Sony's Bluetooth based mobile marketing campaign has produced some great results:

The four-week campaign placed Bluetooth-enabled units in theaters in more than 17 states, inviting moviegoers to download content like audio and video clips for the upcoming film (which the company declined to name) as well as a reminder that prompted them on the night before the movie's release.

Read more at MediaPost's Online Media Daily.

Just how effective are text message based mobile marketing campaigns?

It’s good to talk, but the second most popular activity on a mobile phone is text messaging. It also happens to be the most successful mobile advertising medium, according to a recently released report by the DMA. Of the 800 U.S. mobile phone users surveyed, 70% said they had responded to a marketing text message whereas just 41% had responded to a survey and 30% to email offers.

Read more @ Biz Report.
Launch your mobile marketing campaign today at Club Texting.

ComputerWorld has put together a list of ten informative tips that will help you become a better texter in no time:

To many people over the age of 30, text messaging can seem like one of those strange, complicated behaviors only teenagers understand. In reality, it's one more great tool in your productivity arsenal, right up there with e-mail and instant messaging.

Such as:

If your phone lacks GPS and you need to find your way between points A and B, let SMS be your guide. Before you hit the road, head to MapQuest in your desktop browser and input your destination. Once the site generates the driving directions, click the Send to Cell option and enter your cell number. In seconds you'll receive a text message containing a link to turn-by-turn directions for your route.

 If you're away from your PC, tap Google SMS for on-the-fly navigation. Create a new message with your starting point and destination, then send it to GOOGLE (dial 466453). In return, you'll receive Google Maps directions in one or more text messages (depending on the length of the route). You can also get an actual map by texting "map" and your location.

Read all ten tips at ComputerWorld.

Every now and then we like to highlight how our customers are using our SMS mobile marketing software in new and innovative ways. Today we look at Elevate, a forward-thinking church in Hawaii. While many churches, temples, and other religious groups have recently embraced text messaging, Elevate was one of our first customers to take advantage of the technology.

Objectives of Elevate's Mobile Marketing Campaign

Elevate is a Hawaii based church that exists to inspire a movement of caring and growing communities that fill Hilo and the nations of the earth with the worship of Jesus.

As a youth-focused, community-driven organization Elevate's outreach efforts extend far beyond the confines of a the traditonal church. As is common, many of its community members are constantly on the go, living hectic, modern lives. Elevate decided that a text messaging solution would allow them to quickly, effectively reach their members. Club Texting delivered that solution.

The Solution
Elevate signed up the church’s leaders, as well as members of the community. They built their text messaging list by highlighting their new SMS program at  community events and services. With a large list of subscribers in hand, they began to send out text messages, in order to achieve a number of goals:

• Promoting Special Events: “REVO this sat. @ new venue: old farmer’s exchange – btwn downtown L&L & Sack n Save. Spread the word to everyone, REVO is on!!!
• Promoting Church Campaigns: “tonight the ‘elevate africa’ vision plus another night of intense worship. come ready to shake things up!
• Promoting Church Services / Prayer Groups: “gathering tonight @ hmc, pastor dwight on freedom, sweeeeet worship and lots of good fun at the café. See you there!"

The Results
Elevate continues to send text messages to its members on an almost weekly basis. As more and more people learn about and look forward to receiving these updates, Elevate's list is growing rapidly.

To learn more about text messaging solutions for churches, please visit Club Texting.

Here is a very interesting story from MediaPost, about a, well, non-traditional use of text messages:

WALK INTO ANY APPLE, JCPENNEY, Sony, or Wal-Mart store and provide instant feedback on products via text messages from cell phones. That's the long-term vision of Glenn Allison, who along with several other Northwestern University graduate students co-founded tech startup Mimieo to develop software applications for marketers.

It may be a long-term vision, but they've already got the technology in place:

The most recent, an online and mobile poll, asked consumers to rank how well they liked the entertainment value of each ad during the Academy Awards, and whether they were more or less likely to purchase the product after seeing the commercial.

