Now that 2012 is here, the theories about the end of the world seem more real than ever. In the last decade, there have been many things to worry about – war, the economy, terrorism. The biggest disasters since 2001 have been earthquakes and tsunamis. Haiti, Japan, the continents around the Indian Ocean, New Zealand; they've all been hit by the devastation brought by this freak waves. They cause billions in property damage, and cause thousands of deaths. Often they occur in less developed countries where there are ineffective warning systems in place, if any at all.

But help is on the way through the use of SMS text messaging. Following the Indian Ocean tsunami of Boxing Day 2004 where it was estimated that 230,000 people were either dead or missing, the United Nations set up the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System, which uses SMS technology to alert people of impending tsunamis thus saving thousands of lives. Sea walls only work for certain kinds of waves, and people can be notified any time, any place.

2011 has certainly been a busy year for us at RoutoMessaging, seeing expansion for us on both sides of our customer base. Within the wholesaler market we’ve seen mobile operators and social networking companies, as well as software developers and marketing companies continue to turn to RoutoMessaging to deliver a message termination service second to none. At the same time we have seen growth with our enterprises customers (across a wide range of sectors ranging from retail to travel and everything in between) who depend upon our expertise, quality products and services to provide the SMS and multi-messaging services they need to help optimise their business objectives. We also have an increasing number of businesses turn to us to provide bespoke consulting and development for their SMS and MMS messaging needs.

Probably our biggest success in 2011 was the addition of excel2sms to our range of products. This Excel add-in is brilliant for individuals and companies that want to send bulk text messages to phone numbers stored on Excel worksheets. Best of all, as it is an add-in the user doesn’t need to exist Excel to send a text message (they just need to click on it within the Excel menu) so it is simple to use. Of course our other text messaging products, including Web SMS (offering web-based bulk SMS messaging) and Easy Messenger (for those who prefer to use a desktop application for their SMS messages) have both proved to be popular with different parts of our customer base.

Yet none of these products would be as successful or popular without TextGate, RoutoMessaging’s resilient, reliable and amazingly fast SMS gateway, providing access to more than 800 operators worldwide. Add to this the fact that RoutoMessaging owns and manages its own worldwide mobile messaging network. This provides our customers with direct access to destination operators the world over and helps us secure unbeatable destination termination reliability.

According to the latest figures from the GSMA (Association of Mobile Operators and Related Companies) Africa is now the second largest mobile market in the world (behind Asia) and growing by 20% a year.  At the same time, use of the internet throughout Africa is still relatively low due of a lack of infrastructure.  As a consequence of having limited internet access many countries in Africa have turned to SMS to help provide and collect import information, which we in the West would simple collect via the internet.  This means that there have been some very novel mobile solution created in Africa which make the most of the ubiquity of mobile phone and the popularity and low cost of sending and receiving text messages.

As case in point is a new mobile solution which has been set up to monitor lions in Kenya by SMS with the aim of reducing conflict between local Maasi herders and the lions.   It seems that in recent years there has been a sharp decline in the number of lions that live outside Kenya’s national parks, dropping from an estimate of 100,000 down to 30,000.  And the main cause for the reduction has been due to conflict between the Maasi and the lion population.  However, steps have been taken to get the Maasi tribes more involved with lion conservation thanks to Living with Lions and Lion Guardians (two non-profit organisation dedicated safeguarding the lion population in Africa).  

There is no doubt about it; text messages are a great way to interact with customers. From providing delivery information, to confirming orders or offering loyal customers a discount coupon, a mobile campaign is a great way for companies to engage with their customers.  And sending and receiving a SMS messages is something that most of us do, as it is such an easy, fast and economical way to communicate.

Slowly but surely I’ve seen a real shift in people’s attitudes to text messages, not just in terms of who is sending them, but in our attitudes to their general  acceptance as a form of communication.  Many of us are willing to participate in mobile campaigns if it means that we will receive special offers from our favourite retailers. And certainly an increasing number of us want that added customer service of SMS alerts and updates.

