The latest annoyance: Spam on your cellphone
Featured in the Edmonton Journal, Calgary Herald, Ottawa Citizen
Kristin Goff

05/01/03- Feeling overwhelmed by junk mail, telemarketers and spam? Just wait, a whole new world of ad pitches is getting ready to target your cellphone.

Labatt's Blue has already launched the first nationwide campaign in Canada that can reach cellphone users regardless of their carrier. By this summer, campaigns aimed at the youth market should be in full swing across Canada, according to one marketing guru.

"The avalanche is going to start," says Roman Bodnarchuk, chief executive of N5R Inc., a Toronto e-marketing company. And as the medium gains acceptance, it will extend to older demographics, offering the potential of reaching millions of Canadians.

Text messaging, also called short message service or SMS, is already enabled on most cellphones in Canada purchased within the past few years.

It allows users to send short text messages of no more than 160 characters, for a flat rate of around 10 cents a message. They are free to receive.

It has been enthusiastically adopted by teens and young adults who are largely responsible for its explosive growth. In March, 25 million text messages were sent in Canada, compared to 10 million in March 2002.

In the past year, there have been a smattering of text messaging promotions, like a Bell Mobility program to provide its subscribers with updates on NHL hockey scores. But until a recently completed industry agreement, there was no promotion that could reach cellphone users regardless of which carrier they have.

Labatt Blue's national text messaging campaign is the first in Canada to use the new common short code that is the result of that agreement, according to Marc Choma, director of communications for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA). Labatt's is a pilot program that should clear the way for full commercialization of text message campaigns this summer, he said.

Labatt's ads ask cellphone users to text message the word "play" to the special six digit number "24-blue" (242583) to sign up to play Labatt Blue's "Cup Crazy Trivia Challenge." Players receive three NHL Stanley Cup trivia questions weekly for six weeks and can message back their answers from a multiple choice list. The trivia contest, also offered online, offers a chance to win a trip for two to a Stanley Cup finals game or a variety of other prizes, says Kathy Murphy, a spokeswoman.

About 1,000 hockey fans have signed up to play by text messaging, since the program was launched April 10. (Contest registration closes May 12). Labatt is happy with the response and sees it as "the latest and greatest way to communicate," said Ms. Murphy.

Whether text-message marketing will also create a whole new avenue of aggravation for consumers, overwhelming cellphones the way spam has taken over e-mail, remains to be seen.

"I don't want to say it is impossible, but I think it is extremely unlikely," said Mr. Bodnarchuk, in an interview in Ottawa earlier this week. He thinks wireless carriers will cut off large-scale spammers, rather than risk alienating customers.

Mr. Choma says the wireless carriers have agreed that any deal they negotiate with a marketer has to be offered on an "opt-in" basis. That means customers have to see an advertisement elsewhere and text-message the advertised number to sign up for the promotion. It also prohibits a marketing company from reusing the cellphone numbers in more than one campaign, without signing another agreement.

Mr. Bodnarchuk hopes marketers will be "respectful" of their customers, sending information only to those who request it. Good marketers should also include an easy way for customers to have their cell number removed from a marketer's list, he says. But there is no legislation or regulation to require that.

In Europe and Asia, where text messaging has been around for about three years, it has proved far more effective than any other type of direct advertising, according to Mr. Bodnarchuk.

The possibilities of using text messaging in Canada are tantalizing, Mr. Bodnarchuk told a workshop this week sponsored by the Ottawa chapter of the Canadian Marketing Association.

Advertisers can use it to offer instant, personalized pitches to target customers, provided they can gather information about what the customer wants and get the cellphone number to message to.

For example, a customer who signs up with a retailer like Roots Canada might be sent electronic coupons, notification of special sales, or promotions.

But if their cell were equipped with a global positioning device, instant advertising could go even farther. It would be possible to detect when that customer walked into the Rideau Centre, for example, triggering an instant text message that said, "Hi Joe. We've got jackets for you at 20 per cent off at Roots today."