Outdoor Goes Mobile

For a time this spring I was contacting local radio stations, major daily newspapers and outdoor media companies to offer bulk text-messaging services, and suggest that they offer it to their advertising clients.

Text, as we know, is the entry-point for all mobile marketing activities. And certainly at this time in the evolution of mobile, and for most mainstream consumer products, text should be the primary mobile point of contact between the brand and the consumer.

As I have previously written, text does not work by itself. It does works very well when promoted via mainstream media - specifically newspaper, radio and outdoor.

So it was little surprise when I heard that CBS Outdoor Media in the US now officially offer mobile to it's advertisers. Their package offers a keyword and use of a shortcode, and allows their advertisers to start developing a database of consumers who are interested in their brand, and interested in receiving text message communications from that brand.

For an outdoor media company (or a newspaper or radio station), this is a no brainer. Corporate marketing departments and advertising agencies are going to be sourcing their bulk text messaging from somewhere, and it makes sense that they can get it in a one-stop-shop process from the media company that is going to carry the text-message call-to-action.

Source article on CBS Outdoor is available here.