RCS Campaigns Built on a Measured Addressable Base

Before we quote a build we run your mobile file through an aggregator capability lookup, and the number that comes back decides whether the conversation continues. On European consumer files we typically see RCS capability somewhere between a fifth and two thirds of the file depending on market and carrier mix, and the spread inside a single country is often wider than the spread between countries. A brand that commissions creative before that number exists has bought a carousel for an audience it never counted. Apple's support since iOS 18 changed the arithmetic and did not change it evenly. Verified sender presentation does not render identically on both platforms in every market, so nothing gets creative sign-off here until we have screenshots from a real handset on each. What we measure first: Capability by market and by carrier, capability by handset age where the data supports it, and the overlap between the capable portion of the file and the segments you actually need to reach. A file that is sixty percent capable overall and fifteen percent capable among the customers who generate disruption events is not a sixty percent file. We report both numbers and let the second one drive the decision. What the build contains: Agent registration and verification through Sinch, Infobip or Twilio, whichever your existing voice and SMS relationship already sits with. We do not move an aggregator relationship to suit ourselves. Brand assets to spec: agent logo, banner, colour and the description on the agent card, which is the only thing a recipient reads before deciding whether you are legitimate. Then two journeys, authored as rich cards with suggested replies, and the reply-handling logic sitting behind them. Fallback is a message, not a truncation: Every RCS message ships with an SMS twin written separately, with its own copy, its own link and its own length. The common failure is letting the platform degrade a rich card into a stripped paragraph trailing a ninety-character URL, which converts worse than the plain SMS the brand was already sending. We test the fallback path on a deliberately non-capable handset before launch, every time. Where it earns its price: Per-message RCS rates sit above SMS in most carrier books, so the channel has to buy something SMS cannot. Two things qualify. Delivery and read receipts turn a notification into an operational signal: a disruption card unread after twelve minutes triggers a phone call, and that escalation rule is worth more to a travel operations desk than the carousel is to marketing. Second, suggested replies collapse a rebooking choice into one tap with no browser, which matters to somebody standing at a gate on roaming data. We turn down: Marketing blasts. RCS priced per message and spent on a weekly promotional send is the most expensive way to reach a list you already reach by email. Any request for an RCS-only journey with no SMS or email path behind it. Any programme where the sending brand is a sub-brand nobody would recognise on a verified card, since recognition is the entire value of verification. Not included: Aggregator contract negotiation and per-message rate cards, which are yours; we will review them and challenge them, not sign them. Customer service staffing on the reply path. Creative in languages beyond English and Czech, which we brief and manage but do not write. Who should not buy this: Anyone whose capability lookup comes back thin who wants to build anyway. Anyone without an operational trigger, because if nothing in your business generates a time-sensitive, individual, factual message then RCS does nothing email does not do more cheaply. Anyone who needs a launch date fixed before carrier verification completes, which is outside our control and has taken anywhere from days to several weeks in the markets we work in.