Texters = Young, Techy, Online Shoppers

This information comes from yesterday's Research Brief, from the Center for Media Research. The data was collected by Scarborough Research.

Texters are ...
* more likely than most people to spend money on cellular services. On average, they spend $87/month on cellular services.

- All cellular subscribers average $75/month.

- 46% more likely than all cellular subscribers to typically spend $150+/month on cellular services.

* 12% more likely to plan to switch services.

* more likely than the average cell user, to utilize a wide variety of phone features - such as picture messaging, streaming video and email.

* 49% more likely than all cellular subscribers to be ages 18-24.

* 14% more likely to be Hispanic, and 24% more likely to be African-American.

- Scarborough points to these similarities as likely reasons why El Paso, Salt Lake City, Dallas and Memphis are the top text messaging markets.

- 57% of cell phone subscribers age 18+ in El Paso text message, versus 48% of adult cellular subscribers nationally.

- 55% of cell subscribers in these cities utilize the text messaging feature on their phone.

- Fort Myers, FL, Charleston, WV, and Grand Rapids, MI are the local markets least likely to text message.

- 36% of Fort Meyers and Charleston cellular subscribers utilize the text messaging feature on their phones, as do 35% of those in Grand Rapids, MI.

* 20% spend $1,000+ online annually, versus 17% of all cellular users.

* 37% more likely than all cellular subscribers to have played basketball as a leisure activity, 29% more likely to have gone jogging/running, 29% more likely to have played tennis, and 23% more likely to have practiced yoga during the past year.

* 12% more likely to have attended a professional sports event, and 57% more likely to have gone to an R&B/Rap/Hip-Hop concert during the past year.

* more likely than the average cell phone subscriber to live in a household that owns, or plans to buy, a wide variety of hi-tech items, from HDTVs to MP3 players to video game systems.

- 39% of Texters live in a household that shopped Best Buy during the past year, versus 27% of all consumers nationally.

- 35% of Texters live in a household that shopped Wal-Mart for tech items during the past year.

- 20% of Texters shopped Target.

CONCLUSION: Gary Meo, senior vice president, digital media services, Scarborough Research, concludes "Text messaging could be... disproportionately appealing to marketers because it delivers a young, multicultural audience... (but) texts can provide a very locally targeted vehicle for marketers wanting to reach people in the right place at the right time... "

To view the report, visit the Scarborough Research website.