Rules, regulations and industry best practices are put in place for a reason, and nowhere are they more important then when it comes to anti-SPAM cases.  An emerging number of cases are being filed for violations of anti-SPAM laws regarding not only landline and cellphone call violations, but for SMS SPAM as well.

One such case is one involving a woman by the name of Laci Satterfield who, in 2007, sued Simon & Schuster in federal court in the Northern District of California for sending an unsolicited text message to her son’s cell phone that advertised the Stephen King horror book Cell.  Her attorneys claimed such text messages violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act because they were sent through an automatic telephone dialing system. The suit, brought on behalf of a potential class of 60,000 people, sought between $500 and $1,500 for each unsolicited text message Simon & Schuster sent, meaning the publisher faced damages of up to $90 million.

While specific rules and regulations regarding SMS messages are still a bit ambiguous, Simon & Schuster claimed that it didn’t use an auto-dial system, and that no “calls” took place as defined by the federal law.  The company also claimed that Satterfield and other users had given consent by agreeing to the terms of ringtone downloads, and thus had opted-in to receiving further marketing messages.  Originally, Oakland federal district court judge Claudia Wilken sided with Simon & Schuster, though she did not rule on the question of whether a text message constitutes a telephone call- the most important aspect of the case.

Read the rest

Share This

The 2009 Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)’s Forum opened yesterday in New York City to bring together industry experts and executives to discuss a wide range of topics related to the mobile channel.

While discussing all aspects of mobile, this year’s event will focus on consumer engagement, branding in the mobile channel and social media, among others.  Hearing from executives from a wide array of mobile-based companies, the forum will emphasize marketer’s case studies and discussions around privacy, location services, and creating opportunities through the evolution of the market.

While some have argued that mobile marketing as a whole is seeing slowing growth this year, those familiar with the industry see it differently.  In March, for example, the MMA announced that the four largest U.S. wireless service providers – Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile USA – had agreed to incorporate their mobile marketing guidelines within the MMA’s best practices, resulting in a transparent, consolidated playbook of consumer best practices.  This alone shows the dedication to the advancement of mobile best practices and the overall evolution of the mobile marketing industry as it moves forward.

Read the rest

Share This

On the heels of a debate over the privacy implications of mobile marketing, a new company is taking steps to curb the concern with its new “3D profiling engine,” software offerings and a forum on privacy for the mobile marketing industry as a whole.

Using data analytics technology, the 3D profiling engine allows mobile subscriber data to be kept completely anonymous, never sacrificing on user privacy but delivering a highly-personalized mobile experience through relevant and engaging marketing.  Xtract says it “ensures the highest levels of privacy in mobile marketing.” Whether that’s true or not, it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Xtract allows offers “Social Links,” which is the first commercial software that enables users to leverage social intelligence in their marketing actions.  What this means is, by default, all customer data is automatically made anonymous when imported to Social Links, thereby all data used in analytics is always anonymous while still being effective and useful overall.

Xtract’s methodology, defined as “3D user profiling” maps users against categories of interest, rather than making individual data visible to third parties, thus ensuring higher levels of privacy.  The cornerstone of Xtract’s approach is that there is no need to link the results back to subscriber data that contains sensitive information, such as what number has been called.  All subscribers are linked to profiles, classes, and score levels based on predictive models and profile characters instead of personal information.

To top it all off, Xtract has enacted its own forum on privacy for the mobile marketing industry.  The group will promote the adoption of industry-wide standards that ensure the highest levels of subscriber privacy.  It’s unfortunate that it took complaints to the FCC to get the industry truly thinking about improving privacy, but it might have done the trick, and opened up some eyes to a problem that must be fixed quickly to keep the industry moving in the right direction.

Share This

Yahoo has launched its Fire Eagle platform that aims to centralize location data to make it easily available for both users and developers to access and use accordingly.� One of the huge benefits, from a marketing standpoint, is it now allows for the integration of location data into mobile marketing campaigns.

Since the platform is open, developers and advertisers alike can use location data from their respective demographic to build campaigns they might not otherwise have been able to do because of the cost, time, and know-how of incorporating such data.

As a user, privacy control is the number one concern.� Fire Eagle provides a central collection area that Yahoo maintains where users can update their location, and choose which sites to share the information with.� The user, not the developer, has complete control of how that data is used within any application or campaign.

Location-aware mobile campaigns are the future of mobile marketing and this introduction means it might be coming sooner rather than later.� Imagine easily plugging into the platform to know where a certain user-group is at all times.� You can reduce your overall cost by deploying messages and advertising only when it’s most appropriate and when the users are most likely to use them.

On the other hand, it will be interesting to see how many users actually make their location public.� Still, not many mobile devices are capable of reporting location-data, and out of those few, not many will be willing to share the information to just anyone.� It’s a good step forward, but still a little ahead of its time if you ask me.

Share This

An FTC town hall meeting about mobile ads and consumer protection was held yesterday, where two leading advocacy groups filed complaints regarding several mobile marketing practices. Most notably, location-based marketing, where advertisers know a user’s exact location, was brought under fire.

Jeff Chester, founder and executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, along with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group combined efforts to rally the FTC for more guidelines when it comes to behavioral targeting in general. The groups argue that marketers should not track people’s web-surfing activity for the purpose of compiling profiles about them without first obtaining their consent. Jeff Chester commented…

“…We’re filing a complaint to force the FTC to take a proactive stance. Mobile ad companies incorporate the same problematic business practices that we witnessed with PC-based broadband marketing, including behavioral targeting and profiling techniques–except that this time they know your location…”

The groups hope to influence policy now, while the mobile ad market is still in its infancy. Specifically, they intend to call on the FTC to create a task force that will include consumer representatives and industry leaders to craft a marketing regime that gives priority to privacy. They also intend to push for special rules regulating mobile ads to children and teens.

The FCC already has rules in place that prohibit the use of SMS marketing without a user’s consent, but other types of marketing like WAPl banners and search ads are not similarly restricted. The groups have observed that mobile marketing practices raise more privacy concerns than desktop-based behavioral targeting, because mobile companies can potentially determine a user’s precise physical location. By contrast, targeting that relies on cookies to track a user’s Internet history is usually anonymous and not tied to offline information such as location.

Share This

The Boston Globe published interesting Associated Press mobile marking article today regarding advertising on cellphones.

The carriers are more than a little spooked at the location based services that everyone believes are right around the corner. Guess why? The carriers are afraid that some of their customers might not be all that jazzed to receive a location based offer from a Merchant while standing in or near the Merchants store. So much so they believe that some of their customers will get annoyed and switch to a rival service.

Look at this quote from the article:

“We have great expenses with customers leaving one company and going to another,” Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said. “One thing I can guarantee Verizon Wireless will not do is get a bump of short-term advertising dollars while scaring and losing our customers in the process.”

Ah, the dreaded switch. That sounds like it’s more about money than privacy for Verizon doesn’t it? Someone might want to remind Jeffery that the consumer pays too… something along the lines of early termination fee.

We haven’t even come close to hearing the last of this topic; privacy groups are going to be all over this issue in 2008 as this technology grows and mobile advertising spending increases. Not to mention Google released a mobile web app earlier this year that is capable of pinpointing your mobile phone location w/o gps.

Share This