We took many months listening and discussing social networking applications for mobile and instant messaging, we had forgotten the most primitive messaging and does not need additional download. Proponents of SMS and MMS ensures that text messages are the only application that has everyone on your mobile, regardless of the brand and modernity to the device or data rate. His detractors say it is difficult to measure its effectiveness and can be very expensive.

Despite the heyday of applications such as Whastapp, Spotbros or Viber, which are also being explored as possible vehicles ad, the MMS is growing because standards that are in all devices is set. According to James Citron, co-founder of Mogret, company text and video messages, “people do not realize, but there are two apps that are in all phones, phone calls and text messages”.

However, the marks are exploiting slowly. Consumers sent a total of 72 billion MMS (CTI), a figure that grows with descending the number of minutes of calls and text messages traditional in 2012.

However, a survey of email marketing platform Strongview, revealed last May that only 38% of marketers using SMS and MMS on their mobile strategies, compared with 76% who used a mobile web and 49% emails employing optimized for mobile devices. What weakens this mobile marketing tool?

It has several handicaps. First, text messages enriched with images and videos are not visible on some devices. But that’s not the biggest problem of MMS when the fleet of mobile phones is renewed every year at a good pace.Perhaps the most worrisome and inconvenient for which has not yet put a definitive solution is the difficulty of measuring the results of campaigns.

There are some statistical data open rates, for example, but are somewhat confusing and generally belong to private studies have been commissioned and some brands that have transpired few details. Figures opening text messages would total 97%, but are unverifiable data.

According to Zimmerman, head of mobile at ePrize digital agency, “the MMS does not offer tracking an SMS with a link to a mobile web allows. It is true that MMS allows more than 160 characters and the ability to use images and short videos , but pales compared with all the space and the possibility of tracking tours offered a good landing page “.

Despite all this, its effectiveness should be working when big brands like Ikea, Kellogg or CBS and Fox have launched such campaigns to expand their reach. Last May, Starbucks launched a program to harness the potential of MMS. He launched a contest with prizes through simple text messages.From there he had sufficient information on the type of mobile of each consumer and if the device permitting, it could send MMS with a short video and a message inviting him to a special offer of Happy-hour in your nearest store.

Some believe, not without reason, that the MMS is not valid for any company. They are a way to enrich the content you offer your customers on their mobile phones. One more. They are a tactic not a strategy in itself, and must be combined with each other in terms of the objectives that have marked the company. But it is true that there is a market for SMS and MMS that is emerging from the ashes and mobile solutions companies such as Iris Mobile in Chicago just received 3 million financial funds to expand its product offering.