Exciting, but less surprising results as well delivers the latest “Mobile Attitude and Usage Study” by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) which was released two weeks ago.

More and more people are coming into touch with Mobile Marketing. Indeed, this is pleasing, but one should add that this has not caused an increasing interest, all the more so as some of the respondents admitted that they hardly could find any benefits in mobile advertising.

However it becomes apparent that also some of the respondents find mobile marketing useful, for example they value the fast access to information, coupons and requested applications. The reason for this situation is perfectly obvious: there are still not enough campaigns that meet the customer’s needs. Recognizing them, turning them into a strategy and implementing them in a creative way is the most important exercise marketing departments have to do now.
A surprising result: Afro-Americans and English-dominant Hispanics have a stronger interest in mobile marketing than the white US population.

The study reveals even further details about general mobile usage: Besides phoning and text messaging the camera to go becomes increasingly important. Some 58% of the respondents like to snapshoot with their mobiles – 23% more than in the previous year.

Not surprising is the fact that people aged 13 to 24 are the most passionate text message writers by far, with more than 50 messages sent per week. 44% of them use SMS for flirting, 10% have even broken up with a partner via SMS. But also older people are at least familiar with SMS – half of all survey respondents writes at least one text message per week.

The study’s most exciting result is for sure the fact that mobile phones are becoming more and more important for social interactions and as a consequence thereof, becoming more irreplaceable. The question that IMO remains: Which reasons could be crucial to the different interest of the ethnic groups?

The exact numbers and graphics can be found at marketingcharts.com.