American Idol & Text messaging

At&t announced yesterday that they set a new record with more than 78 million text message votes received this season. Certainly this is part of a broader trend as Verizon announced that they delivered 58 billion text messages in the first 3 months of 2008. American Idol is widely credited with broadening the use and adoption of text messaging and the use of text messaging shortcodes in particular.

What’s perplexing and disappointing to me, however, is that At&t, through their sponsorship of American Idol uses an exclusive shortcode - meaning that if you use any other wireless carrier, you can’t vote via text message. Frankly, this seems silly to me. Does At&t really believe that customers of other carriers will switch so they can vote via text message instead of dialing a toll-free number? Or that their current subscribers will feel more special? American Idol and the wireless carriers missed an opportunity to process 260 million votes via text message (assuming At&t customers represent about 30% of viewers/voters as per their market share). At&t could have still sponsored the voting and even responded with a branded confirmation message. I feel confident that the other carriers could have swallowed their pride in exchange for the extra messaging revenue.

The wireless landscape is confusing enough for consumers. To use an exclusive 4 digit shortcode on the biggest national stage seems counter to broader industry goals to spread awareness and adoption of text messaging, one of the biggest revenue generators for carriers, and their only recent growth engine.