Mills, head of telecoms at the Post Office. “Digital technology is constantly giving us new ways to communicate. But we’ve found that many are using modern technology to avoid face-toface or verbal confrontation.” Gary

The furniture retailer, which sponsors Coronation Street on ITV1, offered discounts to visitors to its area of the soap’s iTV service. The initiative, created by Eagle Eye Solutions, invited viewers to text to receive an eight-digit shortcode that entitled them to discounts in selected Harvey’s stores. Mobile vouchering is highly targeted, lower cost and more effective than paper based products, and you can accurately record who has redeemed the incentive.

Premium SMS codes have been set up in more than 20 countries around the world, including the US, UK, South Africa, Australia, Spain, Germany and many African nations. People will be able to text their own message to their country-specific short code and will then receive a thank you message with a unique pin number, allowing them to view the message securely online at a specially created birthday site. The site will also contain a raft of celebrity messages both written and filmed by Mandela supporters around the world. In the UK texts cost £1.50 plus the standard network rate.

All profits received from text charges will go to the Nelson Mandela Legacy Trust and other charitable organisations supported by Mandela. Tim Massey, 46664 international director, said: “A text-based service allows more people to feel part of the celebrations in a very simple way and we hope to raise significant revenues to support the ongoing work of the charities that bear Mr Mandela’s name and 46664.” We wish 46664 every success with this ground breaking initiative.

Sir Michael Pitt, the man asked to assess the response to last summer’s floods has finally published his long-awaited report – and he says many lessons need to be learned.

His overriding message will be that the lack of preparation last year must be addressed without delay, and he has included 92 recommendations to ensure this happens. He told Sky News: “What we are arguing is that we were not well prepared last summer for the scale of flooding that took place.”

In response to the needs of business mangers to better plan communication in a crisis SMS Providers Mediaburst are advocating SMS for Business Continuity.

This is a low cost, feature rich SMS based communication tool that has proven to be a very effective solution. Neil Davison IT operations manager for city based legal firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain commented: “Mediaburst’s Business Continuity text tool is one of the most cost-effective and efficient means of instantly communicating and interacting with people during emergencies. At a time when phone networks become congested and communications fail, text messages get delivered. That’s why Mediaburst’s tool has been selected as the prime communicator in our disaster recovery plan.”

If you want to understand how this tool can help your business then get in touch.

The Newspaper says Scots MPs have been unhappy with reception since the building opened several years ago. The parliament uses Vodafone as its network supplier, but apparently the building itself is to blame, rather than the operator, for the weak signal. Work on improving coverage has commenced with a system of Pico cells being used to increase mobile reception. For £50,000, you’d hope the MPs would find something useful to say. Martin

According to the New Zealand Herald, the Kiwi’s national carrier is planning to introduce an in-flight texting service. However despite European and antipodean enthusiasm for in-flight SMS, Asia and the US don’t look like planning to introduce any mile-high connectivity any time soon. Surely long haul flights are perfectly suited to that time when we can catch up on all those outstanding messages or simply take the time to stay in touch?

The NMA also reported a clear indication that the acceptance of mobile advertising is on the up. In a survery conducted by Q Research approximately 46% of young people would switch their mobile phone supplier if they were offered free talk time and texts in return for receiving ads on their mobile. It is clear that the US market is also seeing considerable continued growth. A recent Garner study estimates 189 billion mobile messages will be sent by US mobile phone subscribers this year and forecasts 301 billion for next year…. both of which is still only a small fraction of the 2.3 trillion messages to be sent across major markets worldwide in 2008 Asia is the biggest mobile messaging market worldwide. China is well ahead in the lead with approximately 560 billion SMS, followed by the Philippines’ 430 billion, and Japan’s 190 billion.

A recent campaign for Big Brother 2008 in Australia saw the installation of Bluetooth transmitters in over 20 bus shelters around Perth.

The transmitters automatically sent two anonymous messages to any bluetooth enabled phone in the area.

The first message was tailored for the local location, along the lines of: “I’m watching u Ur at the (bus stop location)”.

The second message is received about 30 seconds later saying: “Big Brother is back 7 PM weeknights on TEN”.

Interesting, possibly a little scary, but certainly effective!

From airline notifications to an advertising medium its credibility and revenue generating potential is riding high. Indeed, current industry forecasts foresee mobile messaging revenues of $165 billion globally by 2011, 200% higher than previous industry predictions.

Since its inception 15 years ago, mobile messaging has delivered a 6000 per cent return on investment, but the growth phase is not yet over, with markets such as India, North America and China seeing phenomenal traffic increases. Even within the more mature markets of Western Europe and South East Asia, messaging still has huge growth potential.

So how will the humble SMS be developed to fuel this growth?