On Oscar night, a panel of graduate students analyzed the data from polls and has published a report on the findings. High marks were awarded by viewers to JCPenney, MasterCard, Coca-Cola, and L'Oreal.

JCPenney introduced the American Living brand. The ads gave glimpses into American life, and a new brand catering to "family and home." A high percentage of both men and women enjoyed the ads, and indications of their preference for the brand increased. Mastercard's "Studious Pupil" commercial was one of the most entertaining. The ad featured a twenty-something guy in a shrunken shirt and red tie "searching for the priceless things in life."

The commercial got favorable responses from poll respondents, and ranked high in entertainment value, particularly among Facebook users. Coca-Cola and L'Oreal were winners, too, according to Allison. Consumers could vote through Facebook online and Apple's iPhone.

Read more at MarketingDaily.

MediaPost reports:

AGENCIES ARE GEARING UP FOR mobile advertising, but the process of mobile media planning and buying is still very much a work in progress, according to a panel of ad executives convened at the OMMA Mobile conference Wednesday

Buoyed by growing client interest in mobile ads, agencies are starting to field mobile specialists and acquire the expertise to help elevate cell phones to must-buy media. But incorporating mobile into the marketing mainstream remains a learning process for both Madison Avenue and advertisers.

Of course you could always bypass an expensive Madison Avenue shop and work directly with a company that is dedicated to mobile marketing.

RCR Wireless News published an informative article about Short Codes last week.  Whether you're thinking about launching your first mobile marketing campaign, or your a seasoned pro, it's worth a read:

At almost every event I attend, whether for mobile specifically, digital, advertising, etc., dialogue almost always shifts to a discussion around Common Short Code (CSC) mobile campaigns. Those five- or six-digit text messaging (or SMS) numbers marketers provide to consumers so they can interactively engage in a mobile marketing campaign.

Why is everybody talking about Short Codes?

...although many companies are talking about the image-rich opportunities, like video, MMS and so on, text-based campaigns still serve the lion’s share of the initiatives today.

There is a lot of information, but for a quick overview of what a Short Code is and how it works, read on:

One of the most popular examples today in America is “Deal or No Deal." Viewers may participate in the program by texting the Lucky Case to 59595 for a chance to win $10,000. Rather than have consumers enter a long telephone number (xxx-xxx-xxxx), marketers offer the CSC to simplify participation and drive consumer interactions. It is that simple!

In the United States, the CSC process is managed by the Common Short Code Administration (CSCA) and is supported by all of the wireless carriers, mobile application service providers (MASPs), and aggregators. Any company may acquire a short code, but it must work within the guidelines and application process outlined by the CSCA in order to obtain their codes. Brands should also be aware there are monthly leasing rates that apply to each and every short code, very similar to the URL process, although rates are higher than what you might have paid for your Web site. Once your application is submitted to the CSCA, the CSCA will work with each of the carriers to ensure the short code is configured across your selected operator’s networks (for example, some programs may select all carriers, while others may select only one carrier on which to deploy).

Currently, there are two types of short codes available: random and vanity. Random CSCs are numbers the CSCA randomly assigns; vanity CSCs are selected based on the brand's requirements (and obviously availability of the number from the CSCA). For example, 01234 would be a random number, whereas NIKE1 could be a vanity code for Nike.

Read the entire article @ RCR Wireless News.

Credo Mobile is taking it to the streets.

The progressive mobile phone provider, a division of Working Assets, this week launched an integrated campaign from independent SS+K, Los Angeles, that positions the company as a provider of social change.

As part of the campaign, Credo is producing political street theater in select cities using projected cartoon images on the sides of buildings drawn by political satirist Tom Tomorrow. Images of people such as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are shown next to blank dialogue boxes. Passersby can use their mobile phones to text in what they think the characters should say and then the words appear as part of the images.

Read  the entire article @ Adweek.

