Vodafone and Visa in ad trial

Vodafone teamed up with Visa Europe to trial a new mobile advertising format.

Vodafone customers received welcome texts when abroad reminding them to dial the UK country code +44 if calling home, along with a promotion to win tickets to the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games with Visa if they used their card abroad.

Some 150,000 messages were sent to Vodafone customers in eight countries during the two week trial in May.

Of those receiving messages, 86 per cent remembered receiving the welcome message promotion and 74 per cent opened and read the message.

Respondents had mixed views, but half were open to future promotions if they were relevant and targeted.

Vodafone head of mobile advertising Richard Saggers said: “The trial was a success. Our research showed the Visa-Vodafone welcome message was well recalled and compared well against more traditional direct forms of one to one communication.”

Vodafone and Visa are developing future promotions and ways to make the content more targeted.