comScore, Inc. reports that the mobile marketing landscape in Europe is evolving as fewer consumers say they are receiving advertisements for mobile products and services while more receive adverts for consumer goods such as food, fashion, restaurants, travel and financial services.

Over the past year, the number of people receiving SMS adverts for mobile products and services fell nine percent in Europe, while the number receiving offers for non-mobile consumer goods and services climbed 15 percent. Overall, slightly fewer Europeans report receiving an SMS ad, with a decline from 112 million in August 2007 to 110 million in August 2008.

The fastest-growing category of SMS advertising since August 2007 is food, at a rate of 53 percent, followed by clothing/fashion at 38 percent and restaurants at 37 percent. Advertisements for restaurants and food also boast the highest level of response, with 16 percent of those receiving an advert for a restaurant responding and 13 percent of those receiving an offer for food, such as grocery coupons, responding. Meanwhile, the number of consumers responding to an offer for a mobile product or service remained flat, at four percent.

"While the majority of SMS adverts are still for mobile products and services, the mix is beginning to shift toward consumer goods and services," observed Alistair Hill, analyst, comScore. "Mobile advertisers are beginning to show a higher level of sophistication in their targeting efforts, as the targeting criterion is no longer 'has mobile phone' but is based on knowledge of consumers' tastes and behaviors. Clearly, consumers are responding as the quantity of SMS ads decreases and the quality increases."

comScore also announced the results of its August Benchmark Study. Mobile social networking posted double-digit growth in all markets except Germany, which happens to show the lowest number of mobile social network users (as a percent of all mobile subscribers) of the five European countries measured by comScore.