The Belfast Telegraph recently unveiled a list of 101 gadgets that changed the world. Though the Abacus comes in at number one, mobile technology certainly makes a showing on the list:

10. Blackberry, 1999

Ask the average office worker they think of their Blackberry and they will variously call it a boon and a curse. Developed by the Canadian firm Research in Motion and unleashed in 1999, the gizmo has provided legions of roaming desk jockeys with a hotline to their inboxes, and enabled armies of bosses to keep employees digitally shackled to their swivel chairs. The addictiveness of the device led it to be dubbed the "Crackberry".

37. GPS, 1978

Determining your location used to require such cumbersome devices as a map, compass and ruler. Now a single press of a button (and up to 32 satellites) will pinpoint your precise position to within a couple of metres. Great for explorers, paramedics and pilots – not so good for unwitting Latvian lorry drivers sent on cross-country wild goose chases by budget sat-navs. Developed by the US military in the 1970s, the Global Positioning System has been globally available since 1994.

54. Mobile phone, 1947

There are more than two billion mobile phones in the world, and the EU is home to more "cells", as the American's call them, than people. It is difficult to quantify the economic and social impact of the device – of all the gadgets in the average person's arsenal, it is surely the one we would be worst off without. Those who disagree can blame Bell Laboratories for their invention; the firm introduced the first service in Missouri in 1947. Widespread coverage in Britain did not begin until the late 1980s.

76. SMS, 1992

Linguist purists H8 txtspk. The Short Message Service (SMS) has developed the thumbs of a generation of communicators who have devised their own shorthand, textspeak, to stay in touch (and uncover extra-marital affairs). The British engineer Neil Papworth sent the first (unabbreviated) text 15 years ago. It read: "MERRY CHRISTMAS". Their popularity exploded in the late 1990s and now in the UK alone we send millions every day (a record 214 million last New Year's Eve).

How the Blackberry is 44 places higher than the cellphone itself is a bit of a head-scratcher, but the list still makes for an interesting read.

101 Gadgets That Changed The World (via 160 Characters Association)

Following up on our previous post about innovative and surprising uses of SMS, we found this interesting bit of Text-Government in action:

Late council tax payers won't be able to use the UK postal strike as an excuse for non-payment any more, thanks to the local council's deployment of a text messaging system from Avanquest.

Barbergh District Council in Suffolk is using Avanquest's SMS solution, Text Message Server, to improve internal and external communications. Rather than sending out printed reminders for council tax or booking building inspection appointments, council staff will contact people using SMS messages.

"The potential for numerous worker hours saved is enormous, coupled with money savings - the cost of a second class stamp is 24p, a text charge is 6p," said Bob Southgate, Babergh's head of customer services.

But that's not all:

Barbergh plans to expand SMS usage for emergency planning processes and also for people to report fly-tipping or grafitti to the relevant departments.

Read More @ Computer Business Review.

JoonBug Productions is a leading organizer of New Year's Eve Parties, with celebrations in Times Square, Downtown, Midtown, and on Cruise Ships. As a small, growing New York City-based company, JoonBug hires additional salespeople every fall to help sell New Years Eve tickets. In a city where space comes at a premium, it is essential for JoonBug to efficiently coordinate their sales staff. This means assuring that there are always just enough salespeople per phone in the office at any given time. In the past JoonBug has relied upon email and phone calls, which never worked perfectly during the harried fall sales season. So last year they decided to do something different. They decided to implement a Club Texting-powered text messaging solution.

In October, as they hired their seasonal staff, they collected cellular phone numbers and entered them into their Club Texting account's database. With this data in hand, JoonBug found new and innovative ways to communicate with their sales team. Sick team members were asked to text in. As soon as the information was received text blasts went out offering everyone else the opportunity to pick up a shift. When office schedules changed, as they often did, everyone could be notified instantly (at times at the last minute). In short, at their busiest time of the year, JoonBug Productions was able to radically simplify a tiresome, unorganized process that is nonetheless essential to their business.