Last month Tunisia went to the polls following the political uprising that ousted the long standing President of the country, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.  To help Tunisians find their nearest polling station an SMS campaign was launched using 2-way messaging.   The campaign was organised as a joint project between the national Government and a private Tunisian business.  The SMS campaign proved to be a huge success and millions of 2-way SMS messages were send between the 20 to 23 October.  It is thought that on Election Day (the 23rd of October ) around 3 million people texted the service and assuming that they all got a response there would have been a further 3 million replies, which means that a massive 6 million text messages were sent on that day alone.

I’ve noticed a distinct trend lately. More and more people are handing in their old tried and test standard mobile phone and upgrading to a smartphone. You see this not just in the US or Europe (where smartphone penetration is at its highest) but also in emerging mobile markets such as those in Asia. And of course, this means that the market for mobile advertising and mobile applications will be expanding to satisfy this growing market.

The analyst firm, Berg Insights, estimates that the number of mobile application downloads worldwide will grow at a compound annual growth rate of more than 50% in the coming years. By 2015 it predicts that worldwide download could reach 98 billion—which is a massive market by anyone standards. This, in turn means, that there is money to be made from this expanding mobile market, be revenues from paid applications and subscription services, mobile advertising or mobile applications for businesses.

The Co-operative Group, one of the leading supermarket chains in the UK, recently teamed up with a confectionery manufacture (Mars) and the network operator O2 to create a “tempting” mobile campaign. This latest mobile campaign had the retailer giving away free special edition chocolate bars to O2 customers when they were within 0.80 kilometres of a store.

The campaign ran for three weeks and was only available to customers that have opted-in to the network operator’s text messaging programme for its customers (the O2 More scheme). What’s good about this system is that it matches the preference information provided by the consumer when they first signed up for the SMS service with appropriate offerings from several leading brands. This means that the offers are relevant to the receiver. More importantly, the network operator uses information it has collected on the consumers (such as their location) to help select the appropriate offer. So, when an O2 customers whose signed up for the O2 More service wandered within 0.80 kilometres of a Co-op store they received a text message offering them a free chocolate bar and gave them the address of their nearest store. I assume that there must have been some controls by O2 over this offer to ensure that the text message was sent to a scheme member just once.

Although you would think that mobile banking would be very popular in developed countries, it seems that some of the strongest demand for mobile banking is coming from some of the world’s least developed countries. For example, ten years ago less than 200,000 people in Afghanistan had access to a telephone. By contrast, today around 15 million Afghans are mobile users and 85% of the country is covered by at least one network operator, giving most mobile users there a decent connection. This coverage also means that a whole new range of technical options are available to Afghanistan to help find solutions to some of the challenges that it faces.

One of the first mobile solutions that is emerging here is the creation of a nationwide mobile banking system to meet the need of Afghanistan’s citizens. As you may expect, banks are pretty scarce in Afghanistan, especially in the rural communities. Using a mobile phone to transfer money around quickly and securely is much safer than handling cash. Given that government officials are sometimes being killed while transporting cash to the provinces to pay teachers’ wages, it is clear that transferring money around the country through a system of mobile banking can’t come soon enough for this troubled country.

I found the results of a new survey on North American consumers’ preferences for mobile marketing made very interesting reading. The new research found that mobile advertising tailored to the receiver’s interest and tastes was much more effective than offers based on time, lifestyles or (dare I say it)...location. Given that location-based/near field communication has been hyped as the way forward for mobile marketing, these findings are a bit of a bombshell for location-based mobile advertising.

The survey asked 2,000 mobile phone users in the US to rank their preferences for a mobile campaign.  The overwhelming majority said they’d prefer to receive a promotional text message based on their personal interest (60%), while around 18% would be tempted by limited timed offers, with lifestyle-related offers coming somewhere between 10-15%.  Location-based offers were the least popular for normal mobile users (10%) though smartphone users were slightly more receptive.  Although this was a fairly small sample, it does make you stop and think about whether location-based mobile marketing will achieve all that it is promised.

