Phone Users Control Text Promotions

NZHerald - 28 August 2003

Vodafone has launched a text-messaging platform that allows cellphone users to opt in to promotional campaigns.

The company has reduced the cost of promotional text messages but says the move will not lead to "text spamming" because phone users will receive messages only from businesses they have asked to hear from.

Text spamming is a problem in Europe, where cellphone users are often flooded with unsolicited messages.

Vodafone and Telecom, aware of the potential backlash from consumers in this country if a similar situation arose here, have both kept tight checks on how local marketers can use the cellphone messaging channel.

Vodafone's new Mobile Tool Box platform allows phone users to limit the types of promotional texts they receive, how often, and at what time of the day.

Preferences are set by phone users through Vodafone's website, through Vodafone Live!-enabled phones, or by sending text messages.

"This means that marketers are communicating to consumers who actually want to hear from them, and ultimately makes mobile marketing much more powerful for both the consumer and the marketer," said Kieren Cooney, Vodafone's general manager, new markets.

Through Mobile Tool Box, marketers can build and manage customer lists, launch text campaigns and track responses through real-time reporting.

Vodafone had been charging 50c for each promotional text message sent, but this is being reduced to 20c, plus Mobile Tool Box set-up and hosting costs.

Telecom Mobile's partner solutions manager, Will Hippisley, said the company was not intending to launch a platform similar to Mobile Tool Box.

Telecom had systems in place to prevent text spamming and took the approach that it only facilitated business customers' text-marketing, he said.

"We don't feel the need to have that control over the channel."

Under Telecom's contracts, messages could be sent only to phone users who had chosen to receive them.

"We make sure that there are controls in place to protect the integrity of the network and the customer experience, but how that data is used is going to be different for each customer," Hippisley said.

The technology behind Mobile Tool Box was developed by marketing technology company Touchpoint, which has licensed it to Vodafone.

Touchpoint director Steve Shearman said the platform would make texting a more accessible medium for marketers, while retaining consumercontrol.

"What it will do is make it easier for marketers to use this channel and use it confidently.

New Zealanders have embraced text messaging.

In November 1999, fewer than 60,000 text messages a day were sent over Vodafone's network.

Now, an average of 1.8 million messages are sent each day.

NZHerald - 28/08/2003