• Personalising the messaging experience with added functionality relevant to specific consumer and enterprise segments.
• Using partnerships and multi-play strategies to extend mobile messaging to the fixed environment using converged messaging.
• Subsidising mobile internet revenues through messaging integration with interactive web applications such as Facebook and eBay.
• Mobilising enterprise applications.
• Leveraging the mobile marketing opportunities offered by the reach of messaging platforms. The peer to peer capabilities of SMS are widely documented and are used by us all everyday. It is the continual development of Application to Peer messaging that will deliver differentiation within service providers and drive both the volumes and the revenues.

According to government statistics, over 9 million people in the UK are deaf or hard of hearing and over 250,000 are profoundly deaf. It is unknown how many live in the boroughs covered by Cleveland Police… Hartlepool, Redcar & Cleveland, Middleborough and Stockton, which have a high population density of 9.3 people per hectare compared with the national average of 3.5.

Until the mobile came along, and SMS with it, deaf and speech-impaired people had great difficulty in contacting emergency services by themselves. They had to rely upon family and friends to report life issues or social misbehaviours on their behalf. Today, the deaf community is one of the most prolific users of SMS.

All that the deaf community in Cleveland Police’s boroughs need do to report an incident or ask for assistance is to text the word Police to the dedicated shortcode 87202 giving their address and explanation of the problem. The message is automatically converted into email and forwarded to Cleveland’s communication centre where incidents are recorded and actioned.

“Mediaburst’s text messaging service is a welcome and very dynamic solution for Cleveland’s deaf community,” says Mick Little, Acting Chief Inspector of Cleveland Police’s Control Room. “For the first time, deaf people can interact with Cleveland Police in near real time.”

Cleveland Police has issued a leaflet explaining how to use the new text service and issued a warning that any misuse of the service by people that are neither deaf, hard of hearing or speech-impaired may be liable for prosecution under the Communications Act, 2003.

To coincide with the launch PhonepayPlus also published an updated Sanctions guide which sets out the factors which will assist the panel in deciding which sanctions might be relevant to a given case. Headed by David Cockburn, the new Compliance Panel comprises a team of six with specialist legal or adjudicatory experience and meets for the first time on 8th May.

It’s certainly a step in the right direction and both content and service providers will do well to spend a little time familiarising themselves with the changing landscape before it catches up with them.

The in-store campaign ran from 14^th January to 23^rd March, 2008 and was featured on 22 million packs of such leading Kellogg’s brands as Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, Frosties and Coco Pops. It invited consumers to send an SMS text to Kellogg’s dedicated shortcode to receive back an amazing animal fact and a link to a WAP site where they could download one of ten animal ringtones. Tens of thousands of consumers participated.

Consumers were charged only standard network costs to access and download the ringtones. The campaign was designed, developed and implemented by Blue Chip Marketing and SMS Provider Mediaburst.

Stuart Brown, sales director of Mediaburst, comments: “Clearly, Mediaburst is delighted to have teamed up again with Blue Chip Marketing to develop and run Kellogg’s inspirational and educational campaign, bringing tens of thousands of young consumers closer to the animal world.”

The approval will mean that next month PhonepayPlus will establish a Code Compliance Panel (CCP), a new adjudicatory body to make determinations on Code compliance issues. The CCP will consist of people with professional and other relevant skills and resources necessary to ensure the quality and timeliness of adjudicatory work, with the formal Board playing less of a role in adjudications in the future.

It will also ensure that Tribunals are always chaired by a legally qualified CCP member. Without a doubt this is a step forward, separating Operational activity from strategic direction will allow those more qualified to make adjudications and leave the Board free to focus on strategy and direction.

Following the success of the Asian tsunami appeal in 2005 where VAT was suspended on SMS donations, there has been extensive lobbying to have this position standardised. Until now, VAT has been charged on SMS donations, putting them at a disadvantage compared to other means of giving. Text donations are a highly effective way for charities, particularly small ones, to raise money quickly and to communicate with supporters. The practice of charging VAT on the whole amount of any donation was previously widespread practice amongst UK mobile networks. Removing the VAT charge makes donation by text from mobile, for small donations, equally as efficient as debit or credit card. Congratulations here go to The Mobile Data Association and 160 Characters who have backed the campaign. Mike Short Chairman of the MDA commented that “now we have policy clarity we will need to develop a cohesive plan that blends the right mixture of comfort to charities and trust for donors”. His suggestion is interesting- “To be successful there may need to be dedicated charity short codes”. Precedents within the EU exist in Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic who are doing something similar. We will have to see how the Revenue views it Stuart

And whilst there is a general trend towards lower data and SMS roaming costs, with Spanish carrier Telefonica, owner of the O2 group of companies proposing to reduce costs by as much as 40%, authorities remain concerned about the high prices across member states. SMS and data roaming charges are to be considered for regulation by the end of 2008. The impact on cross the cross Eurpoe application to peer market, e.g. Business Messaging, and Mobile Marketing is yet to unfold.