On The Web:
JoonBug Productions - New Year's Eve Parties
Club Texting Case Studies

The 160Characters Association ran an interesting story this morning about Philipino airline Cebu Pacific:

Flights on Philipine domestic airline Cebu Pacific can be paid for through ATMs with the tickets delivered by SMS.

Travellers with domestic Philipino carrier Cebu Pacific (CEB) can pay for their airline tickets via the 1,700 Megalink automated teller machines (ATMs) around the country after making their booking through CEB’s call center or by text message.

Follow here for more.

Last week's Washington Post included an interesting story about the growing popularity of mobile comic books. With their graphic content, short size, and devoted fanbase, mobile comic books seem like a revenue generating mobile data service that just might do well for itself:

Sean Demory realized a long-held dream of becoming a published comic book writer when "Thunder Road," a post-apocalyptic adventure he developed with artist Steven Sanders, was released.

"I've been plugging away and pitching things for 15 to 20 years," Demory said. "This is the first one that landed in fertile soil."

But don't look for the tales of Merritt and his buddies on the shelves of a comic bookstore or even the Internet. "Thunder Road" is the first comic book released in the United States exclusively via cellphone, part of a lineup of mobile comic books offered by Kansas City-based uClick.

"It opens up a market that wouldn't necessarily be seen as a traditional comic market," Demory said of the launch last month.

Several companies are experimenting with putting printed material on mobile phones, including publisher HarperCollins's announcement this summer it would begin putting excerpts of new books on Apple's iPhones.

Mobile comic books are still in their infancy in the United States -- uClick says it's grown to about 55,000 readers a month in the first year of offering its GoComics service.

But it touches on two strengthening trends: Comic book creators looking to leap to the digital arena, where production and distribution are cheap, and the demand by wireless providers for data-rich applications to drive future revenues.

"Obviously comics have a pretty large following," said David Oberholzer, associate director of content programming for Verizon Wireless, which offers GoComics along with competitors AT&T and Sprint Nextel. "You want to mimic what's out there already and have that on your deck."

For $4.49 a month on Verizon, or $3.99 a month for AT&T and Sprint, subscribers can view nearly a dozen different traditional comic books. There's also a separate subscription service for Japanese comics called manga.

Read the entire article at the Washington Post.

Though we usually cover the ways that SMS text messaging is changing advertising, the fact is, text messaging is popping up all over the place. Case in point--yesterday, Web Worker Daily published an informative article, 7 Ways to Text Message for Productivity. If you're constantly out of the office, some these tips could prove extremely useful. We've pulled out a couple of our favorites below:

Check your daily agenda. Google Calendar makes it easy to find out what’s on your schedule. Text “next” to GVENT (48368) to get your next appointment, “day” to get that day’s agenda, or “nday” to get tomorrow’s agenda.

...

Read your voice mail. Get the gist of a voicemail message by SMS, with CallWave’s Vtxt service, free while it’s in beta. You won’t get an exact transcription — less important comments like “hello” and “ummmm” will be left out — but that keeps the message down to about the size of a text message.

Read the entire list @ Web Worker Daily.

James Martin of E-Commerce Guide has published an informative article on the huge rewards (and the potential pitfalls) of mobile marketing. The article is worth a full read, but if you're short on time, we've pulled out some highlights for you. FYI: Martin identifies two types of mobile marketing--Opt-In SMS and Mobile Banner Ads.

Opt-in SMS (Short Message Service) campaigns, in which a consumer provides a business with his or her cell phone number in exchange for special offers or alerts delivered via text message, is one option. For example, a cosmetics retailer on eBay may send SMS alerts to customers, reminding them when it's time to reorder and offering a 15 percent discount coupon if they buy now.
...
Though still primarily used by large corporations, mobile marketing is increasingly attracting interest from small e-tailers and retailers, said Strother. "The mobile phone is a very personal device. People take it with them everywhere they go — especially people 35 and under. So you can easily develop a one-to-one relationship with your customers through their mobile phones." Messages sent to a mobile phone are much more likely to be read than e-mail sent to a PC, which may get routed to a spam folder, Strother adds.

