TeXBoX Advertising
What is TeXBoX?
TeXBoX is a service that offers a free international SMS service to users. It is not merely a standard SMS service, but a service with extended functionality: each SMS links to a live "online chat" similar to online chatrooms, except that they are secure because the participants are there by invitation only, and similar also to an MSN-style Instant Messaging chat, except that there can be multiple participants, using either mobile phones or computers. These live text conversations are called TeXBoX sessions, and are used by TeXBoX users to hold "SMS conversations".

If a user disconnects from TeXBoX, but a further message is submitted to the TeXBoX session, then that message is automatically delivered to them by SMS - and so TeXBoX seamlessly integrates SMS with Instant Messaging and Online Chatroom-style communication.
How does advertising work on TeXBoX?
There are two ways in which advertising is incorporated into TeXBoX:
  • Advertising text messages are attached to SMS's sent by TeXBoX
  • Advertising (text & image) messages are inserted into TeXBoX sessions.

Because the requirements of SMS's and sessions are different, every TeXBoX advertisement consists of several different elements: 
  • Text messages of various lengths which are attached to SMS's. They are mostly optional :
    • A very short message of only 15 characters. This is referred to as the "teaser" message, and is the only message that is not optional. You must provide a teaser message for all adverts you create. This message is attached to approximately 20% of SMS's sent through TeXBoX (1 out of 5).
    • A slightly longer message of 25 characters, referred to as the "short" message. This message is attached to approximately 20% of SMS's sent through TeXBoX (1 out of 5).
    • A medium length message of 50 characters, referred to as the "medium" message. This message is attached to approximately 35% of SMS's sent through TeXBoX (7 out of 20).
    • The longest message that can be attached to an SMS, with a maximum length of 80 characters, referred to as the "long" message. This message is attached to approximately 25% of SMS's sent through TeXBoX (1 out of 4).
  • And then elements that are inserted into TeXBoX sessions, all of which are optional:
    • A text message, limited to a maximum of 150 characters, referred to as the Full message.
    • An image, which can be in any usual image format (jpeg, gif, bmp), and should be no larger than 140x40 pixels. Note that TeXBoX can display animated gifs, however they don't animate on most mobile phones, so there is little point! This image file must be smaller than 15 KB's, or it will not display on some phones. 
    • An internet url to link people to your website. Note that the website should be "mobile-friendly", because of course most users will be linking to your site on their mobile phones.
    • A "friendly name" which is used in place of the url, and is displayed in the TeXBoX session as a regular internet link.

Why do we use so many different lengths of text messages? Simply so that we can make the best use of the space left over when people exchange SMS's. Often people will send an SMS with only a few words, and so it is useful then to attach a longer advertising message, and make use of that space. Remember that only one length of message has to be provided - the teaser message. The others are all optional, so if you have no need of an 80 character message, simply leave this blank. 

Why is the longest SMS message only 80 characters? A TeXBoX SMS links to the session - which is an internet url, which takes up 48 characters of the standard 160 character SMS message. In practice we have found that not all service providers will deliver 160 characters - in fact only 156 characters are reliably delivered (we have no idea what happens to the other 4!). This leaves a maximum of 108 characters. We found after extensive testing that the number of messages sent that consist of fewer than 28 characters was not really worth the effort of creating a longer advertising message - it would hardly ever be attached to an SMS.
How are advertisements attached to SMS's?
Advertising messages are attached to TeXBoX SMS's in such a way that we make the best use of the space left over when people type SMS's. There will always be an advertising message attached to an SMS, even if it is only the teaser message. This means of course that users of TeXBoX cannot make use of the full 160 characters available in a normal SMS, but we have found that the extended functionality of a TeXBoX session, and the fact that they get to send the SMS for free, means that this is not a deterrent - a user can after all send 2 free SMS's instead!

