SMS Advertising for Non-Mobile Products Grows As Mobile Is Integrated into Marketing Budgets for Consumer Goods and Services

Comscore reports that SMS adverts for food, restaurants and fashion grew, while those for mobile products and services declined

Reston, VA. October 31, 2008 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, reports that the mobile marketing landscape in Europe is evolving as fewer consumers say they are receiving advertisements for mobile products and services while more receive adverts for consumer goods such as food, fashion, restaurants, travel and financial services. Over the past year, the number of people receiving SMS adverts for mobile products and services fell nine percent in Europe, while the number receiving offers for non-mobile consumer goods and services climbed 15 percent. Overall, slightly fewer Europeans report receiving an SMS ad, with a decline from 112 million in August 2007 to 110 million in August 2008.

The fastest-growing category of SMS advertising since August 2007 is food, at a rate of 53 percent, followed by clothing/fashion at 38 percent and restaurants at 37 percent. Advertisements for restaurants and food also boast the highest level of response, with 16 percent of those receiving an advert for a restaurant responding and 13 percent of those receiving an offer for food, such as grocery coupons, responding. Meanwhile, the number of consumers responding to an offer for a mobile product or service remained flat, at four percent.

“While the majority of SMS adverts are still for mobile products and services, the mix is beginning to shift toward consumer goods and services,” observed Alistair Hill, analyst, Comscore. “Mobile advertisers are beginning to show a higher level of sophistication in their targeting efforts, as the targeting criterion is no longer ‘has mobile phone’ but is based on knowledge of consumers’tastes and behaviors. Clearly, consumers are responding as the quantity of SMS ads decreases and the quality increases.”

SMS Advertising Audience and Response Rates
Three-month average ending August 2007 and August 2008
Mobile Subscribers in EU5 (U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain)
Source: Comscore M:Metrics

Received SMS Advert (000’s)

% Responded to SMS Advert

Aug-07

Aug-08

% Change

Aug-07

Aug-08

Point Change

Downloads for mobile phone

40,792

35,915

-12.0%

4.4%

3.9%

-0.6

News or information

25,929

22,122

-14.7%

2.8%

3.2%

0.4

Mobile phone or plan

32,222

31,574

-2.0%

4.6%

4.7%

0.1

Entertainment

12,644

11,230

-11.2%

4.3%

5.1%

0.7

Total Mobile + Media Sectors

111,587

100,841

-9.6%

4.1%

4.1%

0

Clothing/Fashion

3,982

5,503

38.2%

5.8%

6.4%

0.6

Restaurants

1,037

1,424

37.3%

11.6%

15.5%

3.9

Cars

4,407

3,731

-15.4%

11.2%

7.9%

-3.3

Food

1,413

2,162

53.0%

9.2%

12.6%

3.4

Financial services

8,963

9,956

11.1%

3.7%

4.7%

1.0

Consumer electronics

3,957

4,647

17.4%

6.3%

6.7%

0.4

Travel

5,779

6,602

14.2%

4.9%

5.8%

0.9

Total Non-Mobile or Media Sectors

29,539

34,024

15.2%

6.2%

6.8%

0.5

Comscore also announced the results of its August Benchmark Study. Mobile social networking posted double-digit growth in all markets except Germany, which happens to show the lowest number of mobile social network users (as a percent of all mobile subscribers) of the five European countries measured by Comscore.

Comscore Mobile Benchmark Study
Three-month average ending August 2008 vs. Same Period in 2007
Mobile Subscribers in EU5 (U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain)
Source: Comscore M:Metrics

Germany

Spain

France

Italy

UK

Activity

% Users

Change

% Users

Change

% Users

Change

% Users

Change

% Users

Change

Watched video

3.7%

3.6%

7.9%

1.5%

5.5%

6.9%

7.4%

6.9%

5.2%

4.4%

Listened to music

19.3%

0.4%

24.1%

1.4%

16.2%

2.2%

16.8%

2.0%

22.2%

1.5%

Accessed news/info via browser

6.6%

0.6%

9.3%

7.7%

10.8%

9.4%

9.3%

12.1%

16.7%

2.4%

Received SMS ads

29.2%

-2.3%

73.6%

-0.7%

62.8%

0.2%

54.3%

-2.1%

38.2%

-1.4%

Played downloaded game

7.9%

1.4%

11.3%

-4.7%

4.2%

4.5%

8.5%

3.0%

10.5%

1.5%

Accessed downloaded application

2.9%

-0.9%

3.4%

2.8%

2.1%

22.1%

5.1%

1.4%

4.0%

6.4%

Sent/received photos or videos

22.1%

1.0%

33.2%

2.0%

25.4%

7.7%

32.8%

4.0%

31.8%

1.2%

Purchased ringtones

2.9%

-6.6%

4.1%

-1.9%

3.2%

3.7%

3.3%

-7.5%

3.1%

-1.1%

Used email

7.3%

-1.4%

10.5%

2.8%

7.1%

8.1%

11.9%

3.5%

9.6%

1.9%

Accessed social networking sites

1.9%

-1.8%

3.5%

20.8%

2.5%

10.4%

3.0%

17.6%

7.3%

10.0%

About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/boilerplate.

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