According to a report released Monday by Nielsen’s Telecom Practice, Americans should expect to see more text message marketing in the future.  Given the immense popularity of texting in the U.S. and abroad, it’s not surprising that marketers have ramped up their use of the medium to engage their customers — where there’s an audience, marketers are not far behind.

So far, Nielsen’s report notes, marketers have used short code marketing in a tight but creative range of ways: from simple information messaging, to rewards programming, to couponing, and even direct SMS purchasing.

Coca-Cola’s My Coke Rewards program, which had engaged 1.1 million AT&T and Verizon Wireless customers as of Q3 2008, according to Nielsen, is a notable example.  Subway, Arby’s, Jiffy Lube, BestBuy, Papa Johns, Village Inn, and other major brands have also provided special offers through text and multimedia messaging.

Short codes are also changing the way Americans engage with traditional media.  Participation TV falls into this realm — with “American Idol” being the most prominent example of viewers engaging with a TV program over text messaging.

Radio listeners are also increasingly being called to action via text message.  In Q2 2008, for example, Nielsen’s tracking of short codes showed more than a million transactions with the short code “A-L-I-C-E” (or 25423), a short code assigned to the station Alice 97.3 KLLC-FM in San Francisco.  Alice listeners are frequently invited to send text messages directly to the studio to make requests, win prizes, and enter polls. 

View Nielsen Telecom Practice’s full report.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Wireless and Mobile News.

How do consumers feel about talking to brands via texting — the same way they talk with their friends and family?  Read more on Nielsen Wire.

During the second quarter of 2008, a typical U.S. mobile subscriber placed or received 204 phone calls each month.  In comparison, the average mobile customer sent or received 357 text messages per month — a 450% increase over the number of text messages circulated monthly during the same period in 2006.

U.S. teens (ages 13 to 17) had the highest levels of text messaging in Q2 2008, sending and receiving an average of 1,742 text messages per month.  In comparison, teens took part in an average of 231 mobile phone calls per month, during the same time period.

Nielsen tracks billing activity through an opt-in panel of more than 50,000 personally liable, postpaid U.S. mobile lines across the top four carriers, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless.

Read more about text messaging trends in the U.S. in the November issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The New York Times, Wired, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cellular-news.com, Gearlog, and on CNET.com.

Both stories noted that 46% of U.S. tweens use cellphones, but only 26% own them, according to Nielsen Mobile.

Instead, tweens are more likely to borrow their parents’ phones — when they go out with friends or take short trips.  The borrowing typically starts at age eight-and-a-half; by age 10 or 11, many tweens have their own phones, according to Nielsen.

Nearly all parents (92%) say they restrict their tweens’ phone usage in some way, and 68% prohibit their tweens from downloading content that incurs charges, according to Nielsen.

Still, tweens manage to use their phone for more than just talking.  About 55% of tweens who own cell phones send text messages, and 21% download ringtones.

Those are exactly the kinds of trends that interest cell phone operators.

“Our clients want to understand tweens’ attitudes and mobile behavior in the context of their daily life and media consumption,” Richard Wood, vice president, Nielsen Mobile, told CNET.

The Vice Presidential message (sent in the late hours of Friday night) is, by many accounts, the single largest mobile marketing event ever in the U.S.

“From a mobile perspective, it makes sense that the campaign chose to use text-messages,” Nic Covey, Director of Insights, Nielsen Mobile, noted. “Today, 116 million U.S. mobile subscribers (52 percent of subscribers) actively use text messaging, making it a new mass medium for marketing efforts.”

Obama’s VP text-message is already being seen as one of the most important text messages ever sent, and one of the most successful brand engagements using mobile media. “The value of the message goes far beyond the 26 words and 2.9 million recipients,” Covey said. “Here, Obama branded himself as cutting edge, inflated the already enormous press attention paid to his VP pick and further established a list of supporters’ most coveted form of contact: their cell phone numbers.”

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Newsday and the Los Angeles Times.