What you need to know about the new direct marketing guidance note
Nadine Mather and Chloë Loubser
Revised cross-carrier mobile marketing best practices
DENVER, COLORADO: The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), last week released version 3.3 of its US Consumer Best Practices (CBP) Guidelines for Cross-Carrier Mobile Content Services. Updated twice annually, the guidelines are a set of rules for cross-carrier mobile content services that include, but aren't limited to, text messaging, multimedia messaging, shortcode programs, interactive voice response (IVR) and mobile web.
The guidelines are produced by the MMA's CBP Committee, whose mission is to develop guidelines which provide measures of acceptable and unacceptable practices for all players in the US ecosystem.
Modifications to the 9 July 2008 guidelines include the following key areas: use of wireless carrier SMTP gateways for commercial traffic; handset delivery; clarifications around promotional content and marketing to children; and, expansion of and clarification of guidelines for free-to-end-user (FTEU), standard and premium rate messaging, mobile web and IVR.
"The MMA's Consumer Best Practices Guidelines are the rules for our mobile marketing industry in the United States,” said Laura Marriott, president of the MMA. “The guidelines provide carriers, technology companies, brands, media companies and consumer advocates with the baseline set of rules to ensure a consistent and protected experience for the consumer. The guidelines have also become the rules which the industry monitors and ensure compliance against today.”
The new guidelines also reflect contributions from CBP sub-committees, including IVR, Marketing to Children, Participation TV and Mobile Web. The sub-committees were formed to help facilitate the rapid development of the guidelines to ensure the MMA stays at the forefront of industry development and self-regulation.
The MMA Consumer Best Practices Guidelines Committee comprises the following member companies: Alltel Wireless, AT&T Mobility, Bango, Buongiorno, Cellfish Media, Chapell & Associates, denuo Group (a Publicis Company), Jamster, Lavalife Mobile, Limbo Mobile, mBlox, MTV Networks, MX Telecom, Neustar, Nokia, OpenMarket, Qmobile, SinglePoint, Single Touch Interactive, Sprint-Nextel, Sybase 365, Telescope, The Walt Disney Company, T-Mobile USA, Twistbox, VeriSign, and Verizon Wireless.
The guidelines are effective immediately and are available for download at www.mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf.
For more information on the MMA, go to www.mmaglobal.com.
