A SMS Land Rush?

As I uncover more SMS (text message) services, it makes me ponder. As more SMS services come online, how will we keep track of them? Will we need a search engine just for short codes? Will there be consolidation like there was with search engines?

Before that happens and we find too many of these services I think brands and advertisers need a wake-up call.

Here’s what I do would do if I am a brand manager or advertiser. I immediately register a short code that is close to my brand name or something easy to remember. (COKE1, BIGMAC, PANDG, KMART, TEXTME etc).

Example. McDonald’s registers the short code BIGMAC. Then I tell my tech guy to list all the words (trademarked or generic) associated with my brand (fries, coke, shake, qpnder etc). Aetna could register AETNA and use (annuity, whole, term, death benefit, lump sum etc). Virgin registers VIRGIN and EVERY music artist is now a keyword.


Then I tell my advertiser to include my short code ON ALL FORMS of advertising, including every website of mine. The more people remember the short code, the easier it will be to tackle this new medium. Make the short code a wild color so it stands out on your advertising.

For more info go to www.xyz.com or Mobile Code IDOIT

Make the short code hyperlinkable on your website .

You want to do ANYTHING that gets people to remember your shortcode. The shift goes from many keywords to find one website to one shortcode that controls endless keywords and direction. See the shift?

What you have just done is created a private label mobile search engine and taken control of relevant keywords. You really have done a lot more, but we’ll get to that.

Instead of paying search engines for keywords that are relevant to your business, you “own” every keyword that's relevant to your business.

No, this isn’t how mobile marketing or mobile information will last. Think of this as an investment in the biggest medium yet to be adopted for advertising. Think of how much you spent on pop-ups/banners and realized what your returnon those were.

This is an investment in the infrastructure of the new medium, the mobile phone.

Start with mobile marketing campaigns. Campaigns can include text and win, text for a coupon, text for information. The brand is getting permission for future interaction AND building a direct mobile marketing database. See what’s happening?

“Scott, there’s a limit to the number of short codes that can be issued, then what?”

There lies the revenue opportunity for the 4INFO, QTAGS, GOOGL, YAHOO and all of the other SMS players with some Visionary Innovation.

Did this idea pique your interest? Would you like to see what I could do for your company or mobile marketing campaign?

Contact me for Pondering Primate Possibilities.