Obama supporters who signed up with the candidate received a text message reminding them to vote. The text message included a phone number to help them find their polling station. The personal effectiveness of SMS and the immediacy of the medium has really shone through “They’ve been using [texting] to get out the vote, which is incredibly smart because it gives people a way to take immediate political action,” says Julie Germany, director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet. “It’s just what mobile technology is suited for.” Not to be out done by their neighbours in the West Russians can now sign-up to receive text message updates relating to their country’s upcoming Presidential Election The information on the ballot and presidential election results in Russia will be available through SMS by a short code response mechanism. The number of votes collected by each candidate will be available by simply sending request to number 5503. Fairly standard stuff. However they can also learn the voting results at a certain polling station of a certain region, again by SMS request. For example, to find out the voting results in the Republic of Karelia 201 polling station, it is necessary to indicate 10 201 in your SMS, where the first two figures reflect the number of the Russian federal subject, while the numbers after the gap correspond to the number of the polling station. Advanced thinking? Maybe this is why they put the first man in space and we didn’t STUART

John Paul II’s words are now available in the form of a daily text message. A new service has been set up by Vodafone and Joaquin Navarro Valls, who worked for 16 years as John Paul II’s personal spokesman. The quotations, which cost 18p for a simple message or 26p with a photograph of John Paul, have been picked by Mr Navarro Valls, who now works as a commentator on the Vatican. It would appear that the late pope was a fan of technology, and was the first pontiff to use a mobile phone to personally send his close circle and his fans inspirational messages. Peggy Noonan, the author of John Paul the Great, said: “He would text message us things like: ‘Don’t be afraid of your inability to reach God. Keep trying!’.”

A total of 60 billion texts were sent in the UK in 2007, 40% more than the previous year, with a staggering 290 million of these sent on New Year’s Eve alone. More interesting however was that nearly 18 million mobile phone users accessed the Internet on their phone in December 2007 and, surprisingly, there were just shy of 2 million MMS messages sent on New Year’s Eve. This saw MMS figures for December 2007 up 55% on the 32 million sent in December 2006. Overall UK MMS volumes for the year were nearly half a billion. The MDA commented that “The report contains some very compelling indications that mobile usage is evolving. While the strong upward curve of SMS volumes continues, perhaps a more telling headline number is the penetration of mobile Internet usage and multi-media messaging (MMS). We are really starting to see a much greater variety of mobile data volumes. New devices, competitive data tariffs and wider content choice mean it has never been easier for users to send an email, take a picture or access Internet content. This is a very important set of indicators.” More evidence that the new mobile services are evolving fast?…Maybe My question is will MMS suffer from the “Mini Disc” syndrome with consumers all too soon preferring to send pics and videos as E Mail attachments delivered onto smart phones? STUART

Korea Telecom Freetel is targeting pre-school kids in an effort to cash in on the mobile frenzy that has ensnared the nation. Eighty five percent of teenagers in South Korea own a phone, sending an average of 60 texts a day.Now the government has introduced legislation to try and stop children running up huge phone bills. Is there such a thing as “freedom of text”? A British snowboarder who fell down a rocky pit in Germany sent a text message asking for help. The snowboarder became separated from her husband and friends in the Alps, said police in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria. The 35-year-old slipped into the pit but managed to text a friend to raise the alarm.

Sadly despite Two helicopters and mountain rescuers searching for the missing woman, she sadly died. Our thoughts go out to her family and friends. However the most provocative suggestion was to learn that Police are thinking of asking victims of rape to trap their alleged attacker into a confession using a controversial text messaging tactic. Senior detectives and prosecutors are considering the idea that rape suspects could incriminate themselves if their alleged victim tried to extract an admission of guilt via text message or in a phone call So-called “pretext” phone calls are used to try to get sexual attackers who are known to their victim to confess or incriminate themselves. The tactic is currently used in some US states and it is thought the measures could be adopted in the UK to improve the low conviction rate in rape cases. However, there is a question mark over whether pretext phone calls would be allowed under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. It is thought that British police forces would favour using text messages rather than phone calls, which are preferred in America. STUART

I don’t need to harp on about its features and in some cases lack of them, however, yesterday I placed it in its shiny white docking station to receive a message saying that a newer version of the software was available and would I like to update now? I did, and hey presto 30 minutes later some of the lacking functionality has been cured, I can now send SMS to multiple recipients!

