Mobile Owners’ Interest in Receiving Permission-Based Offers Growing Quickly

August 15, 2013

This article is included in these additional categories:

Digital | Local & Directories / Small Biz | Mobile Phone | Promotions, Coupons & Co-op

Placecast-Interest-in-Mobile-Phone-Alerts-Aug201345% of mobile phone owners claim to be at least somewhat interested in receiving mobile offers, assuming they gave permission, per results from a Placecast survey conducted within the US by Harris Interactive. That’s a big jump from 31% last year, and 26% back in 2009. The study also finds that the vast majority of those who find location-based alerts useful also feel that such alerts would be more relevant to them than traditional coupons.

A quick point regarding the survey’s methodology is worth noting. In terms of interest in mobile offers, the survey specifically asked:

“Assuming you gave permission, how interested would you be in receiving mobile alerts about new products, sales and/or promotions from your favorite merchants, restaurants, or stores on your cell phone/smartphone?”

That was the same question asked in prior years, save that this year the question referred to “mobile alerts,” while in prior years it referred to “text alerts.” It would be difficult to chalk the big jump in interest to that minor change (made to be more in keeping with industry terminology), but the change bears noting in any case.

Moving on to location-based alerts, the study suggests that among those who find them at least somewhat useful:

  • 89% believe the offers would be easy to act on;
  • 87% believe the offers could make them aware of a retail location they had not known before;
  • 83% feel they might encourage them to try new things; and
  • 72% at least somewhat agree that the alerts might encourage them to purchase the items spontaneously as they are near the store that sells them.

Not surprisingly, smartphone owners are more interested in accessing local information and activities via applications than standard cell phone owners: 86% of the former say it’s at least somewhat important for them to do so, versus 32% of the latter group.

About the Data: The survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Placecast. Data was collected between May 8-10, 2013 among 2,072 adults ages 18 and older, of whom 1,797 were identified as owning a cell phone & between July 10-22, 2009 among 2,029 adults ages 18 and older, of whom 1,687 were identified as owning a cell phone. Results were weighted as needed to reflect the composition of the U.S. adult population ages 18+ using targets for region, age within gender, education, household income and race/ethnicity. Respondents for the survey were selected from among the Harris Poll Online (HPOL) database, which includes several million people who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

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