Quotes of the Day

Mobile phones may seem an odd way to sell underwear. But shoppers responded when Gossard, a lingerie company owned by the Sara Lee Corporation, began using a mobile short messaging service (SMS) — those little text messages that show up on your cell phone — to promote its new line of G-strings in the U.K. "It was a huge success," says Shaeren McKenzie, Gossard's London-based marketing director. "We reached our eight-month sales target in eight weeks."

The Gossard campaign was based on a television commercial that urged viewers who wanted a £1 discount on a G-string to send a text message to "G4me." The company received more than 26,000 messages, and the vouchers — redeemed via SMS — drove up sales significantly, with one online retailer — Figleaves.com — reporting €75,000 worth of Gossard G-string sales as a direct result of the campaign, McKenzie says. Based on their success with G-strings, Gossard is already planning a new SMS campaign for the fall. Phone sex may never be the same again.

Companies are increasingly desperate to get their messages across in a media- saturated marketplace. SMS marketing, combined with conventional ads, gives advertisers an edge because mobile phones are nearly always with their users, allowing them to immediately respond to what they see on TV, billboards or in-store campaigns. Global brands such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, L'Oréal and Stella Artois have all discovered that SMS is an efficient and cost-effective way to reach the high- spending 14- to 35-year-old demographic. And SMS marketing will become even more compelling as mobile phones with color screens allow for the transmission of images as well as text. "2003 will be the year that any global brand trying to reach the 14-to-35 market won't be able to do without SMS," predicts Cyriac Roeding, chief marketing officer and a co-founder of Germany's 12snap, which designs SMS campaigns for clients like Mumm Champagne, Chapstick and Cadbury Schweppes.

SMS was first launched as a commercial service in Europe in 1994. As the popularity of mobile phones spread, especially among teenagers, SMS changed from a little-used niche service to a mass market moneymaker. According to the London office of U.S. tech consultancy Gartner, 167 billion SMS messages will be sent in Western Europe alone in 2003, which means €18 billion in turnover for mobile operators. With roughly 60% of Europe's 250 million mobile users able to use SMS, it's little wonder that the medium is being used to market everything from lip balm to balm for the soul.

Even the Pope is getting in on the act. The Vatican announced last week that it would offer customers of TIM, Italy's largest mobile phone operator, an SMS prayer, saint or gospel each day — for a mere €.15. For now, the service is only available in Italian, but plans are in the works to extend the holy messages to other languages and countries. So the Pope's European flock can look forward to invocations like last Wednesday's: "Oh Lord, make me give of myself freely without expecting anything in return."

Marketers are definitely looking for something in return for SMS campaigns that cost anywhere from €150,000 to €2 million. All the major media agencies now include wireless as part of their pitches to big corporate clients. "SMS has gone beyond the stage of quirky little campaigns to become a really valuable part of the marketing mix," says Ben Wood, a senior Gartner analyst. Coca-Cola, whose SMS campaign in Belgium increased café sales of 20-cl bottles of Coke by 8%, is preparing to launch massive SMS marketing campaigns in other European countries. And Sony Computer Entertainment Germany, which conducted an SMS marketing campaign in December to push PlayStation 2 as a Christmas gift, is also planning new SMS campaigns.

SMS purports to be an ethical form of advertising, since people must consciously opt in to receive the initial message. But there are already signs of abuse. Last August, Moby Monkey, a premium-rate services provider based in Leeds, England, was fined €75,800 after a U.K. regulatory body found that the company's promotional text messages were "seriously misleading." Recipients were urged to call a premium-rate number — which can cost up to €2.20 a minute — to claim a "mystery award." But an "unreasonable delay" during the call meant that consumers were saddled with an expensive phone bill.

SMS scams are becoming more frequent because the rewards — lucrative kickbacks from phone operators — outweigh financial penalties, according to Gartner's Wood. Still, most SMS ads are legitimate, says Wood, since global brands don't want their names associated with scams. The goal is to establish a hip, positive image, so that when people think of SMS they think of G-strings, not of getting their knickers in a twist.

• JENNIFER L. SCHENKER/Paris
• Coming to a cell phone near you: big-time marketing campaigns