A timely reminder in Cadbury results. (Opinion).(Cadbury Ltd., text messaging)(Brief Article)

As if the 3.7 per cent decline in above-the-line spend in 2001 (according to AC Nielsen MMS) wasn't enough, now the industry faces the likes of Cadbury's chief executive, John Sunderland, proudly attributing Cadbury's 12 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to a simple text messaging campaign.

The campaign, created by Triangle and executed by Flytxt, involved a mobile phone number appearing on the wrappers of 65 million chocolate bars, encouraging children to enter competitions. A staggering five million responded and sales grew by 2 per cent accordingly.

The importance of diversifying into non-advertising marketing services is a drum that has been beating so loudly for so long that no agency chief executive needs reminding of it, but Sunderland's words do just that.

Looking at WPP and Omnicom's better-than-expected results last week, the investment of the major advertising holding companies into other marketing services has shown how diversification has strengthened bottom lines that used to rely ...