A new report from research company comScore says 100 million mobile phone subscribers in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy have seen SMS advertisements. In addition, more than 57 million subscribers said they’d seen an ad on their mobile phone when browsing the internet or accessing an application.
This means that SMS ads reached 43.6% of the estimated 230.5 million mobile users in the ‘EU5’ countries, while web or app ads were recalled by nearly a quarter of the total mobile audience.
Most SMS ads were for products, services or brands. These reached 26.3% of mobile consumers, with 5.7% responding to the ads. Conversely, SMS ads asking for charitable donations were seen by 4.2% of people, with 11.6% of recipients responding.
Overall, smartphone users were twice as likely to be exposed to mobile advertising as the average mobile subscriber. In the UK, nearly two out of three smartphone users (62.7%) recalled having seen an ad while browsing or using an app.
Jeremy Copp, European VP Mobile at comScore, said “While the majority of mobile adverts are still effectively distributed via SMS and good response rates indicate acceptance among mobile phone owners, the growing smartphone adoption across all EU5 countries continues to enable the emergence of richer mobile advertising. Mobile web and app ads increase the possibilities of accessing prime audiences and provide advertisers with additional marketing opportunities beyond traditional mobile techniques.”