I see that the UK has joined the US in offering an emergency mobile messaging service for its nationals, though unlike the American service (used following an emergency in the US) this is designed to provide information to British nationals that are overseas.  The SMS alert service is being trialled for a year with Vodafone and will provide information following a major crisis to registered users, as well as any user whose mobile network provider run’s over Vodafone’s network. The free service is designed to send text messages to users who are in a country where there has been civil disorder or a natural disaster.

According to the Foreign Office, the aim of this mobile messaging service is to extend it consular services, and it plans to expand the service to other network providers in due course. Ultimately it hopes to be able to send text messages to all registered users on its crisis database in the wake of an emergency overseas.

Being a basically honest guy, I never really thought about using SMS to tell fibs, and yet there is this perception by many that it is much easier to tell a lie in a text message than it is in person or in a phone call. True, telling a lie to someone’s face is difficult…but is it that much easier if it is written in an email or text message?

Researchers into human interaction believe that one type of “white lie” is becoming more common – the Butler lie. This is when you use a polite excuse (such as “I’ve got a meeting…got to go”) to terminate/or avoid a conversation. The argument goes that just like a butler (that protects their employer from awkward situations by using a polite excuse) these lies act as a socially acceptable pretext to get out of particular situation or conversation.

With a new tragedy unfolding in north-eastern Africa due to drought and civil war it is good to hear that a new faster way to donate to charities via SMS has been launched in the UK. The new scheme has been launched by the online donation service JustGiving and the mobile phone operator Vodafone. The service will enable the UK’s 50 million or so mobile phone users to donate by text message (and free of charge) to the charities registered with the services.

So far, more than 9,000 charities have signed up for the service, with up to 1,000 signing up every week since its launch in May. In the past only the really large charities have been able to use SMS for donations as the set up cost were prohibitively high, but this opens up the world of SMS donation to charities of all sizes.

There is definitely an increasing trend by people in the developing world to rely heavily on their mobile phone.  This can be for everything from banking and mobile payments, to text messages and voice communication-- not to forget information gathering.  Now here in the west we take it for granted that everyone can read.  However, the same can’t be said of the developing world, where there are around 700 million illiterate people.  As they can’t read, they are excluded from the benefits of text messaging, having to rely on the more expensive mobile calls.  So, it was great to hear about the development of EasySMS application which will hopefully enable these people to benefit from text messaging by making use of speech to text applications and graphics.

The new application was the brainchild of three Swiss students.  It was developed as part of a mobile interaction design class at Lausanne Switzerland's EPFL (Ecolé Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) and sprung from a project where they had to create and design an application to improve the lives of people living in rural communities in the developing world.

A friend asked me the other day how long it usually took a client to implement a new mobile campaign.  He found my answer that it can take just a matter of minutes to create a mobile campaign mindboggling.  You see he works in IT where there is usually a very long lead time to do anything new.  Yet with bulk SMS, businesses can quickly and cost effectively implement a mobile campaign.  It can be to target particular customers to help boost sales during slow periods, to reduce overstock or push perishable items.  Bulk SMS messaging can also improve a company’s efficient by reducing no shows and failed deliveries.

Of course your first step will be to gather mobile phone numbers and recruit subscribers to create an opted-in database.  Businesses can gather these when a customer makes an appointment or books a table.  You can also promote it with signage within your premises—perhaps as a competition or offer a special discount for those that sign up.  Just make sure that you get the receivers’ permission to be on your bulk SMS database.

Bulk SMS campaigns are best when they are used to satisfy specific business objectives, so your next task will be to decide what you want to achieve with your mobile marketing campaign and who you should target.  Depending on your needs, you may want to send the same message to several customers or you may want to target particular individuals.

I find it interesting that certain parts of the world are more open to mobile marketing than others --take Asia for example. A new study carried out by the Mobile Marketing Association and Out There (an advertising company) has found that permission-based mobile campaigns are seeing an opt-in rate of more than 25% on average in this region.

Unsurprisingly, the study also found that the response rates for opted in mobile campaigns got the highest response rate when compared to other forms of advertising. This averaged around 25%, but could be as high as 50% for mobile marketing. In comparison, the average response rate for direct mail was a measly 1.40%.

