Enpocket, the mobile marketing solutions provider that has led development of the wireless medium, encourages the industry to adopt higher standards and require original permission holder identification in all mobile marketing messaging. (Original permission holder identification is the concept of naming in each message the company that the consumer gave permission to for messaging to be sent.) The initiative is based on the work and research Enpocket has done with more than 400 marketers in the US, Europe and Asia over the past three years. This experience has shown that original permission holder identification is as important to consumer satisfaction as opt-in and ease of opting out.
“As a leading member of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) we work to the principle that mobile users should have effective control of this most personal device. Opt-in, opt-out and delivery of value to the consumer are prerequisites for successful mobile marketing, but original permission holder identification in each message is also critical to consumer acceptance,” said Jonathon Linner, CEO, Enpocket.
Mobile marketing takes many forms from the development of opt-in databases for CRM and advertising, to text-response off packaging and other media such as TV, print and radio. In all subsequent permission-based messaging it is important for consumers to be able to identify the original permission holder for three reasons:
1) For consumers to know who they gave permission to for the messaging to be sent 2) To eliminate the risk that consumers perceive opt-in messaging as Spam when it is not 3) To provide the source of the original permission for general opt-out if the consumer so wishes, as this may be different from the advertised brand
Last year in the UK mobile market, where 5 out of 6 people said they have not received any mobile Spam (Enpocket Insight, Mobile Media Monitor, Aug-Oct 2003), Vodafone employees were invited to forward any Spam they received to VSPAM (text 87726). In the event it transpired that two-thirds of the messages they forwarded were not in fact Spam but marketing they did not realise had been sent via opt-ins they had given. Original permission holder identification could have significantly reduced this effect.
Enpocket has practised original permission holder identification for over two years and successfully campaigned for the inclusion of this requirement in the UK MMA Code of Conduct published last December.
Linner concluded: “We wish to bring our wide experience to the task of establishing a responsible and respected mobile marketing medium in the US. To this end we will be making our submission to the FCC in relation to CAN-SPAM and working with the MMA, DMA, TRUSTe and other industry bodies to help establish common standards and best practices for the industry.”
