From Excitement to Execution: Lessons from Brands Embracing Rich Messaging

At the Mobile Ecosystem Forum in Vegas, I joined Cheryl Sanders, CS and Operations Strategy Architect (EVP, Mobile Strategy at Listrak ) in a panel moderated by Matt Ekram to share real world lessons from guiding brands through their #RCS (Rich Communication Services) journey, from their initial excitement to measurable execution.

Here is a summary of what we discussed with the hope to help all marketeers, brands and service providers thinking how to make the best out of the brands. And if you need guidance, we are here to help!

1. The Spark: Brands See the Promise When brands first see rich messaging in action, the brand logo, verified senders, interactive carousels, images, and videos, the reaction is instant: “It’s like having a digital billboard on every phone.” RCS transforms SMS from a text-only utility into a branded, engaging experience. Marketers immediately recognize the creative potential and security advantages.

2. The Reality: Education Is Critical While awareness is growing, many brands and even consumers still don’t fully understand RCS. Education must focus on:

• How RCS differs from SMS/MMS

• The ROI potential of verified, branded communication

• The right use cases and flows

• The importance of consumer education to avoid “spammy” misperceptions

During the panel, David shared the Messaging Advisory & Execution 's RCS Maturity Curve, a framework designed to help brands understand their current stage and the steps needed to advance.

Much like a “crawl, walk, run” approach, early stages focus on foundational use cases such as verified and branded messaging, while more advanced stages introduce #ConversationalAI and #Omnichannel orchestration as aspirational goals. This model empowers brands to educate their teams, prioritize the right milestones, and progressively evolve toward intelligent, customer-centric engagement.

3. The Challenge: Execution and Consistency 

• Rendering differences across Android devices and iOS versions require extensive testing and optimization. Copy length, imagery, and layout must be carefully adjusted to ensure a consistent user experience, much like fine-tuning a campaign across multiple ad platforms. And yes, it takes a lot of time and iteration!

• Beyond design, API integrations play a critical role. Seamless connections to digital marketing platforms like Adobe, and to CDPs or CRMs, are essential to capture and leverage the new RCS engagement signals effectively.

• Also, the Agent Name, Description, the number of agents a particular brand will expose to consumers or the RCS vs SMS fallback flows are also a critical piece of it and brands need to decide what goes to each customer. 

• Finally, integrating with analytics and attribution systems is fundamental to demonstrate value and ROI, turning rich messaging from a creative experiment into a measurable growth channel.

4. The Barrier: Pricing and ROI 

• Cost sensitivity remains a challenge. High-value verticals (like auto or luxury) can absorb RCS pricing easily, but everyday retail and CPG brands need stronger ROI proof points. 

• A/B testing, is also a fundamental part of it. The industry must demonstrate measurable uplift in engagement and conversion and the audiences must be carefully selected. 

5. The Future: Conversational Journeys Ahead The next evolution will blend AI, analytics, and security, allowing brands to move from one-way campaigns to conversational, agent-driven experiences. However, pricing models and technical maturity still limit widespread adoption in the U.S.

Key Takeaway Success in rich messaging requires to guide brands hand by hand: a guided journey, educating stakeholders, executing and testing relentlessly, and proving ROI before scaling. 

The potential is immense, and the excitement among brands is real. The next step is execution, with purpose, consistency, and trust.

#BusinessMessaging #ConversationalAI #RCS #AppleMessagesforBusiness #RCSLessons #CustomerEngagement #MobileMarketing