At the opening session of this year's FSTEC, Todd Michaud, vice president of IT at Focus Brands, the multi-brand franchisor, said a new SMS text campaign has resulted in restaurant traffic increases that are "leaps and bounds" over typical e-mail campaigns. Even more, Natasa Christodoulidou, as assistant professor at California State University, said recent studies have shown that 5% of those texted will open the message, a standard open rate, but that 20% of those opened messages will result in actual transactions, which is much higher than opt-in e-mail programs.
"Anyone under 30 years old, generally, wants instant feedback and results," she said. "E-mail is the past."
