Direct Marketing Association adopts stricter mobile marketing guidelines
SAN DIEGO - The Direct Marketing Association?s board of directors expanded its guidelines for ethical business practices to include mobile marketing and online behavioral marketing.
The approval came yesterday in a DMA board of directors meeting at the DMA09 annual conference in San Diego.
?The board?s action codifies these guidelines into the official DMA membership requirements and actively demonstrates self-regulation to policymakers and legislators,? said John A. Greco Jr., president/CEO of the DMA in a prepared statement from San Diego.
The DMA, New York, is the nation's premier trade association for direct and interactive marketers.
The lobby's mobile marketing sections are designed to bolster the DMA?s current guidelines for wireless communications.
Per the DMA, mobile marketing comprises direct mobile marketing sent or received by a mobile device, or indirect mobile marketing that is accessed or pulled by the individual through the device or via a mobile-enabled Web site.
No consent, no content
The guidelines stress the need for prior express consent for marketing communication that is business to consumer or business to business.
There are four other highlights that the DMA emphasizes.
First, notice regarding consumer preferences should be offered in the privacy policy of the mobile marketer.
Second, mobile marketers should use the pertinent suppression files such as the DMA wireless lists and the federal Do-Not-Call registry to ensure that they are not contact those numbers.
Next, the guidelines also cover location-based marketing messages, mobile subscription services and mobile premium-rate products and services.
Finally, the guidelines remind members to stick to the Children?s Online Privacy Protection Act and to require appropriate prior express consent from parents and to offer opportunities for parents to opt out.
The guidelines were reviewed by the DMA?s ethics policy committee, member segments, councils and government affairs specialists.
Per the DMA, the guidelines will be enforced by its committee on ethical business practices through its casework process and through complaint monitoring and collaboration to track compliance.
