Texts to keep market in touch

Steve Shearman

Auckland marketing technology company Touchpoint has launched a new mobile phone service that lets consumers text requests for more information about advertised products.

Touchpoint says its Txt4info service is the first in the country to allow consumers to get product information from a range of advertisers (via email or post) by sending an advertised keyword to a single short-code text number.

The service is being promoted to advertisers as a way of making their brands more accessible to consumers and as a means of generating more response from traditional advertising.

Touchpoint managing director Steve Shearman said consumers were now willing to respond to advertising, but the effort required to interrupt their TV viewing to call an 0800 number or visit a website often short-circuited any action.

"Hurdles like waiting in call centre queues, having to talk to a potential salesperson or remembering the website address until you are next on the computer mean advertisers lose all but the most committed consumers."

Shearman said studies showed that while people's awareness of brands and products was still predominantly built up through exposure to "offline" advertising, any follow-up research they did before making a purchase was increasingly done online.

"With this product [Txt4info], even if the traditional advertising and awareness happens offline, this is the connection through to that online research stage, because they can get an email sent to them to click through for more information."

Shearman said feedback from one early Txt4info client, an internet service provider, was that consumers calling its 0800 number having already received information via Txt4info were much more likely to sign straight up to the company's services than those who called having only seen an advertisement.

Mobile phones had shifted the balance of power to consumers because convenience and accessibility were now key considerations when advertisers measured their return on investment.

"When consumers see something that interests them, they need the ability to be instantly gratified or they will move on," Shearman said.

Txt4info also offered the ability to use different keywords with different advertising which would allow them to measure the response from different advertisements or different media placements.

Measuring the different response rates could help them plan future campaigns.

www.txt4info.com