Common short code registry Neustar Inc. is offering mobile application providers and aggregators 10 percent off purchases of 10 or more new codes through the end of the month.

There is no limit to the number of short code orders as long as a minimum of 10 codes are ordered before Aug. 31, although it does not apply to renewal orders. The customer's account will be credited no later than 30 days following the end of the program term.

"The strategy behind the promotion is trying to generate business from those customers -- application providers and aggregators -- that buy short codes on behalf of their customers as part of the mobile marketing ecosystem," said Matthew Valleskey, head of marketing for mobile services at Neustar, Sterling, VA.

"If you're Coke or Pepsi or another brand, in many cases you only need one short code, so this promotion is targeting vendors that buy codes in bulk," he said.

CTIA-The Wireless Association owns the Common Short Code Administration, and Neustar manages and operates the U.S. short codes registry on its behalf.

The CSCA's Web site lists top application providers and aggregators.

Tier-one aggregators include Air2Web, mBlox, Motricity, MX Telecom, OpenMarket, SinglePoint, Sybase 365, Upoc Networks, VeriSign and Vibes Media.

To get the word out about its promotion, Neustar sent out an email blast to selected vendors, application providers and aggregators who are current customers.

The promotion has prominent placement on the Neustar Web site. In addition, when members log into their account at the CSCA Web site, they are made aware of the promotion.

SMS marketing using a keyword-short-code call-to-action continues to grow, according to Neustar.

"Mobile marketing in general is growing -- more and more brands are looking to add mobile to their traditional marketing, and it's becoming more and more prevalent," Mr. Valleskey said. "SMS marketing is the most mature medium as far as mobile-based marketing is concerned, because its available on almost every handset out there, it doesn't require consumers to download any type of specific software and they don't have to have an Internet connection.

"Anyone can take advantage of an SMS marketing program -- SMS has the highest potential reach of any mobile marketing mediums out there," he said. "SMS has a potential reach of 270 million subscribers in the U.S., which is larger than any traditional channel out there."

Despite many successes, obstacles remain to widespread adoption of short-code-based marketing, above all time to market.

"There are obstacles to implementing an SMS program, because it's a little bit more complicated than traditional media," Mr. Valleskey said. "The ecosystem consists of app providers, aggregators that have to route traffic and get the campaign up and running on carriers' networks and the carriers themselves, so there are a few more hoops you have to jump through to get a campaign up and running.

"The time to market can be anywhere from two to eight to 12 weeks to get an SMS campaign up and running due to the provisioning time required by carriers," he said. "Neustar helps expedite that process."