The report on Asian consumers also found that nearly all of those surveyed were willing to share their location (97%) and their interests (96%), if it meant they would receive ads specifically targeted to them. It is important to note that the research wasn’t necessarily talking about opting-in to mobile campaign in order to receive an SMS discount voucher. It would seem that Asian consumers are willing to receive advertisement sent via SMS, just so long as the message is well-targeted and relevant to the receiver.

It looks like mobile payments are a step closer in the UK.  This month Orange and BarclayCard announced that they have joined forces to create a new mobile payment service –Quick Tap.  This is designed to be a quick retail payments service which enables consumers to use their mobile phone to buy low-value goods.  The new system makes use of NFC (near field communication) technology and should make using your handset to pay for small transactions child’s play.  It will be ideal for buying a quick lunch or breakfast, with perhaps a newspaper…you could even use it to pick up a few groceries.

To make use of the mobile solution you’ll need to have a mobile phone that is enabled with NFC technology.  At the moment, Quick Tap only works with the NFC enabled Samsung Tocco, though there are plans to extend the mobile solution to other NFC mobile phones soon.  You’ll also need to have either an Orange credit card or a Barclay’s debit card.  Quick Tap works by first downloading the app on to your handset.  Then you load some money on to it from your Barclay or Orange card to create an account which you can use to pay for things.  To do this you simply tap your handset against the reader and the system will automatically debit your account.  You can even put in a PIN number for added security if you want, though the system will only work with transaction worth less than £15 (€17.40).

It’s interesting that Gap and Visa in the US have clubbed together in a mobile campaign to offer real-time promotional discounts to opted-in consumers via SMS.  Consumers who sign up online for Gap Mobile 4U mobile campaign (by providing their mobile number and a Visa card number) will be sent discounts via text message.  However, there’s a catch shoppers will need to meet certain pre-determined criteria, such as shopping in store in a particular area, shopping within a certain time frame or buying just certain products.  To redeem their vouchers, the consumers just need to show the text message with the offer at the checkout.   To make sure that those who sign up aren’t inundated with too many messages, the mobile campaign promises to not send out more than two text message a week, and people can always opt out if they find it all to much. 

The system is the first large scale adoption of Visa mobile payment scheme, which enables Visa to process and analyse transactions in real-time.  This in turn enables retailers to reach consumers while they are out shopping and tempt them in to the store with a promotion sent via SMS.   Visa card holders benefit from value-added services tailored to them.  The end result should be very well targeted and timed text messages that opted-in consumers will welcome.

I read an interesting article by George Schlossnagle on cross-channel messaging which argued that most businesses failed to take advantage of cross-channel communications and so fail to make the most of the interaction with the customers.  The result is that they then miss out on a potential a sale or to the chance to improve brand loyalty.  The article suggested that it’s all about making the most of the feedback loop so that customers can respond to your message, thinking laterally about how technology can be used to better effect.

Of course there is a classic example successful cross-channel messaging with Facebook using SMS to let people know that someone has commented on a posting.  This is brilliant because it lets the user reply to the comment via email or SMS – there’s not need to return to Facebook to reply. It allows the user to engage through other communication channels, not just Facebook.  After all, it’s the engagement that it important, not that it is through a particular messaging channel.

A recent survey by Linkshare of marketing professional in the UK has found that nearly half (45%) of those surveyed felt that mobile marketing was likely to be a major growth area for the industry. It is thought that investment in mobile campaign will be quite dramatic, with many marketeers planning to develop a mobile application for their business. Although it also has to be said that spending on online marketing looks set to continue, with the survey finding that many marketing department planning to expand their presence online.

It's interesting that the finding by Linkshare seem to supports those of the Mobile Marketing Association and the Association of National Advertisers which also found that spending on mobile marketing was likely to rise next year. However, this survey found that spending was likely to increase by a whopping 59% in 2011.

It is good to see that in the immediate aftermath of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that rocked North Eastern Japan on the 11th of March several leading network operators (such as Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile) have pulled together to enable their customers to call or send text messages to Japan for free, so that they can check on family and friends.  The time limits of this offer varies between the different operators, with some offering the service until the end of the month and others extending it to April for 10 days.

