TXT4 Rebrands as Ad.IQ, Announces New Corporate and Government Clients

Company Announces New Corporate and Government Client Participation in SMS Pilot Signalling Growth in Australian Mobile Marketing Medium

Mobile response specialist, TXT4, the company managing the pilot for SMS to 13/1300 numbers, has rebranded as Ad.IQ to better reflect the multi-channel services it now offers advertisers. Standing for 'advertising intelligent quotient', Ad.IQ now optimises response to advertising campaigns across voice, mobile internet and SMS channels while providing rich intelligence on advertising performance and consumer behaviours.

TXT4 pioneered SMS response in 2002 and has been continually refining its technology to help brands achieve greater response from their advertising campaigns. Working with over 180 major corporates across 12 markets and four continents, the company's focus has increasingly centred on the level of accountability that mobile brings to above the line advertising. This has enabled advertisers to gain the same measurable insights into the performance of traditional media as they do with online.

The strategic decision to rebrand as Ad.IQ follows the successful integration of the company's broader service offering over the past 12 months.

Antony North, regional director, Ad.IQ, said,"Our mission remains the same: to make advertising work harder, and work smarter. As we can now manage consumer response to campaigns across three channels - voice, text and mobile web - brands receive a global picture of how their campaigns are performing. In addition, by tracking responses to specific creative execution and media placements, we help our clients to accurately calculate the ROI on their marketing spend and better understand consumer engagement."

At the same time, Ad.IQ has also announced the addition of a range of government and financial services clients to its participation in an industry pilot under the auspices of the Communications Alliance. The pilot is enabling consumers to send SMS messages to a limited number of corporate local?rate (13/1300) numbers in response to broadcast advertising campaigns.

In recent weeks, Ad.IQ has signed up both the Queensland and Victorian governments as well as ANZ Bank, St George, Bank West and Wizard Home Loans. These organisations will roll out advertising campaigns enabling consumer SMS response via the voice 13/1300 local number range.

Ad.IQ's ISO 9001 compliant platform manages prospect data via a mobile response from broadcast advertising. The service is proven across Europe as the first step on the mobile marketing roadmap, and clients currently piloting the service on there 13/1300 numbers are already seeing incredible uplift in lead generation.

Launched as a pilot scheme with a limited set of numbers in April this year, Australian consumers are now among the first globally to benefit from a single short-code local rate number available for both voice and SMS response.

"It appears that consumers are now using their mobile phone to engage with broadcast advertising with the same energy and intensity that what we have seen in Europe for several years now. This increase in engagement and the unique nature of mobile response, finally gives our clients an understanding of which media and creative is delivering value" said North.

The uptake for the pilot has been heavily subscribed with major automotive, electronic goods, government bodies, and charities all running campaigns on the Ad.IQ platform, with a keyword 13 SMS 'call to action' incorporated. The service has recently been shortlisted for 'best enterprise application' at the ADMA mobile marketing awards.

Consumers responding to advertising via SMS are charged at their standard operator rate and messages are routed through the existing local-rate service provider to the end corporate user.