Today the CWTA released their quarterly report on the mobile industry in Canada. Here are some highlights:

1. Over 350 active mobile marketing programs in Canada right now with a Canadian short code
2. 10.1 billion SMS messages were sent in 2007 in Canada (as previously reported) 
3. Over 1.2 billion SMS messages were sent in Canada in December 2007 alone - making a prediction of 15 billion total in 2008 easily within reach. 
4. As of September 2007, 37% of mobile users had sent at least one SMS message
5. MMA guidelines around mobile advertising and content may be adopted by the CWTA
6. 18 applications have been approved in Canada for mobile payments or micro-payments 
7. May 15th marks the 5th year anniversary of the short code in Canada. Look for information on industry event on txt.ca 

As predicted, the CWTA has reported that the total number of SMS (text messages) sent in 2007 exceeded 10 billion!

Approximately 10.1 billion messages were sent in 2007 – up from 4.3 billion in 2006 or an increase of 133%

1.2 billion messages were sent in December alone. With total volume more than doubling every year since 2002, it’s amazing to think we could reach 20 billion messages sent in 2008.

I’m looking for specific demographic details to follow… although it’s safe to say that with over 10 billion messages served last year, this is no longer just a young person’s channel.

More and more of our client are now following recommendations to extend “interactive” marketing programs with mobile / SMS.

We just launched a contest as part of our launch of mastersgolf.ca this week which includes a mobile / SMS component. If you can predict the top 10 finishers on the 08 Masters Leader board, you win $1,000,000.  I’m looking forward to see how participation in mobile compares to the pure online option. Stay tuned…

The CWTA just released their third quarter report on the Canadian mobile industry. Highlights include:

1. September 2007, person-to-person text messages totalled 946.7 million (approximately 31.5 million per day), up from 795.3 million in June 2007.
2. The total number of person-to-person text messages sent during the first three quarters of 2007 totalled 6.8 billion, surpassing the total of all text messages sent in 2006 which was 4.3 billion messages. Canada is on track to deliver over 9 billion text messages in 2007.
3. There are now over 19 million mobile subscribers in Canada or about 60% adoption overall. Adoption is around 70% in major urban areas and around 80% in major cities.
4. There were over 500,000 new subscribers in the third quarter.
5. 80% of mobile customers are on postpaid plans – so 20% are on prepaid plans.
6. There have been 18 applications processed for mobile micro-payments (mCommerce) in Canada in 2007.

What does this mean for marketers in Canada? It’s time to divert marketing budget to mobile. If you are looking for support with customer acquisition campaigns – SMS is still the way to go… or at least where you should begin your efforts.

Mobile web (including advertising) is growing and it’s now possible to buy inventory off-deck. Off-deck means developing something that isn’t carrier specific or that does not rely on the carrier for delivery. This means you can now promote your product or service beyond the confines of the “on-deck” carrier web experience.

For marketers looking for customer retention or growth tactics to compliment existing initiatives - SMS is still a great place to start by offering alerts, timely news, or information that is specific and personal to your customer. Stay away from many to 1 messages. Mobile is a very personal channel that rewards 1:1 communication. 

Marketers who have had success using Mobile have seen 94% open rates or better on SMS and 15% response rates to a call to action.   I don’t know about you, but that’s information I’ll be sharing with all our clients as we roll into the new year.

Although often referred to as the “third screen” – there are actually more mobile devices (2.8 billion) world wide than internet PCs and TVs combined (2.5 billion)!  

A few reports have been released over the last week that highlight the fact that adoption continues to grow in Canada and how people (and marketers) are using Mobile devices are changing too.

Here are some highlights:

Text Messaging (SMS):  793.3 million text messages were sent in June 2007 alone – or about 26.5 million per day. 4.3 billion text messages were sent up until June of this year – which equals the total of all text messages sent in 2006. It’s very possible that we’ll see upwards of 10 billion text messages sent this year in Canada.  One reason driving this trend is the mass adoption of all you can eat SMS plans in Canada. For about $10 / month, you can text all you want.  Marketers have also been getting more into the game – there are about 300 active shortcodes in Canada right now.  Source: CWTA

Mobile Browse: With no “all you can eat” data plans yet available to the consumer in Canada, usage of Mobile browse is still pretty low at around 11%.  This is less than half the world’s average which is around 25%.  In countries where data plans are either fixed or really cheap, the mobile web has really taken off. The top 5 markets for the mobile web are the U.S., India, South Africa, UK, and Indonesia.  Also interesting is that 4 of the top 10 mobile devices in the U.S. are PDAs – three blackberry models and the Samsung blackjack.  Until the Canadian carriers offer really cheap or fixed data plans, we don’t expect the same growth in mobile web as other mobile channels. This may all change when the iphone eventually makes it way to Canada…so stay tuned!

It’s been an exciting year so far for Mobile. It may be time to start referring to mobile as the “first” screen.