Once again the Red Cross has swung into action to help raise funds for the victims of the catastrophic earthquake by allowing people to make SMS donations.  American consumers wanting to donate $10 to its relief fund can send text messages to its shortcode number - 90999 – with the word " REDCROSS ".  And in the Philippines, people can donate by texting " REDAMOUNT " to the number 2899.  Another charity using SMS for donation is the Salvation Army, and people can send a text with the words JAPAN or QUAKE to 80888 to make a $10 donation.  Just make sure that you reply " yes " when you get a " thank you " message to confirm your donation.  In Britain the Disasters Emergency Committee has set up a SMS donation campaign to allow people to donate £5 by sending a text message with the word " GIVE " to 70707.  And in Spain Vodafone customers can donate to the Red Cross by texting CRE to 28052.

You may not be aware of it, but a new European directive on disabled access to the Emergency Services comes into effect this May. Under the regulations access to the emergency services must be the same (or as close as possible) for disabled people as able bodies.

In preparation for this deadline, the UK’s telecom regulator, Ofcom, has proposed that an SMS service for the 999 emergency services should be made available for  disable mobile phone users.  This follows a successful year long trial of an SMS mobile messaging service for 999 calls.  The scheme works by pre-registering more than 14,000 users (most of whom had a hearing or speech impairment).  It turned out that around one text message a day was sent to the emergency services -- usually for a medical emergency.

Well, we survived one more year of the Mobile World Congress (MWC).  This event just seems to be getting bigger (and better!) each year ...overwhelmingly so.  With more than a thousand exhibitors and around 60,000 visitors, the Mobile World Congress brings together everyone who is anyone in the mobile industry – be they handset/hardware manufacturers, network operators or service providers.   Of course RoutoMessaging was there showing off our wares to prospective clients and getting to know others in the industry.  Given that this is the main event of the year, I thought I’d share my insights on MWC and mention a few new developments that I believe will be making an impact on the industry in the future. 

Certainly handset manufacturers have been busy during the past year, and most of them were on hand in Barcelona.  Of all the new mobile phones on display, it was LG's Optimus 3D that really caught my eye.  A number of manufacturers also showcased a variety of tablets, which are predicted to become the next big " must have " gadget.

Have you ever thought that there must be a better way to enter text messages? Certainly tapping away until you are at the right letter can get laborious. Sure there is predictive text (such as T9), but I find that with this system the right word often doesn't come up... sometimes with hilarious results.

Well, for those that use a smartphone that runs Goggle's Android system, things may have changed for the better. A new input system for texting has just been announced – Swype. With the system the user doesn't need to tap the different letters or numbers in their SMS message. They can simply slide their finger over to the next letter, and the system will suggest a word based on the letters touched. Users only need to lift off the QWERTY keyboard at the end of a word. 

It looks like two major British retailors have decided to take the mobile marketing plunge. One of them (Debenhams) is just dipping their toes in the mobile advertising waters and in the past few months has started to send both emails and SMS messages to opted-in consumers telling them about sales and special offers. It plans to monitor the success of both channels to see which offered the best return on investment, as well as looking at which communication channel the customer preferred.

The other British retailer making waves with mobile marketing is Mark & Spencer. Of course M&S isn't a novice when it comers to mobile advertising, as it ran its first mobile marketing campaigns back in 2008. However, what's interesting about its latest initiative is that it takes advantage of location-based mobile messaging, sending a SMS voucher to opted-in consumers when they are near one of the retailer's store. The offer is for a free smoothie when they buy a sandwich - a good incentive for hungry passers by or those on their lunch hour to stop by and pick up a " sarnie ".

Ever feel like you were fighting a losing battle trying to get your local government to listen to you? Whether it is anger over the state of the roads or inadequate funding for a cultural project, most of us at one time or another feel frustrated and alienated by the city that we live in. So I was intrigued to learn about a new internet-based project which enables people to create and post a text message about issues in Copenhagen.

Dubbed 'Dear Copenhagen', the new online web platform allows an ordinary resident to post a text message to the City of Copenhagen about the issues that concern them. It is a micro-political project, so ideally those using it should just be texting about issue that relate to the city, not Denmark or the world at large.

