• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, March 29, 2011

According to responses from the national Survey of the American Consumer by GfK MRI, Millennials with mobile phones look at texted ads and respond to ads via text far more than do other cell phone owners, followed by GenXers. Baby Boomers trail the pack considerably with regard to these activities.

6.2% of adults (or 12.5 million people) with mobile phones looked at an ad sent with a text message in the last 30 days while 2.65% of adults with mobile phones (5.3 million people) used text messaging to respond to an ad or to make a purchase in the previous 30 days.

Millennials (born 1977 to 1994) are 57% more likely than the average cell phone owner to have looked at a texted ad, and 93% more likely to have used text to respond to an ad or to make a purchase.

GenXers (born 1965 to 1976) are only 19% more likely than the average cell phone owner to have looked at a texted ad, and 6% more likely to have responded or make a purchase.

Mobile Phone Owners and Text Advertising (Previous 30 Days)
	Looked At An Ad Sent by Text Message	Used Text Message to Respond to Ad or Purchase
Percent of all mobile owners	6.20%	2.65%
Number of mobile owners	12,494,000	5,335,000
Percent (±) likely than the average cell phone owner to have looked at a texted ad, respond, or make purchase
Age Group
Millennials	+57%	+93%
GenXers	+19	+06
Boomers	-40	-55
Use text for other reasons	+66	+70
Source: GfkMRI, March 2011

Setting aside age differences, comfort with texting and how consumers feel about their mobile phone appear to impact the attention paid to texted ads and the use of text as an ad response mechanism, says the report.

Cell phone owners who use text for other reasons, such as communicating with friends and family or receiving text alerts, are 66% more likely to have looked at a texted ad and 70% more likely to have used text to respond to an ad or have made a purchase than the average cell owner. And mobile phone owners who agree with the statement, "My cell phone is an extension of my personality" are 85% more likely to have looked at a texted ad and 110% more likely to have used text to respond to an ad or to make a purchase.

Anne Marie Kelly, SVP, Marketing & Strategic Planning at GfK MRI, concludes that "... more and more marketers use text as part of their overall messaging strategy... given that more than four billion text messages are sent each day in the US... if older adults were going to take to texted ads or text as a response mechanism, they would have already done so... reaching this group via texting will be a challenge for advertisers." 

For additional information from GfkMRI, please visit here.