Texting for College Students' Cash

SEPTEMBER 10, 2007 - Reaching mobile users with permission.

When it comes to money, the perception of the starving college student applies less and less.

According to findings in the "American Freshmen: Forty-Year Trends 1966–2006" report from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, entering freshmen in 2005 "came from households with a parental median income of $74,000, 60% higher than the national average of $46,326."

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An Alloy Marketing + Media-commissioned study by Harris Interactive found that 2007 college students age 18 to 30 have $48 billion in mad money or disposable income.

On campus, much of that spending is going toward technology such as mobile phones. More than nine in 10 college students have mobile handsets, according to the Alloy-Harris study.

So college students have mobile phones and money. How can marketers use one to generate the other? After all, unsolicited messages sent to mobile phones are just portable spam.

Ad-supported mobile content may not be enough.

One-half (51%) of mobile users surveyed by Harris in October 2006 said they were not at all willing to watch advertising in exchange for free mobile applications. The remaining 49% were only slightly negative to neutral.

Marketers may reach college students by capitalizing on their penchant for texting.

A May 2007 Youth Trends study found that 78% of college students had sent a text message within the past week.

"Female college students are more likely to use text messaging, and that opens up an opportunity for marketers whose products are aimed at young women," said Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer.

Embedding short codes on product packages can prompt texting, and the potential goes beyond Coke cans and snack wrappers. Short codes on physical media such as newspapers, magazines and billboards tie them to mobile handsets, along with the permission required to reach mobile users, at least with a specific offer.