I've been in the mobile industry for nearly a decade now, and with each passing year I've seen the market for mobile advertising expand. So I wasn't that surprised when I saw the predictions from Informa Telecom & Media suggesting that the revenue from global mobile advertising is likely to grow tenfold by 2015. 

Certainly I've seen a sea change in the industry as mobile marketing during the past few years as it has become increasingly popular with advertisers and consumers alike. Over the past few years there have been an increasing number of very successful mobile campaigns, with many FMC brands using a mobile marketing strategy to good effect. More importantly, the number of consumers willing to sign up to a mobile campaign has risen steadily - especially, it would seem, for those brands that offer freebies and discount vouchers. The results have been that many big brands integrate mobile campaigns into their marketing strategies almost as a matter of course. 

It is odd, but some of the world's most prolific users of mobile technology are in less developed regions, such as Africa. It's thought that there could be as many as half a billion mobile users on the continent. Given such a vast market, you have to admit that there is significant potential for mobile marketing across the continent. Interestingly, a recent report by the market researching firm ComScore has confirmed my belief that Africa is emerging as a great region for mobile marketing. Its study looked at Nigerian, South African and Kenyan consumers' attitudes to mobile advertising and its perceived benefits. It found that Africa was one of the highest monetise mobile markets in the world and that African consumers were more inclined to receive and respond to SMS advertising than their counterparts in the US or Europe. Here are the key findings of the report and what they mean for mobile marketing in the region. *Nearly 70% of Africans are comfortable with mobile advertising - the highest percentage in the world. This means that brands can really capitalise in this region through well executed SMS marketing. Men are slightly more comfortable with the technology than women, but not by much.

Although you'd think that a text message would be easy to create, you'd be surprised by how hard it can be to get your message across in just 160 characters. Of course, if you don't get the message right it can severely damage your relationship with your receiver - be it a customer or colleague. With this in mind, we thought that it may be helpful to pass on four rules of texting etiquette to our readers. These golden rules of "textiquette" are based on nearly a decade if experience in the bulk SMS industry. Rule 1: No Txt Spk One of the most important rules is to not use "text-speak" in your text message. Sometimes you can get away with the odd shorthand if it is used appropriately (such as "pls" or "thx"). However, acronyms like "m8", "u" and certainly "wt" should be avoided at all costs. This doesn't mean that you should be overly officious when texting. Yet as a rule, text speak should be avoided in your SMS messages ... it really doesn't have a place when conducting business. You are better off saving it for personal use with family and friends. Rule 2: Professionalism is key You must remember why you are sending the text message, who you are sending it to and what you want the receiver to do. In particular, when sending out a single message to a group of people (something easily done through programs like Skype), make sure that the tone of the text message is official ... a bit proper, if you will. As a rule it is always better to err on the side of being too formal, rather than be too laid back.

Back in September I wrote about a new Trojan virus that affected thousands of on online banking users in the UK. Well it seems that one UK bank is taking the threat to online banking very seriously and it has started to send text messages to its customers to verify online banking transfers. Last month, Egg (an online bank in the UK) announced plans to introduce a mobile campaign to further enhance its security. In a bid to prevent unauthorised transactions on its customers' accounts Egg plans to setup a SMS verification check for it customers. The process is simplicity itself, with the bank sending text message to customers with a code number after they have requested a transfer of funds. The account holder then needs to enter this code online to complete the transaction. While it may take some of Eggs customers awhile to settle into this verification process, they will no doubt welcome the added security that the SMS payment verification offers. And if you think about it, it shouldn't delay the process too much, providing the bank's text message is sent out within a few minutes of the requested bank transfer.

