Codes, text messages on cell phones drawing customers

In a lengthy article on the virtues of Marketers using codes to sell cell-phone content - -- ringtones, screen savers, wallpaper and text alerts -- the Knight Ridder Tribune News writes that that marketers can drive buyers directly to their content by publicizing a code in print ads or in other media and that some record labels are putting codes on CD cases to sell ringtones based on popular music.

For example, Jamster, a company that sells ringtones based on a variety of music genres, tends to market on cable-TV channels such as MTV and BET, where Cingular advertises less frequently. "Even when we offer the same content, (short codes give a marketer) the ability to reach new people," Nagel said.

Some marketers believe that short codes eventually will become as pervasive in advertising as Web site addresses are now, said Drew Hull, research director for NPD Group, a market research company in Port Washington, N.Y. "You hear people say that short codes will be tomorrow's URL," Hull said."

emily | 5:07 PM | Marketing |
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/ringtonia/archives/2006/01/011192.htm