The result: Mobile marketing can be more effective than other forms of marketing, said Bob Gold, CEO of Gold Mobile, a mobile marketing solutions company. Because mobile campaigns are highly targeted and opt-in, Gold said consumers typically redeem 5 to 20 percent of coupons delivered to their cell phones, compared to only 1 to 3 percent of coupons received through direct mail or e-mail.

Mobile marketing also helps e-tailers gather valuable data, such as cell phone numbers, on consumers who are interested in their products or services. "Once you get your customers to opt in (to receive an offer or alert via text message), you can capture them in your database and use that information later for loyalty marketing and customer retention," Gold said.

And some common mistakes to avoid?

For a mobile marketing campaign to succeed, Gold said, you must first understand your customers. For example, are your customers heavy text message users? Do they frequently use their cell phones to find products and services? If not, a mobile campaign may not be an effective strategy for your marketing efforts. If you do decide to go mobile, every mobile marketing campaign should be opt-in, Gold adds.

Head over to E-Commerce Guide to read the rest of the piece.

The goal of a most marketing campaigns is to induce a consumer response. In order to achieve this, the consumer has to remember your ad. This can be difficult in an age of media saturation. There are two approaches you can take to this problem. One - Hope for the best, relying upon the creative brilliance of your campaign, or Two - Give consumers a way to instantly respond. A recent survey of consumers in the UK shows that they're clamoring for the latter:

When asked if they would find it useful using text as a response mechanism to an offline advertisement, to then be forwarded to a mobile internet site for more details, more than 51% of consumers said they would be quite keen or extremely keen to use it.

Out of those who were interested in the service, three quarters (74%) said they would use it to order a brochure and 70% would use it to check the availability of a product. Two thirds (66%) would use it to find their nearest retail store, 65% would use it to request a sample and 58% would use it to browse the product information. More than half (53%) would be interested in using it to order tickets to a concert, play or other event, whereas 49% said they would use it to buy a product and 48% would use it to book a holiday or other types of travel. More than half mobile users would also use a service like this to enter a free prize draw (51%)!

Head over to the 160Characters Association's website to read more.

Today's edition of MediaPost's Online Media Daily features an interesting commentary from writer Gary Bembridge. Assessing the current state and the future of mobile advertising, Mr. Bembridge sees a market bound by a myth--that mobile advertising is hard to do. Once this myth is shattered, Mr. Bembridge believes, the flood gates should open:

AS GOOGLE HAS SO SUCCESSFULLY shown, if you make media buying intuitive and easy, the advertisers will come. And not just the mom and pop retailers, but nearly every major marketer is now involved in some form of search marketing, if only to protect its own flanks from aggressive competitors. So, how does this translate to mobile advertising? There is still a nagging feeling out there that mobile advertising is hard to do. That it will require yet another agency specialist like search does or a fully mature mobile site, but it doesn't.

So what happens when someone dispels the illusion?

Simply put, the mobile phone has become an indispensable device giving marketers access to target audiences 24x7. It doesn't take an economist to project that marketers cannot afford to ignore this channel for long.

...

While seemingly in a nascent stage, the fact is mobile advertising is projected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2006 to $13.9 billion by 2011 (eMarketer, January, 2007). The reasons are simple: mobile advertising that delivers relevant and useful ads gives users immediate answers that are regarded as valuable content; advertisers can influence their audience during the "last mile" at the moment just before a purchase in the real world.

He closes his piece with some important advice: "Don't be the advertiser left behind."

