The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), in cooperation with the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA), yesterday released best practices for cross-carrier mobile content services.
The guidelines include best-practice rules for marketing consumer goods via SMS, as well as promoting the mobile services themselves. The guidelines cover opt-ins and opt-out rules and how subscriptions are defined. A glossary of standard terms and abbreviations is also included.
According to the guidelines, single opt-ins will be required for free services, while double opt-ins will be standard for any pay services. The second opt-in can be a text message or through the Internet with an e-mail message. All subscribers must also be given clear instruction about opting out at the time they opt-in to a program.
The guidelines were written by a committee of five wireless carriers — T-Mobile, Cingular Wireless, Nextel, Sprint and Verizon Wireless — as well as content aggregators and providers. The nine-page best practices section, including examples, is posted on the MMA’s Web site at mmaglobal.com/bestpractices. Marketers and carriers had requested the guidelines as the mobile channel has grown increasingly popular among consumers and the brands that want to interact with them.
“It’s definitely a market maturity thing,” said Soren Schafft, VP-operations at Mobile Media, Vienna, VA, who sat on the guidelines committee. “What we’ve seen in the past six months is tremendous growth in the market. We want mobile marketing to develop and grow and have consumers feel positive and protected when using mobile services.”
“On one hand you have a uniform set of guidelines to protect the privacies and rights of mobile phone users,” Schafft said. “On the other hand, you have a set of guidelines that brands and content providers to use to remain compliant with privacy laws.”
Jack Philbin, co-founder and president of Chicago-based mobile marketer Vibes Media, said that any efforts to keep the tactic safe for both brands and consumers is time and effort well spent. Philbin said content providers and marketers need to make it very clear what consumers are signing up for and paying into.
“[Negative publicity about mobile marketing companies] is the last thing we want potential advertisers and sponsors to read or see,” Philbin said. “The growth of mobile marketing could get stunted if a bad reputation is created prematurely.”
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