50+ Marketing+Texting - save your money.

On the 3rd Oct my post was about the issues of using interactive TV and the vast numbers or people who can’t or refuse to use the technology.

The mobile phone, and in particular texting (short messaging system to give it is proper title) is another device where age is a big determinant of use.

This research is a little 'old in the tooth' (2001) but it gives a feel for the use of texting by the different age groups.

In the UK it looks as if 70% of the 15-24 use SMS and a paltry 10% of the 55 year olds. In Italy the usage figures for the 50+ are so low as to be nearly off the bottom of the graph. On the face of it the figures from Seniorwatch paint a different picture with over 30% of the 50 year olds saying they have used SMS. When you analyse the figures in more detail you see that Seniorwatch was measuring people who had ‘ever sent or received a SMS message’. A big difference from being SMS users

The latest research from the US suggests that less than 20% of the boomer generation are regular users.

Whichever set of numbers you want to believe I would put texting down my list of 50+ marketing techniques. Maybe to be revisited in a 12 months time.