On Tuesday FierceMobileContent posted an interview with Marie Jacobson, executive vice president, programming and production, international networks at Sony Pictures Television International. They discussed how Sony has jumped on the mobile content bandwagon. You can read the entire article here, but we've gone ahead and highlighted some choice quotes:

Mobile is a big focus for us. Mobile is an extension of a lot of great things we are doing in the TV space. It’s also a fertile development platform and distribution platform for a lot of stuff—video, personalization, games and networks.
 

...

FierceMobileContent: Is mobile being integrated into programming from the concept stage?

Jacobson: Absolutely. In fact, if it isn’t then it really isn’t a dedicated experience. We try to reinforce that. If it’s a retrofit to mobile or to Internet it feels like it. Consumers are too wise for that. In mature markets, the mobile consumer is looking for specific content that speaks to them as a mobile consumer. That is specific content. If we are producing a TV property, then we want to be sure is that on any one platform our viewer or consumer is getting a different dedicated experience.

...

For “Afterworld,” specifically, there is 130 three-minute pieces of content, linear content, that tells the story. That could play across TV, mobile and Internet. We also have 13 broadcast one-half hours for the same franchise for the broadcasters. Then we have recaps, trailers, music videos and those things are geared toward the mobile and Internet consumer.

When you drill down more you have to ask, what can we do for mobile for a non-3G consumer? We’re creating a really cool mobile comic strip. We are creating a rich comic strip experience for the non-3G consumer that wants to experience it but can’t yet.

We also have premium downloads and a casual game in development that will bridge the gap for “Afterworld” between season 1 and season 2.

At the early stage-at script stage—we got involved last year. It was very important for us to have something to offer that was dedicated to each platform.

You can read the rest of the article at FierceMobileContent.

When Philadelphia Style Magazine decided it was time to build a deeper relationship with their customers, they turned to Club Texting to set up a text messaging subscription service.

Philadelphia Style Magazine is the city's premier lifestyle and fashion publication. They deliver inside information to an affluent 25 - 45 year-old subscriber base.

Goal: Build Up A Customer Database Rich With Demographic Data. Collect demographic data from customers to enhance database.

Strategy For Success:  Incentivized Call-To-Action Campaign--Online, In Print, and On Site. Offers to customers include:

• Last-Minute Event Notification. Example: Happy Hour.
• Sweepstakes. Example: First five people to text back win a fabulous prize.
• Added Value: Notify subscribers of upcoming advertiser sales and promotions.

Call To Action (CTA):  Text STYLE to CLUBS (25827) and receive alerts for special STYLE events and exclusive sweepstakes!

Methods:

• Offered first 50 text subscribers a gift certificate for a free appetizer & cocktail at the restaurant of their choice.    This offer was seen in the following places:    
  • Included CTA in a promo page announcing the launch of the Style Club Texting service in the March/April  issue.
  • Reinforced the campaign launch in subscriber email newsletter.

   

• Added CTA to the signature of all employee emails.
• Integrated list subscription process into Style Club website registration procedure.
• Handed out VIP cards with CTA at past Philly Style events, such as issue launch parties. Future events include Center City 6, a popular Philadelphia after-work happy hour series.
• Sent out a street team to hand out VIP cards with CTA in high-traffic locales, such as parks and popular dining districts.
• Enhanced data collection:    
  •       
  • Customers provide home address and other demographic information in exchange for special offers.
  • Data  can be collected via customer SMS response.

Outcome: Within two months of implementation, Philly Style Magazine has reached their target number of subscribers. With Club Texting's help, they achieved their goals  with little effort, and little upfront investment.

If you'd like to see your success story, get in touch with us at [email protected].

If you've been looking in to text messaging for your business, chances are you've come across two acronyms--SMS and SMTP.  They refer to two very different types of messages, and today we're going to break down the important differences. First, we need to define the two acronyms.

SMTP - Simple Mail Transport Protocol. SMTP is the standard for email on the internet and it's over 25 years old! Most cell phones are able to receive text messages in this format. In essence the phone  receives an email, and in fact, a message delivered in this fashion is sent to an address like [email protected].