The Red Cross is at it again...taking advantage of SMS as a quick, reliable and low cost method of communication to spread the word on hygiene in Haiti. Last month saw cholera spread to this poverty struck nation, crippled by a devastating earthquake. As well as sending in extra supplies of fresh water and chlorine to help stop the transmission of the disease, the Red Cross' teams have also been helping Haitians to help themselves but implementing a massive public health SMS campaign. The Red Cross is sending text messages to those in the affected areas telling them how to treat the disease with an oral rehydration solutions made from treated water, sugar and salt. Those not in the affected area are being sent a different public health text message advising them how to take preventative measures to avoid cholera by thoroughly washing their hands. It is thought that up to 30,000 mobile phone users in the affect areas of Haiti along the Artibonite River Valley have been told how to treat the diarrhea caused by cholera, with some being send the Creole SMS message a few times a day. Around 350,000 mobile phone users in Port-au-Prince are receiving preventative text messages.

It would seem that many consumers are still a bit wary of mobile advertising and the benefits it can bring them. Recent research from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) looking at UK consumers' attitudes to mobile marketing found that those that participate in these campaigns were happy to receive text messages from brands. However, there are several barriers to that need to be over come before there is greater acceptance of this medium by the general public. The IAB and DMA recently commissioned a survey of around 1,000 UK consumers to gauge their attitude to mobile marketing. The research found that about 20% of consumers had already opted-in to receive SMS alerts from a brand or their mobile network provider. Of these, there was an overwhelming favourable response to this form of marketing, with around a quarter of them replying that SMS or MMS was the best way to get personalised information about brands and their products. Plus, around three quarters of the consumers surveyed said that they would be willing to opt-in to a mobile marketing campaign, providing that they received the right incentive (such as a discount voucher) - which is more good news.

Once again online banking has been hit by cyber criminals using the Trojan virus. The latest attack has been targeting customers at a leading UK bank and has been dubbed the Trojan Veus v3. It is thought that the virus has affected thousands of personal banking accounts siphoning off hundreds of thousands of pounds. It works by sitting quietly on the infected machine until the owner logs on to their online bank account. It then copies the login information and banking details, as well as transferring nearly all of the infected person's bank account to a third party. But the problems don’t stop there. This new virus is particularly devious. Not only does it steal your money, but it creates false web pages as well. When the owner of the infected machine next logs on their bank balance looks fine and they don’t realise that there is a problem. Unfortunately, this version of the Trojan virus cannot be detected by current anti-malware software, so for the moment online banking customers are helpless to prevent infection.

Did you know that it costs around 6 to 7 times more to acquire a new customer as compared to getting repeat business from an existing customer? If you run a small-to-medium business it makes sense for some of your marketing budget to be used for customer retention. And mobile marketing is an easy, effective and affordable way to keep your customers coming back for more. Repeat customers should be a mainstay of your business. Be it your products or services, your prices or your customer service, you need to identify your business' strengths and continue to get your core messages across to your customer base. Here mobile marketing and regular SMS messages will help you keep in contact with customers and tempt them back for more business. From providing customer loyalty schemes, new product/services updates or top notch customer service, a well thought out SMS marketing campaign can help you maintain that vital customer interaction. Plus, as most people have their mobile phone on them at all times, an SMS message is much more likely to be read and acted upon than an email.

New research from Juniper Research is predicting that within three years there will be a huge increase in the number of mobile phone subscribers that will use mobile banking. Globally, it is predicted that the number of people using mobile banking will exceed 400 million. This is more than double the current number of customers receiving SMS alerts from their bank or making use of web access and apps via mobile banking. According to Juniper, banks and mutual societies are gearing up for large scale take up of mobile banking. And this turn to mobile banking is happening not just in the US (which tends to lead the way with mobile trends) but is a global phenomenon. As the report says: "Mobile is becoming a 'must have' channel for banks". Banks from New York to London and Tokyo – are turning to mobile banking, in advance of anticipated high demand by customers for the service. What's more, banks are being increasingly innovative in their service offering, which is feeding further demand by users for mobile banking. Many banks in North America, Europe and the Far East are spending more on the delivery of their mobile banking service than their traditional marketing activities. Interestingly, Juniper's research predicts that by 2015 the Far East and China will be the region with greatest take up of mobile banking.