A software upgrade is nothing revolutionary but for the numerous years I’ve owned a mobile phone I’ve never received a software upgrade, I’ve just had to replace the handset when it became obsolete. So maybe the time is upon us where we buy one handset to last years rather than the length of a contract, where we don’t have to buy new handsets to obtain new features. So far I like the world through Apple’s eyes!

In fact if you look at the growth of SMS on a graph from ’99 to date you will see that SMS growth is exponential, volumes are growing faster now than ever before. See www.text.it We have also seen this trend within our business. Our messaging volume doubled in 2007. A lot of this growth has been organic, from existing customers who are clearly seeing more and more benefit from using SMS. It is often dangerous to compare peer to peer SMS traffic with application to peer messaging, however I think in this case both show that far from being dead, SMS has had its greatest year yet.

In October they benefited from some £ 375,000 of incremental revenue derived from commission payments based upon transferring an incredible £ 7.5m of micro payments by text, through their Kenya based M-Pesa innovation. In a country where relatively few people have bank accounts and the journey to the nearest bank can take hours, it has been little short of a revolution, allowing people in poor, rural areas to transfer money via a text. Already 1m customers from a total base of 7m have registered at Safaricom, Vodafone’s part-owned operation in Kenya.

Some users are texting money to themselves so they don’t have to carry cash on long journeys and Vodafone has even begun a trial with two companies to pay staff wages via text message. To put this into perspective, the mobile industry’s body, the GSM Association, sums up the financial opportunity for the sector. While 3 billion people worldwide have a mobile phone, only 1.8 billion have a credit or debit card. In addition, it believes that the value of cash sent home by migrant workers to developing countries could quadruple to £400 billion by 2012 if transfer by text message becomes the norm. Not insignificant! STUART

Apparently, since its launch a year ago, they have clocked up over 100,000 distinct website visits and visited schools across the country as part of its educational roadshow.

PHONEbrain is aimed at teaching young people how to recognise and access phone-paid services, appreciate the costs involved and pre-empt potential problems. I’ve posted a link to this site before but with new and interactive initiatives planned for the New Year it’ll be worth keeping a close eye on. Gary

The IAB’s involvement just underlines how seriously mobile is now being taken by the major media players. The IAB is funded by digital media owners and has 375 members. IAB’s mobile expansion starts this week with its first conference dedicated to mobile. The trade body holds annual IAB Engage conferences for those organisations involved in digital media and from now on will include Engage for Mobile. The alliance with the MMA would suggest that the IAB has gained the blessing of companies in the sector to push forward mobile advertising, rather than becoming a rival player in the space. All very interesting.

The company argued this was in breach of its company procedures for reporting absence i.e. they wanted him to phone in. I can see why companies prefer employees to report absence via a phone call or letter but on the other hand with over a billion text messages sent per week I think companies need to recognise that the medium is now an accepted form of communication and adjust accordingly.

Unrelated but ironically the Accident Group springs to mind that allegedly sacked 2,500 employees via text message. I guess if companies think they can sack by text message then reporting sickness seems perfectly acceptable.

It’s incredible that something that is still, by many, perceived a new media technology is actually 15 years old! Like most technologies the humble SMS clearly took some time to take off, but how it has, now running at in excess of 1.2 billion messages per week.(Source www.text.it) The event will also include a panel discussion on the evolution of SMS and the future of mobile messaging featuring participants from Vodafone, Ovum Research, the MDA and MMA so it will be very interesting to see where the industry sees the next 15 years taking us. Congratulations to all involved.

It makes interesting reading and in particular I note the increasing use of the term “Phone-Paid” as opposed to premium. In fact the number of times “Phone-Paid” is used in the report numbers 14, this compares to only 7 for the word “Premium”. This shift is clearly consistent with previous mutterings I’ve heard that they wish to shift consumer perception away from mobile billing being a premium service to being just another way to pay for things. I can’t say I disagree, in fact if it does happen and this helps increase consumer confidence in the mechanism then this can only be a good thing for the industry. The other thing I wanted to bring to your attention is a decent website phonebrain.org.uk. It’s run by PhonepayPlus and despite being aimed at Children I can’t help but feel the way it describes premium rate, excuse me, Phone-Paid, services is one of the most concise and easy to understand I’ve ever seen, my only criticism is it doesn’t highlight how easy it is to terminate subscriptions by simply texting STOP to the shortcode.

SMS Provider Mediaburst today announces that one of its business partners, 8K Media, has won the latest text-to-win mobile competition of holiday provider Ski Collection. The competition is now featured in Circle Publishing’s Snow Magazine and comprises a seven night holiday for four at the 4 star ski-in, ski-out 4 Les Balcons de Val Thorens residence in the French Alps.

