We recently saw a political campaign that said “text JOBS to BLUNT,” reminiscent of the 2008 presidential campaign’s “text HOPE to OBAMA.” What we were keying in on was the use of the vanity short codes – “BLUNT” and “OBAMA.”

Before your company goes mimicking this strategy of adopting a vanity short code for its next campaign, you might want to ask yourself what demographic of mobile user you are targeting. And by that what I really mean is what potential subscriber base you might be pushing away by using a short code formula based on an outdated T9 input model.

If tech-savvy, digitally connected individuals are your target demographic, and you promote a vanity short code based on T9 input, you will most likely frustrate mobile power users who have moved on to full, QWERTY-keyboard-style smartphones. These users might remember your message, but quickly lose motivation to act on your call-to-action when they stare down at their phone’s keyboard or touch screen and find none of the letters correlated with the appropriate numeric digit.

There are, of course, a variety of haphazard solutions to the T9 input problem on today’s smartphones, ranging from add-on apps that translate the alphabetic code to numeric code, to cramped, hold-alt-plus-the-letter-string dialing instructions, to even pulling out that dusty old home phone and figuring it out by sight alone. But, during those fragile moments where you’ve caught your potential subscriber’s attention, and engaged their willingness to connect, this friction in usability could prove the difference between a connected, digital-savvy subscriber, and a lost opportunity.

THE SOLUTION: drop the vanity codes and use instead a visually appealing, easy-to-remember numeric code like 44144. No additional apps, no cramped dialing, and those old home phones can stay packed away in the garage where they belong.

We know from experience that easy numeric short codes work just as well.  Anyone see “The Cove’s” Oscar acceptance speech? If not, you’re one of the few, because quite a few people saw Text DOLPHIN to 44144 and texted the keyword within 5 seconds of Ric O’Barry holding up a sign.