Attn Baby Boomers: Marketers don't think you're too old to learn to text message

Your kids might think you're too old to text message (a feeling that you might share) but marketers have realized that despite the dominance of the youth market when it comes to mobile text messaging, the money is with baby boomers. Therefore several companies are experimenting with mobile marketing aimed at middle age consumers. What does this mean to you? Expect to start receiving text messaging ads on your phone.

The problem for both you and marketers is that you may never have used a cell phone in this way, plus you might be like the 75% of the population who is turned off by the thought of receiving ads on your cell phone. In response, the early adopter advertisers (companies like Redbook Magazine, Proctor & Gamble, and LifeTime Cable Network) are employing easy-to-use sweepstakes to get older consumers in the habit of text-messaging. Because they are providing "value" in the form of giveaways, the marketers are hoping to defuse the negative sentiments that might arise from their mobile advertising efforts.

Will it work? Who knows, but cell phones have long been ubiquitous and considered by many to be the final frontier in marketing. Last year I sent a text-message to a similarly aged individual (mid-late 40s) who then called me and said "what the heck is this." I showed him and we text-messaged back and forth the rest of the week as we worked on a project. He then called me a month later having received his phone bill and discovering that he was paying 10 cents a message even though his phone calls were free. The lesson, if you get started in text-messaging make sure to know your phone plan.

[Source: Wall Street Journal--link may require registration or fee]