Presently, media organisations such as radio stations, publishers, and TV stations use premium SMS as a way to generate revenue through audience participation, typically voting - think X-factor, Strictly, I'm a Celebrity... and who could blame them. With X-factor recently receiving 10m votes for the 2009 final, it's certainly lucrative. One issue that's always surrounded premium rate competitions is the uncertainty over cost to the audience. Wouldn't it be good if we could still have audience participation and make money for the organiser without it costing the audience an arm and leg? I think we can achieve this, but through a slightly different model - let me explain.

Lets pretend I'm a publisher producing a monthly magazine about the latest Computer Games, chances are my audience is primarily interested in new game releases, Consoles, news, and gaming peripherals. Secondary interests could range from Personal computers, gadgets, and general technology. Proof of this is the type of advertising in the magazine relating to these types of product. Now, once the reader has finished reading the magazine, how else can you contact them with advertising relating to them? SMS of course! If the reader has entered a competition, voted, or contacted the editor via an SMS campaign, you have a direct route to market back out to that reader with details on a product relevant to them.

To insure you have plenty of numbers to promote to, make entry to your call to action campaigns as cheap as possible to the end user, or charge a nominal value to cover operating costs, for example 25p. I spoke to the marketing director of a publishing firm this afternoon who agreed that in a few years, this will most likely be the approach taken by all publishers.

Now, sending the promotional messages. Media agencies, advertising firms, and brands are currently willing to pay up to 20 pence per message to send marketing messages or redeemable vouchers (think colour WAP vouchers, Web redeemable unique voucher codes). With the cost of sending free messages via such interfaces as The Text Works as low as 4 pence per message, you could be looking at a profit of 16 pence for every message sent. This starts to look interesting when you manage to build a list of 10,000 customers!

Let's look at an example. I'm a video game retailer looking to drive footfall to my store upon the release of a new computer game. The computer game company is set to run some high profile magazine, tv, and radio ads to drive sales. To cash in on this publicity, I need to drive potential customers to my chain of stores to buy the game.

I can do this by (1) broadcasting to my existing database of customers, or (2) working in conjunction with another company that already has a list of relevant numbers, providing of course they have permission (or opt in). The second option is where the publisher of computer game titles will make their money by charging me a per number rate for each mobile lead to which I will send my offer - providing of course they've built a mobile database!