All that skiers need do to stand a chance of winning the competition is text the height of the Val Thorens resort. Three options are given in advertisements now appearing in Snow Magazine – a) 1,500m, b) 2,300, or c) 2,500m. Text answers to shortcode 84383 cost £1 plus standard network charges and the competition closes on 30^th November 2007. The winner will be announced on Monday, 3^rd December.

Ski Collection is a Peak Retreats brand. Set up in 2002, the company is an independent niche operator giving British skiers the opportunity to experience skiing in France, the French way. It also runs holidays to the French Alps in both winter and summer.

Ski Collection’s business model is simple: only 4 star residences in France will do, and they must be located in prime high-altitude resorts. Holidays can be accommodation-only or packaged with a ferry or Eurotunnel crossing. Central to the business model is price and Ski Collection offers the lowest price available in the UK for such holidays. Thousands of British skiers have embraced the business model since 2002.

“Mediaburst is fast becoming the de facto mobile campaign provider for travel companies to better engage with customers and Ski Collection is another addition of this text-to-travel trend,” says Stuart Brown, Mediaburst’s sales director. “We expect the trend to continue with mobile marketing digging deep into the revenues of postal-dependent direct mail companies.”

As has been said by many within the industry, phone pay plus does indeed sound like a content provider and this may cause some initial confusion, but my understanding is the new name will never be used without context e.g. “PhonepayPlus the premium rate services regulator”, and hence I remain positive that consumers will grow to understand and trust PhonepayPlus.

The text apparently read “This is amazing; you can do words and everything.” The second article was all about a new generation of writers in Japan who are now tapping out entire novels on their mobile phones. Stories, called Keitai novels, are proving extremely popular with half the top 10 fiction best sellers for 2007 starting life on mobiles. The success of the stories is due to the intentional use of short sentences and less complicated expressions. STUART

The school was rated third among non-US schools and second in the UK for its full-time MBA programme. The “bang for your buck” ranking looks at how long it takes students to recoup their fees and earnings lost while they study and the scale of salary increase on graduation. With high rates of adoption of mobile technologies by the younger generation we engaged two internees from the School for 12 weeks to assist us on certain key projects. As always we are pleased to work with regional education establishments but in particular their work has proved invaluable and reflects the schools credible position in the Forbes guide.

According to their survey nearly 50% of respondees said they failed to respond to traditional advertising as they “forget the brand name and contact details after their initial interest has passed” The article went on to say “more than one in three people”, however, had sent a text response to an advert.

Simple message, mobile is where your advertising needs to be——not necessarily! Media Agency Universal McCann also commissioned a study into the attitudes towards mobile campaigns and unsurprisingly their research shows that consumers find traditional format advertisements delivered via their mobile handset ‘irritating’. As digital agencies realised that what worked in print did not necessarily work online, well the same is the case for Mobile. Don’t assume that by simply attempting to “mobilise” a campaign you will succeed. Mobile marketing is an exceptionally powerful tool. We all seem to have developed close relationships with our phones, they always appear to be with us and we feel lost without them. There are some very simple rules when it comes to running a mobile campaign.

Firstly the content must be relevant to the consumer. This may mean a targeted creative. It must also be timely and simple to execute in terms of a call to action. Get it right and you will form a strong bond with your consumers, get it wrong and you have lost them forever.

It now looks it has already had an effect! According to the latest National Email Benchmarking report produced by the Direct Marketing Association’s Email Marketing Council, for the first time, email marketing has now overtaken direct mail in terms of volume. As a campaign provider to marketing agencies we are also seeing this market response in increased enquiries. Many of our SMS clients are now asking us to provide a fully integrated SMS and E Mail campaign service. Once again the underlying message here is clear–.. Once technology offers an alternative to the established practices many customers never go back.

Post publication note: since publishing this article there have been some significant changes in regulation in Ireland, please also see our entry on how running SMS promotions in Ireland is now much easier.

This presents a fantastic opportunity for companies who operate across these geographical areas, however you must tread with caution. Our recent experience, whilst running promotions for a couple of household brands, has highlighted the difference in regulatory requirements in each country.

Current RegTel legislation defines Premium SMS as follows: 2.14 Premium SMS (PSMS) means the use of SMS (Short Message Service) to provide a content service or product to a Consumer, whether or not a premium rate charge is imposed.

The Code of Practice also states: 3.3.4 PSMS falling within the number range 50xxx to 59xxx requires the prior written permission of the Regulator.

This effectively means that any service using any shortcode accessible in Ireland, for what ever purposes, falls under RegTel’s regulations and needs prior approval before going live.

