Most peoples reactions to marketing and advertising messages on their mobile phones is initially often negative, a recent survey from ABI research found that responsiveness can be improved through incentives.

Thirty-seven percent of those who have received text advertisements have indicated they are more likely to respond to advertising if the message they received offered an incentive such as a retail coupon or a free song or ringtone, compared to 11 percent who said such incentives had no impact.

“We think that in general, advertisers and operators must tread carefully when delivering marketing messages to a consumer’s mobile handset, especially given that many subscribers believe they are paying a significant amount of money for their mobile services,” says research director Michael Wolf.

“However, we believe that marketing and advertising messaging that is properly crafted and that utilizes incentives could enjoy more acceptance on the part of the consumer.”

Incentives that received the most positive response were real-world discounts and coupons for retail stores. Sixty-percent of those were either neutral or open to text message marketing offering a discounted coupon at a local retailer as the incentive they would most likely respond to. The nest most popular incentives were free ringtone and songs.

“As more content and applications move through both messaging systems and browsers, advertisers are going to need to consider how best to package advertising,” said Wolf.

“We believe that most consumers will ultimately be amenable to limited marketing on their mobile phones, particularly that which is non-intrusive, targeted, and that can bring them some kind of value in the form of both real-world and digital media-based incentives.”

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