Seven in ten mobile phone users find text message advertising too intrusive, according to a new survey from BMRB.
The research showed that 36% of mobile phone users remembered receiving an SMS ad from their mobile phone operator in the preceding four weeks. Of these, around 13% claimed to have received text message ads that were unsolicited, compared to just 5% who remembered being texted by companies who had asked their permission.
The 15-24 year-old age group are much more likely to be targeted by SMS ads and 55% said they had received promotional text messages from their network operator, 21% from companies that they had not given permission to and 13% from brands they had given permission to.
According to the research, there is no gender influence in attitudes towards the intrusiveness of commercial SMS. However, there is a large age-related difference. Those aged between 15-24 are the most positive about receiving SMS ads, followed by the over 65s. 35-54s were found to be the most opposed to commercial text messages, with 89% believing them to be intrusive.
The survey also found that 68% of UK adults use a mobile phone, which equates to around 32 million people. Penetration is highest amongst the younger age groups, with 90% of 15-24 year-olds claiming to own a mobile phone.
Last week the Mobile Data Association (MDA) released a study showing that more and more businesses are using SMS to communicate with their customers (see MDA Predicts Growth In Text Marketing). The report also highlighted the importance of using SMS as a marketing tool and predicted that the trend will be accelerated by the growth of applications designed to promote the use of text messaging for business purposes