Our experience in recent months is that RegTel’s interpretation of their own code of practice can conflict with advice given in the UK by the ISP, ICSTIS, CAP and the ASA. And, whilst RegTel are not a government regulator, they do have the power to turn services off.

Our advice at this stage is to ensure that when considering a promotion that covers ROI allow sufficient time to consult with your mobile Service Provider and be prepared to tweak any promotion to come in line with RegTel’s guidance.

I will keep you updated with any further lessons learned.

I like many others of my generation hope that the current plans for a memorial service are fulfilled and I am delighted to see that the Manchester In the City event in October has released plans to include a tribute to Tony Tony Wilson did a great deal to promote this region and in particular progressive thinking in the creative sector. Fitting then that one of his last engagements was to host the 10th Big Chip awards in May, celebrating the Manchester Digital sector. Mediaburst were proud to be a key sponsor of this event sponsoring the Best Digital Marketing campaign, won by Pavilion Communications for their Lifeworks project Also fitting then that the event was the most successful ever and that the independent trade association for the regions ICT industry, Manchester Digital, is now financially independent for the first time in its history.

Tony will sadly not get to see the continued success of the region or what many believe to be the catalyst for the transformation of the regions digital sector, the move of the BBC to the Mediacity:uk development in Salford Quays. He does however leave a city and digital sector that is vibrant and expanding.

Mediaburst believes that this outstanding result is the highest ever achieved by a mobile messaging business.

“We’re clearly delighted with this result,” says Jeremy Bygrave, Mediaburst’s managing director. “Team Mediaburst strives to provide the highest level of service to all customers, so it’s gratifying for all involved to learn that what we’re doing works for them.”

Examples of customer comments from the survey include:

• staff excellent on the phone as is customer service
• great service and very helpful staff
• easy system to use
• good customer service and staff
• when we moved offices and changed e mail addresses, Mediaburst re-directed our messaging service promptly

Survey administration and results tabulation were performed by TNS Prognostics, an independent research organisation retained by Microsoft to manage the survey process. Meeting survey criteria for score results as well as quantity of responses helps Mediaburst to maintain its status as a Microsoft Certified Partner.

There is a fine line between the rights of both the employee and the employer and the subsequent effect on the consumer. I don’t argue against the rights of any employee but let us please remember that consumers make the market, not us involved in the supply. I am sure that the direct mail industry also applauded this news. The “junk” mail that we all receive in our homes has become an accepted facet of modern life.

Whether the employees of the many organisations who depend upon the direct mail industry, be they designers, printers or fulfilment houses, would agree with the postal workers we may never know. The issue that maybe all concerned should consider is that once given an alternative many markets simply never return. The increasing use of mobile marketing to provide, what in many cases is a cheaper and more effective solution, to unsolicited direct mail is evidence of this.

As a customer of ours recently commented in a TV interview “It would seem that we can never control whether people will open an e mail or a letter, but frankly we’re all to tempted to open a text the minute we get it.” Mobile networks don’t take industrial action and rarely do consumers throw their mobile phone in the bin without digesting the contents. To see the interview in full view Interview

But that’s just the start. Businesses, developers and network operators will also find a wealth of data and facts on the site that will help them to get the best out of Mediaburst’s award-winning solutions. The sheer number of customer testimonials on the new website attesting to the quality and scalability of the company’s products and services is staggering and explains why Mediaburst is now the supplier and partner-of-choice for messaging and aggregation to thousands of businesses, developers, and network operators across Britain.

“We believe the new website well-reflects the leadership that Mediaburst has brought to the mobile messaging and interactive telephony markets these past 7 years,” says Jeremy Bygrave, Mediaburst’s managing director. “It’s a position we fully intend to maintain, helping advertisers, businesses and partners alike to take full advantage of the mobile community market.”

Bygrave’s comment is spurred by new data from First Partner Research & Marketing. The research authority has found that mobile campaigns now generate an average response rate of some 12% – 4 times greater than direct marketing, or over 10 times greater than a typical bulk email response rate.

One of the other interesting additions to Mediaburst’s new website is a blog. The blog becomes one of the company’s vehicles to raise issues with customers and partners that could hamper the projected 630% increase in mobile messaging over the next 4 years. It will be updated regularly.

It is also becoming clear that consumers are increasingly comfortable communicating with promoters by SMS, as a vehicle for entering competitions and instant win prize promotions. Brand owners are now starting to exploit this additional channel as a complementary cost effective route to target time-poor consumers with promotional campaigns.

SMS can be used both as a solus channel and also in combination with “traditional” web, mail and telephone entry methods. As a medium, the channel provides consumers with an opportunity to respond immediately and conveniently to promotional offers. For brands, high volume response can be managed efficiently and with cost savings as consumers enter their own data without the need for re-keying by the response management house.