With the World Cup just a couple of weeks away, I for one plan to spend as much time as possible watching the games and enjoying the football. While I’d love to take time off and be in South Africa for the four week football extravaganza, this just isn’t going to happen. Instead, I will just have to watch what I can on TV and keep on top of all the action with SMS alerts on the team news and the results. Just about every news organisations around is offering a mobile messaging service on all the news and action during the football World Cup in South Africa. Even some of the cell phone operators are getting in on the act and offering a mobile messaging service to their customers on World Cup news and the games results. Then there are those companies that specialise in SMS alerts for sport results from around the world. They too are offering a specialised mobile messaging service for the World Cup. Certainly I found it easy to find a provider of SMS news alerts covering the tournament.

With the recent chaos to air travel that ensued following the eruption of the Icelandic Volcano no doubt several people were relying on SMS alerts to keep on top of an evolving situation. With people all over Europe unable to fly the airlines must have been working overtime to let passengers know that their flight had been cancelled or destination changed. To make matters worse, the eruption (and disruption) happened during the Easter school holiday which meant that numbers were up that week as holidaymakers returned from a skiing break or week in the sun. However, travel companies and airlines should have been able to use bulk SMS to keep their customers informed during the travel chaos that was felt across most of Europe. So the lucky travellers (.... if you can call it lucky) will have been those that received travel information updates via SMS alerts.

The Oscar are all about glitz and glamour so I was surprised to see that even SMS has been making waves in tinsel town. Although the Oscars are no stranger to political statements - be it Marlon Brando protesting about the depiction of native Indian in the movies or Sean Penn stating the case for gay rights - it was surprising to see that a SMS short code being used in an acceptance speech. This year The Cove made by Participant Media won Best Documentary for its film on dolphin killing in Japan. As part of their acceptance speech one of the filmmakers held up a sign with "Text Dolphin to 44144" on it. This was the same mobile call to action that was also shown as part of the screening of the film. Using the SMS short code at the Oscar was just another way to get the message out and garner support for the petition to stop the massacre of dolphins.

This was just such a worthwhile idea and great use of SMS technology that I thought I should share it with you. As we all know mobile technology has changed our lives beyond all recognition. Certainly a mobile phone can be a God-send in an emergency. But not everyone can make use of the voice aspect of mobile technology, such as those with a hearing impairment. Instead these individual tend to rely on SMS to keep in touch with family and friends. So, I was impressed to see that in New Zealand they have harness SMS technology to provide an emergency service for the hearing impaired. The new service will simply require deaf people to register for the service through Deaf Aotearoa, an organisation which promotes the interests of the deaf community New Zealand. If they are in an emergency they can then text the 111 emergencies services. They will then be prompted to enter information about their location and the incident. The service will automatically include their personal details with the SMS. Call centre staff will read the SMS message and get a police car dispatched, if needed. They can also text the sender back for more information.

Every now and then I hear a story that renews my faith in humanity. Certainly the donations that poured into the American Red Cross’ SMS donation appeal for Haiti are a heart-warming example. In the days immediately following the devastating 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti the American Red Cross launched its $10 SMS donation programme. Those wanting to give were asked to text the word “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10. They then received a confirmation text which asks them to confirm their $10 donation. Once they’ve agreed, a $10 donation was added to their monthly cell phone bill. Next the Red Cross sends them a ‘thank you’ text and, crucially, asks if they want to opt-in to get further SMS messages. So in addition to raising money for Haiti, the Red Cross has also been able to gather valuable contact details for thousands of supporters of the charity who they can retarget sometime down the line. Following some high profile media coverage (including Michelle Obama no less) the Red Cross’ SMS $10 donation campaign has been an amazing success. It managed to raise $8 million within two days and a staggering $24 million within a week.

Humans are undoubtedly creatures of habit. We get very frustrated and annoyed if our daily lives are disrupted by sudden changes. Certainly the weather has been testing our patience this winter. Across Europe, heavy snow and plunging temperatures have played havoc with our day-to-day routine. Even the east coast of America, which is accustomed to harsh winters, has been hit by heavy blizzards. While you can receive an SMS alert to tell you that snow is on the way, it is the knock –on effects of the weather that are so frustrating. From flights and trains being cancelled to chaos on the roads, bad weather can give you a major headache. You need an array of automated SMS messages to keep on top of all the disruption.