How many characters can a user type into a TeXBoX SMS? The answer is a maximum of 101 characters. Why is this? A TeXBoX SMS links to the TeXBoX session - which requires an internet url, which takes up 40-48 characters of the standard 160 character SMS message. This leaves a maximum of 116 characters. Then the advertising message is attached (a minimum of 15 characters), leaving a usable length of 101 characters. However, because the SMS links to the TeXBoX session, users can in fact type messages much longer than even a standard SMS. Only the first 101 characters of the message are delivered as an SMS, and the rest of the message can be read by the recipient when they connect to the TeXBoX session. We have found that because of this functionality users do not feel that they are being limited in any way by using TeXBoX.
How are advertisements inserted into TeXBoX sessions?
TeXBoX sessions include advertisements in two places:
  • at the top of the session an image is inserted, IF the advertisement has a defined and uploaded image. If the advertisement includes an internet link to your mobile-friendly website then the image will link to that site if it is "clicked".
  • at the bottom of the session a text advertisement is always included. This is the "Full text" of the advertisement which can be a maximum of 150 characters. If the full text is not defined for this advertisement, then the longest text message defined for the advertisement is inserted here. Following the text message, a link is included to your mobile-friendly website if you have defined such a link.

Note that if there is no image defned and uploaded for the advertisement, then there will be no advertisement placement at the top of the session, but there is always a placement at the end of the session (even if it is only the teaser).

Also note that although TeXBoX Sessions are always created when TeXBoX is used to send an SMS, the advertiser is only charged for the session placement when someone logs in to the session (which happens at approximately the rate of once for every four SMS's sent).

It is also worth noting that although TeXBoX sessions can be accessed through computer rather than mobile phone, there is no advertising presented to the computer user - the reason for this is simple - there is so much advertising on the internet that we decided to keep TeXBoX advertising entirely mobile. Of course when someone logs in to TeXBoX on their computer, you are not charged for this, because there is no placement of your adverts.

 
How much does TeXBoX advertising cost?

TeXBoX advertising is paid for with "credits" (see below: "How does one pay for TeXBoX advertising?"). Credits are charged for every SMS sent with your advertisement attached to it, and a single credit is charged for every time someone logs in to a session that displays an advertisement of yours.

How many credits per SMS? That depends on where the SMS is sent to, because different service providers charge different amounts for delivering SMS's to their users. Click here for a detailed breakdown of how many credits it takes to deliver SMS's to different countries. All SMS's delivered to South African mobile phones cost only 1 credit.

Introduction messages: the first time anyone receives a TeXBoX message they in fact receive two messages (concatenated into one), so that they know how to reply to the message using TeXBoX, and to start using TeXBoX to send their own messages. These introduction messages cost double a standard message, but of course each TeXBoX user only ever receives one introduction. 

How much do TeXboX advertising credits cost? That depends on how you purchase them, how many you buy, and whether you pay for them in advance, or in arrears. The cost ranges from 3 credits for R1 (33 cents each) to 2 credits for R1 (50 cents each). The simplest payment option is to pay in arrears each month (TeXBoX will automatically deduct the outstanding amount from your credit card at the end of each month), in which case the credits cost 40 cents each.

 
How does one pay for TeXBoX advertising?
TeXBoX advertising is paid for by means of a credit card. There are two basic ways in which you can pay for your advertising:
  • By purchasing pre-paid credits. The more credits you purchase, the cheaper they are. The cost ranges from 3 credits for R1 (33 cents each) to 2 credits for R1 (50 cents each) . 
  • Or choosing to pay for your advertising in arrears, at the end of every month. If you choose this option you need to lodge your credit card details with TeXBoX, and make a small initial purchase of R50 worth of credits (at the pay-in-arrears rate of 40 cents each). Thereafter, on the last day of each month your credit card will be charged for the credits you have used. 

Note that you can easily control the amount you spend on your TeXBoX advertising, by stipulating low Maximum Credits per Day on your advertising campaigns. See the next paragraph for more information.