However, it is critical that the “back-end” fulfilment partner has the capability to integrate this new channel seamlessly into the response management process. From both the promoter’s and the consumer’s point of view, the growing popularity of this new channel will not be sustained if fulfilment quality standards do not match those provided when using alternative response routes.

Granby Marketing Services has been working with SMS Provider Mediaburst to provide a solution which meets promoters’ needs for secure, reliable data management and rapid fulfilment of premiums and prizes. As a specialist in delivering SMS text messaging and automated voice solutions, Mediaburst has the proven experience of seamlessly integrating SMS into the marketing mix. Granby has particularly chosen to partner with Mediaburst due to their expert staff, 24-hour assistance and the speed and quality of message delivery.

Granby and Mediaburst are therefore now offering a one-stop SMS promotional package which combines Mediaburst’s leading edge telephony platform and Granby’s proven fulfilment capability. Consumer records entered via SMS are automatically uploaded into Granby’s SCOPe data management and order processing system under a promotion code which may be handling response from multiple channels. Records are source coded for reporting purposes and premium or prize fulfilment orders are then picked, packed and despatched within tight turnaround times to ensure customer delight.

Says Chris Robinson, sales and marketing director, Granby Marketing Services: “Our partnership with MediaBurst provides a unique solution for promoters using SMS to create a proposition with one or several calls to action. Utilising MediaBurst’s technology in combination with Granby’s response management expertise delivers a completely integrated platform to capture consumer data, select prize winners using unique codes or random selection processes and fulfil to winners. Furthermore, we can provide promoters with the re-assurance that all prize promotions are handled in compliance with the CAP codes and ISP best practice standards.”

“Clearly, SMS is transforming the way that promoters are reaching the consumer,” adds Mediaburst’s managing director, Jeremy Bygrave. “The combination off Granby Marketing’s big brand expertise and Mediaburst’s award-winning mobile messaging services is unique and is the fast track for promoters to securely and instantly engage with millions of mobile users,”

“Any new brand initiatives such as digital media campaigns needs its innovators, as well as educators and promoters,” says Stuart Brown, Mediaburst’s sales director. ” As a leading digital media business that partners with marketing, advertising and media agencies nationwide, Mediaburst is delighted to support such a core regional event.”

During the ceremony, Mediaburst will provide its unique Text 2 Screen application to help the organiser’s better engage with the audience.

About Big Chip

The Big Chips Awards are run for the industry each year, not for profit, by independent trade association Manchester Digital with support and help from industry volunteers. This year’s awards will be judged by a distinguished panel of experts from organisations such as industry magazine New Media Age, as well as the BBC, Trevor Beattie’s new agency and The Chase. Big Chip are the top awards for ICT and new media outside London, and have attracted entries from the region’s best over the last 9 years.

It’s official voice messaging and SMS provider Mediaburst is now one of Britain’s fastest growing digital media companies. The company enters the industry’s Media Momentum 2007 league table for the first time having achieved revenue growth of 236% over the 2 year qualifying period.

Each year, Media Momentum publishes the definitive list of the top 50 digital media companies. The Top 50 companies in the 2007 list successfully grew their revenue base from £139m to £453m in the 2 year period, 2003 – 2005. Mediaburst is 31st on the list.

Mediaburst’s sales director Stuart Brown comments: “Clearly, Mediaburst’s entry into Media Momentum’s coveted league table results from the growing use of quality SMS and voice messaging as part of the overall spend on brand promotions. Advertising and marketing agencies nationwide are impressed by the immediacy and return of our mobile solutions.”

But over the past few years, the brand has grown to represent even more value to couples, giving them the confidence and freedom to enjoy even better sex.

Strengthening its unique bond with sexually active partners, Durex introduced its exclusive Play range comprising vibrators and lubricants to add an extra dimension to their love life.

Durex’s Play campaign included TV ads, which offered viewers the chance to text for a lube sample. They sent a text with the keyword PLAY to 87103. All texts were charged at 25p plus the cost of a standard text message.

Ruth Gresty, Duex’s Senior Brand Manager, comments: “We believe using SMS as a medium for sample requests is the easy choice for potential customers to trial a product before purchasing. Most people have their mobile phone close by whilst watching TV which means it is easy and accessible, making response to a TV ad more likely compared with phoning a number, accessing a website or visiting a post box.”

Gresty continues: “This is Durex’s first mobile marketing campaign. Whilst I’m confident of the results, like any campaign these will be closely monitored so we can take these lessons forward when looking at other SMS initiatives we can implement to increase interaction with consumers.

“Mediaburst won the Durex trial because they know how to design and implement campaigns. They’re ahead of the curve in terms of knowledge and expertise, and deliver results,” she adds.” That’s why Durex now recommends Mediaburst to any business considering SMS for part of their marketing mix.”