SMS - Short Message Service. SMS is a message system designed for cellular phones. Unlike email, SMS messages are sent to phone numbers, not addresses. They are routed through a gateway, which connects directly to the carrier's network. For our discussion SMS can be seen as interchangeable with SMPP--the Short Message Peer to Peer Protocol.

If you are looking into commercial text messaging, you need to be looking at SMS. Why? There are a number of reasons, and now we are going to explore them.

1. An SMS message is sent via a gateway directly to the cell phone carrier, while an SMTP message, like any other email, bounces from server to server (this can often happen a half-dozen times) before it arrives.
2. SMS messages travel over a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and are thus secure, while SMTP messages travel unencrypted around the Internet.
3. Cell phone carriers (often reluctantly) deliver SMTP messages for free, while they charge a toll for SMS messages. Because they charge this toll, carriers have a much greater incentive to make sure SMS messages are delivered in a timely fashion. Further, as these messages are routed directly through their computers, carriers can provide you with delivery information--messages which do not arrive are called bounces. With SMTP you never know if your messages arrive.
4. Perhaps the greatest benefit of SMS messaging over SMTP messaging is its two-way nature.  This allows your subscribers to respond to messages you send them. More than just a value-adding feature, two-way capability is necessary for commercial messaging under current United States case law.

The fourth point--about the law--leads us to an important discussion. In 2003, Congress enacted the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act to curb spam. As required by the Act, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules that prohibit sending unwanted commercial e-mail messages to wireless devices without prior permission. This ban took effect in March 2005. The FCC’s ban covered messages sent to cell phones and pagers, if the message used an Internet address that included an Internet domain name (as seen in my Cingular example above).

The FCC’s ban did not cover “short messages,” typically sent from one mobile phone to another, that do not use an Internet address (such as an SMS/SMPP message). To help enforce its ban, the FCC required wireless service providers to provide all Internet domain names used to transmit electronic messages to wireless devices. The FCC published this list on its Web site.  Senders were prohibited from sending commercial e-mail messages to any Internet domain name on this list without the recipient’s express prior authorization.

In other words, the SMTP protocol is pretty heavily regulated when it comes to sending messages to subscribers who did not give their “express prior authorization.” However, the CAN-SPAM Act provided no regulation when it came to the SMPP protocol. Still, that doesn’t mean that you are free and clear with SMPP, thanks in large part to a widely interpreted provision of the  Television Consumer Protection Act of 1991.

One of the articles of The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA), includes sending text messages to cell phones using an automatic telephone dialing system. The TCPA prohibits the sending of such messages “to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged” 47 U.S.C. §227 (b)(1)(A)(iii).

This prohibition encompasses both voice calls and text calls, including SMS messages sent to wireless phone numbers. While it might be argued that that the SMPP protocol is not an automatic telephone dialing system, this is still a legal gray area. Moreover, the underlying directive of the TCPA can be easily extended to include the SMPP protocol, which didn’t exist when the law was initially instated. The intent of the TCPA was to make sure that consumers expressly consent to automated calls or messages sent to wireless devices given that consumers may be charged to receive such calls or messages. Since the act covers such a wide range of devices (at the time, wireless messages were meant for pagers), it is definitely possible that newer wireless technology also falls under these general guidelines. The key  again is the notion of “express written consent”, which, in the case of text messaging, means some sort of opt-in proof.

With SMS/SMPP customers can reply to messages, which is essential to the Double Opt-In process. With Club Texting's Service, new subscribers to your list receive a confirmation text message. By replying to this message, they have Double Opted In, which is commonly accepted in the industry as proof of written consent. This Double Opt In process simply does not exist in an SMTP scenario.

When you put it all together, you can see that SMS offers you more reliable delivery, secure messaging, carrier support, extended information, and most importantly, legal protection. While there are still businesses that offer SMTP messaging, flouting the law, the pennies you might save are hardly worthwhile.