Good Connection

I’m at the ad:tech exhibition in London, fresh out of a briefing with lead generation company Clash-Media to tell me about its Txt Connect offering.
The company’s day job is generating leads for partner companies. It’s staffed by people from data generating companies such as DLG, Experian and IPT, so they should know what they’re doing.
It generates the leads by driving consumers to websites such as its prize draw site, www.ukprizedraw.co.uk. Once there, they are presented with a range of offers from partner companies, and each time they click on one, Clash earns a bit of money through a standard affiliate cost-per-lead deal. Recently, it occurred to the company that there was a mobile opportunity in the lead generation game, hence Txt Connect.
In principle, it’s exactly the same deal, but this time round, the offer is free texts, with no time or usage limit. So typically, a user sees a banner on a website offering free texts, clicks through, and is presented with details on how to download the Txt Connect application to their phone, as well as a range of offers. The user is under no obligation to click on any of the offers, but according to Clash-Media Marketing Director, Diana Herriott, will typically click on around four, so generating the revenue with which the company subsidises the free texts, and giving their agreement to be contacted via their landline, email or SMS.
The cynic in me was surprised at this number, but as Herriott pointed out, if the offers are targeted and relevant, it’s not unreasonable. Once the user has downloaded the application, they invite their friends to sign up too, and once signed up, they can all text each other merrily for free from within the application.
At the show, Clash-Media is, understandably, promoting the lead-generation aspects of the service to marketers. But it also looks great from the consumer angle. For users with a set group of friends engaged in a specific activity each week, like the guy saddled with the job of checking how many people are going to turn up for the weekly game of 5-a-side football for example, the appeal is obvious. I know someone in exactly this position (actually, it’s me) who spends a small fortune on texts each week doing exactly this.
It’s not difficult to see how the application could be used by any closed group, or company, so save money on sending texts. Or just a small group of friends who spend a lot of time and money texting each other. Users can set up as many different groups as they wish and there’s no minimum number of users.
Eventually, says Herriott, the texts themselves could carry advertising, and there could be white-label opportunities for other brands, though neither is offered at present. For Clash-Media, Txt Connect is, first and foremost, another way of generating leads for its partner companies. For heavy texters, however, it looks like the deal of a lifetime.

David Murphy
Editor