Stuart Brown, Sales Director, of SMS Provider Mediaburst concludes: “Mediaburst is increasingly working with large brands such as Durex to implement mobile marketing campaigns. We have the expertise in-house and the ability to offer fulfilment, allowing us to deliver customers with the complete package making SMS an accessible element of the marketing mix. Compared with phone, post and web alternatives, our clients see significant increases in response rates through SMS. And thanks to tools such as address validation, promotions are delivered to the correct address ensuring an excellent customer experience, as well as minimising cost.”

Rising Star in 2005, SMS Provider Mediaburst today announced that it has been selected as the winner in the North and ranked sixth overall in the 2006 Deloitte Technology Fast 50, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in the UK and Ireland. Rankings are based on average percentage revenue growth over 5 years.

“Growing the top line enough to make the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 is especially meaningful during competitive times for the technology sector,” said Simon Kerton-Johnson, Chairman of Deloitte’s UK & Ireland Fast 50. “We congratulate Mediaburst on becoming one of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in the Northern Region.”

Jeremy Bygrave, Managing Director, Mediaburst says his company’s emphasis on providing complete flexible solutions has enabled it to take advantage of changes in the market:

“The market has matured. Five years ago there was a lot of ‘spam’ and the telecommunications companies worked hard to eliminate this. The cost of a message has increased to a level where it is not practical to use the network for spam now. But SMS is now being seen as a real business opportunity.”

“We have a wide range of customers, across a variety of sectors who use our applications to send and receive SMS for staff and customer messaging. For example, Tesco use SMS to distribute KPI information to it’s management team. Selfridges use our SMS API to inform customers their garment is ready for collection from their alteration service. Durex receive sample requests via SMS with the text number shown in their latest TV advert. Hachette Filipacchi use SMS for text to win competitions, lowest unique bid, voting, collating feedback- Think Money send automated balance updates to customers to reduce enquiries into their call centre. The opportunities and benefits of SMS are endless”

“Other services include IVR, for example, Kellogg’s used this service for brand awareness for Frosties. Advertised on the radio, listeners are encouraged to ring a freephone number to record their own version of the tune from the latest Frosties ad. The winners will be featured on the radio.”

Jeremy says future growth is expected to come from its virtual services provider (VSP) proposition and what he calls Application Exchange:

“We have the infrastructure that content providers and application developers can use to offer services to others on the network which we see as a big growth area.”

Managing Director, Jeremy Bygrave concludes “It is an honour to be listed in the Deloitte Fast 50 and is testament to the experience, expertise and unique technology capability Mediaburst offers its customers.”

Launched nationally via local radio, winning entries were to feature in the next radio ad. Consumers could also submit their entries via Kellogg’s website, www.frosties.co.uk.

Kellogg selected award-winning messaging IVR and SMS Provider Mediaburst as its communications partner to build and manage this IVR line.

Tom Newitt, Kellogg’s Senior Brand Manager, explains why: “At Kellogg, consumer data security is paramount and we only partner with messaging companies that can deliver a totally secure and reliable service. From our perspective, that means Mediaburst and only Mediaburst.”

Newitt adds: “The new Frosties campaign is the first one we have worked on with Mediaburst. They have been both professional and flexible throughout, taking a consultative approach to the project and suggesting ideas we had not considered to increase campaign success.

“Mediaburst’s expertise was clear when it came to preparing the script for the IVR and then putting this into action with the build. We are now looking at other opportunities with Mediaburst to incorporate SMS and IVR into our campaigns.”

Jeremy Bygrave, Managing Director of Mediaburst concludes: “Clearly, we’re proud to be associated with the Kellogg brand and look forward to working with them time and again to increase consumer interaction across their compelling portfolios.”

When advertising the university across TV, radio, press, schools and colleges, Salford University includes an SMS shortcode e.g. 87202, allowing prospective students to immediately text for a brochure.

Students need only provide their postcode, which allows address validation via mediaburst’s systems. Once the address is validated, this information is passed to fulfilment for the prospectus to be mailed to them.

Mediaburst’s solution is win-win. From the student’s perspective, they receive the brochure quickly; from the university’s, they know that the brochure has been sent to the correct address, saving significant time and money of re-distributing items or managing inbound calls via a dedicated person.

Stuart Brown, Sales Director at mediaburst, comments:

“Salford University’s mediaburst-driven SMS solution is a really simple and effective tool for communicating with young audiences and is a beacon for all other universities across the country. Brochure requests via SMS is increasing, and when linked in with address validation software, saves time and money. It represents a great example of what can be achieved with a touch of creativity and a powerful SMS API“