 
How does one control what one spends on TeXBoX Ads?
Controlling what one spends on TeXBoX advertising is very simple. Using the TeXBoX Advertising Panel, you will manage your account. Each campaign, and in fact each advertisement within each campaign has a very important setting: Maximum Credits per Day. TeXBoX will never spend more than the maximum allowed credits per day on any of your advertisements or campaigns. By adjusting this number you can control how many times your advertisements are attached to SMS's and displayed in sessions, and limit your spending to your own budget.
In which countries does TeXBoX advertise?
TeXBoX users span the globe! There are 178 countries across the world that TeXBoX sends messages to. You can choose, for each of your advertising campaigns, which countries you would like to advertise in. Further to this you should indicate which rule TeXBoX should use when a session spans between more than one country:
  • You can choose to have TeXBoX attach your campaign to a session so long as ONE of the members of the session is in a country you have chosen to advertise in.
  • OR, you can have TeXBoX attach your campaign only if ALL members of the session come from countries which you have chosen to advertise in. The only disadvantage to this option is that if the TeXBoX session has many participants from countries you have chosen to advertise in, and your campaign has been attached to it, but then someone joins the session from a country you haven't chosen to advertise in, your campaign will be withdrawn and replaced by another advertising campaign, which is not ideal and of course forces TeXBoX to break its own guideline of advertising exclusivity.

As a matter of interest only 5% of TeXBoX sessions span more than one country, and so this rule is not often applied! Most TeXBoX sessions are between people within the same country.

 
What does the term "exclusivity" mean on TeXBoX?
Imagine you were a TeXBoX user, and everytime you exchanged an SMS message with someone during a single session, you viewed an advertisement for a different product - irritating, right? The process of avoiding this is what we call the exclusivity of a TeXBoX session. This is how it works: TeXBoX assigns only one advertiser to each TeXBoX conversation. This means that TeXBoX users will never be presented with your competitor's ads in proximity to your own (unlike an internet system such as Google Adwords). As soon as a campaign of yours has been attached to an SMS, all future SMS's in that conversation, and the TeXBoX session itself will be branded with that campaign. The users will be aware that their free communication is "sponsored" by you. This enhances the brand association that TeXBoX users have with your brand.
Who uses TeXBoX?

Of course TeXBoX users are the people receiving your advertising, so it helps to know ho they are. The answer to this question is fairly complex, because there are several groups of people who use TeXBoX:

  • The most obvious, and largest group of TeXBoX users are "bargain-hunters", who take advantage of sending free SMS's to each other. However they must have mobile phones with data capability in order to use TeXBoX, so these users are by no means poverty stricken! They also need some technological understanding in order to use TeXBoX (although it is easy to use, one needs GPRS settings, and an understanding of how to browse the internet on one's phone). These users are best described as being careful spenders, who will take advantage of free, or good bargain services.
  • Many TeXBoX users have more disposable income, and use TeXBoX not purely because it's free, but because it's cool, and because it is cutting edge technology - they enjoy conversations with many people at the same time, and benefit from the convenience of automatic SMS's sent when they aren't connected. Consider that pretty much everybody with a mobile phone sends SMS messages - a large proportion of those people would send a message for free if they had the choice ... Many of these users send regular SMS's some of the time and then use TeXBoX at other times, such as when they anticipate a long exchange of messages.
  • A third group of TeXBoX users are companies, clubs, churches, film crews, etc. who use TeXBoX to communicate with groups of people quickly and easily. They use the "message board" capabilities of TeXBoX to distribute information to their closed user groups. We have found that people introduced to TeXBoX in this manner often become regular users of TeXBoX for their own personal SMS needs. These people have a range of incomes, ages, and interests.

And so you will see the difficulty with defining the "TeXBoX user". The simplest definition is that a TeXBoX user is somebody who has technical savvy, and will send an SMS for free if they have the choice.