Text messaging is the most often recalled mobile marketing technique, according to the Direct Marketing Association's first quantitative report on the subject.

The online survey, titled "Mobile Marketing: Consumer Perspectives," showed that text messaging accounted for 70 percent of consumer mobile marketing responses compared with a 41 percent response rate to surveys and a 30 percent response rate for email offers.

"The No. 1 finding here is that mobile marketing presents tremendous potential as a new media for direct marketers," said Ed Manzitti, vice president of research and market intelligence at the DMA, New York.

"I think that a lot of the potential growth is going to hinge on the costs that are involved in mobile marketing," he said.

Indeed, mobile marketing will gain more traction with consumers with more affordable data plans and wider distribution of broadband-enabled phones, the research found.

Free the fee
Per the research, 24 percent of those surveyed have responded to a mobile offer. One-third of the group that did not respond to any mobile marketing said they had never received an offer, the DMA found.

The same survey found that 71 percent of consumers who respond to mobile offers have data plans. Those who do not respond to mobile offers cite lack of interest and cost of airtime as the main reasons.

"There is a fair amount of concerns among the consumers that they are charged every time one of these offers winds up in their mobile inbox," Mr. Manzitti said.

"So this is something that carriers and marketers have to work around -- getting rid of the charges," he said. "Consumers don't have to be penalized for responding to offers."

That said, 21 percent of mobile marketing responders said that they had responded to three or more offers per month. This was surprising, given the large percentage of people who said they had never responded to an offer -- 76 percent.

"A takeaway from that is that once people engage in mobile marketing, it becomes habit-forming, and that's good for mobile marketing," Mr. Manzitti said.

Young, well-off, tech-savvy
Wireless carriers matter for response to offers. Survey respondents who used the former Cingular, now AT&T, and T-Mobile were more interested in mobile marketing incentives than respondents who were subscribers of Verizon Wireless.

Teenagers ages 15-17 and young adults between 21 and 30 -- 19 percent of the respondents -- are twice as likely to respond to offers on their mobile devices as consumers ages 18-20, or 7 percent of those responding.

"One of the challenges to marketers to grow the potential of mobile marketing is to get the older age groups interested in mobile marketing," Mr. Manzitti said.

Single respondents, especially those never married, were the most likely of all surveyed groups to respond to mobile marketing offers.

As with any new technology or marketing medium, overall higher-income respondents earning more than $60,000 a year were more likely to respond to mobile offers.

Again, in common with early-adopters on the Internet, responders to mobile marketing were more tech-savvy, the research indicated. Responders were twice as likelier than non-responders to subscribe to Internet-based music subscription services.

Media offers resonate
Not surprisingly, buyers of entertainment, music and video products were the most likely to respond to mobile offers, given the demographic usage and the device capabilities.

According to the DMA survey, 44 percent of the mobile offers by dominated by the entertainment, music and video categories, followed by 21 percent each for food and beverage and telecommunications/mobile.

The beauty and personal care category accounted for 15 percent of mobile offers. Those accounting for 12 percent each were automotive and transportation, business services, consumer electronics, financial services and vacation/travel.

Healthcare/pharmaceutical and real estate each accounted for 7 percent of mobile offers, based on the response to the survey.

"When we asked generically how interested responders would be to receive mobile offers in the future, the response was lukewarm," Mr. Manzitti said.

"But when we associated that with a particular category -- entertainment, music, video, food and beverage or telecommunications -- the level of interest was much higher in responding to the offer," he said. "So the takeaway from that is that interest is driven by the category."

Complementary nature
The online survey was conducted in March and April. Data was collected from 800 mobile phone owners. Of the surveys completed, 157 were done by teens ages 15-20 and 643 by adults over 21.

The DMA is the nation's leading trade association for marketers, retailers, catalogers and nonprofits who use direct and interactive marketing for customer acquisition and retention.

Commercial and nonprofit marketers are said to have spent $173.2 billion on direct marketing nationwide last year, generating an estimated $2 trillion in incremental sales, according to the DMA.

Established in 1917, the DMA has nearly 3,600 members nationwide and overseas. The organization regularly conducts and publishes research on direct marketing tactics and mediums, including direct mail, email, online advertising, ecommerce and catalogs.

What came loud and clear through this inaugural piece of mobile marketing research from the DMA is that teens, adults, tech-savvy and affluent consumers with data plans respond to mobile marketing offers. But the category matters as well.

"Right now it's very category-specific," Mr. Manzitti said. "I would say that any marketers in entertainment, music and video should seriously consider mobile marketing, if they already haven't.

"Also those marketers targeting teens and young adults should also consider integrating mobile into their marketing solutions," he said.

"I don't see mobile marketing replacing other media. I see it as a value-added channel that works alongside other channels â?¦ It's not going to substitute. It's a complement to some of the legacy channels in direct marketing."