ChaCha Improves Mobile Advertising with SMS

ChaCha, a free mobile answering service company, announced a new SMS advertising solution, enabling brand marketers to implement targeted, interactive advertising campaigns on mobile devices.

 

Since initial launch of the service in January this year, ChaCha has achieved 1.7 million customers and handled more than 50 million text and voice queries, demonstrating the ability of the service to create an interaction between brands and consumers. ChaCha text messaging service primarily targets mobile users of the age group between 18 and 34.

 

ChaCha claims to deliver higher response rates than other mobile advertising solutions like simple small messaging service (SMS) alerts and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) banners. The company’s initial campaigns with Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and others show that ChaCha delivers response rates of more than five percent.

 

“ChaCha’s mobile answers service is extremely popular with consumers largely because of its conversational nature,” said Brad Bostic ChaCha co-founder and president, in a statement. “This interactive and trusted relationship with on-the-go consumers can now benefit marketers by helping them more successfully reach their target audience in a non-intrusive way.”

 

SMS advertising works via a call-through or click-through system and directs users to toll-free or in-store destinations. Brands can leverage this opportunity and can tailor ads to target customers by the specific category of ChaCha questions, such as sports, music, or politics. Also, there are other categories by location, time of day or customer profile.

 

With over 28 million impressions per month, ChaCha is uniquely positioned to benefit brands by engaging consumers with interactive mobile ads that drive brand awareness, generate leads and increase sales, the company said. ChaCha mobile ad solutions are offered as pay-per-performance services.

 

ChaCha uses human guides to find answers to consumers’ questions 24/7 on virtually any mobile device. Customers send questions via SMS or voice and receive an answer back via a simple text message in real-time.

 

With 70 percent month-over-month growth, ChaCha was named as the fastest growing SMS mobile search service, surpassing both Google (News - Alert) and Yahoo in text-based search growth rates, according to Nielsen statistics for second quarter 2008, ChaCha said.