Mobile Marketing Glossary

Dedicated short codes are dedicated for one customer, and are costly and take awhile to set up - in the U.S. it can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000 per year and take two months to get it ready. In the U.S. you can choose between vanity or select (hand-picked) and random codes, similar to picking a license plate. Vanity codes cost around $1,000 per month just to register and random short codes cost about half that.

Multimedia messaging service; this kind of text messaging allows users to add multimedia (such as sound, pictures or graphics) to their text message.

A mobile-originated message, meaning an SMS or text message sent from a mobile phone. These messages are sent by a mobile subscriber by creating and sending the message from within their mobile phone.

A mobile-terminated message, meaning an SMS or text message terminated on a mobile phone. These messages are typically viewed by the recipient in their text message 'Inbox'.

The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers where such communication is delivered to a mobile phone or other mobile device. Examples of mobile advertising would include: WAP Banner ads, mobile search advertising, mobile video bumpers, interstitial ads in on device portals.

Sales and promotion technique in which the promotional materials are delivered individually to potential customers via the potential customer's mobile phone or other mobile device. Examples of mobile direct marketing include the sending of SMS, MMS or WAP push messages, Bluetooth messaging and other interrupt based marketing to mobile phones or other mobile devices.

The systematic planning, implementing and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products where the primary point of contact with the consumer is via their mobile device.

The subscribers are charged extra for receiving this premium content (ringtones, wallpapers, etc.), and the amount is typically divided between the mobile network operator and the value added service provider (VASP) either through revenue share or a fixed transport fee.

Occurs when the user of the recipient phone rather than the message sender is charged for the cost of the SMS message received. It is also called MT (Mobile Terminated) Billing. Reverse-billed SMS messages are only sent if specifically requested by the phone user. A daily horoscope alert is an example of a service where regular reverse-billed messages are received.

Shared short codes are shared among customers and use keywords to identify their traffic which help to reduce to the cost and speed up the setup process.

Also known as short numbers or Common Short Codes (CSC) - Special telephone numbers, significantly shorter than full telephone numbers, which can also be used to address SMS and MMS messages from mobile phones or fixed phones. They are designed to be shorter and easier to remember than normal telephone numbers. Short codes are widely used for value-added services such as television voting, ordering ringtones, charity donations and mobile services.

Short Message Service (SMS) is a telecommunications protocol that allows the sending of "short" (160 characters or less) text messages. It is available on most digital mobile phones and some personal digital assistants with onboard wireless telecommunications. The individual messages that are sent are called text messages, and more colloquially SMSes, texts, or even txts.

Programs or messages that result in only normal text messaging charges being applied to the subscriber's wireless bill, or that result in messages being deducted from a subscriber's messaging plan allowance.

A walled garden, with regards to media content, refers to a closed set or exclusive set of information services provided for users (a method of creating a monopoly or securing an information system). This is in contrast to providing consumers access to the open Internet for content and e-commerce. The term is often used to describe mobile phone operators which provide custom content, and not simply common carrier functions.

WAP is an open international standard for applications that use wireless communication. Its principal application is to enable access to the Internet from a mobile phone or PDA.

A WAP browser provides all of the basic services of a computer based web browser but simplified to operate within the restrictions of a mobile phone. WAP is now the protocol used for the majority of the world's mobile internet sites, known as WAP sites.