The Mobile Marketing Association has released its updated Consumer Best Practices Guidelines for Cross-Carrier Mobile Content Programs (United States). The guidelines cover subscription content programs, participation TV, chat programs and viral marketing and are avaible here (PDF). The updates include defining the guidelines for marketing to children under the age of 13; guidance on opt-in and opt-out via interactive voice response (IVR); and opt-in regs for the mobile web. It also states that dispute resolution is up to each individual carrier, but does suggest what might constitute a dispute…
Among the points raised are:
Big Small Print: Advertisements for mobile content should make all charges obvious. If there is an offer of “free”, for example, the corresponding charges should be “expressed in the same manner and in the same location”.
Care For Kids: If services or advertising targets kids there are additional limits, such as that the word “free” (or similar) shouldn’t be used at all unless there are no charges associated with the service. The charges should be clearly stated as well as the fact that anyone under 18 needs their parents permission to sign up. Obviously content inappropriate for kids (erotic, tobacco, gambling etc) shouldn’t be promoted.
The Double Opt-In Scenario: The guidelines state that standard rate programs require a single opt-in, while premium rate programs require a double opt-in. There’s a lot of additional details for different types of services. One particular point: “The first time a subscriber participates in any premium program, they should be required to double opt-in. This requirement should apply to the first time a subscriber tries a specific program on a specific shortcode. Separate programs, even if they are offered on the same shortcode, require a separate double opt-in.” The same program doesn’t require double opt-in for multiple uses — eg, the first time someone requests a premium weather forecast it’s a double opt-in, but subsequent requests on the same service are only single opt-in. carriers can waive double opt-in on a program-by-program basis, and whenever someone changes carriers they should need to opt-in to the programs again. Any opt-out message followed by the word “all” should cancel all the subscriptions that person has with that content provider.
WAP: On WAP screens the opt-in is to be specified by having a clearly visible “buy” button on the screen, and below it (without needing to scroll) a clearly visible “cancel” button.
The Participation TV Exemption: Certain forms of participation TV are exempt from the double opt-in rule, because otherwise voting would become unwieldy. Participation TV programs are exempt when the premium price is $1.49 or less and its a transaction service rather than a subscription service. Other requirements apply (such as telling people when they’ve past a limit on the number of times they can enter). It would also be good for companies to avoid calling for people to send in votes after the counting has closed, sending text messages to win after a winner is chosen and so on, as they discovered in the UK.
Don’t Sell Lists: Should be fairly obvious, but is spelled out: Selling opt-in lists is prohibited.
Unsubscribing Inactive Users: “If a subscriber is inactive in any program for six months the opt-in should expire…This provision does not apply to programs where the subscriber may have stored value (i.e. remaining credits) with the content provider.” I can understand what they’re trying to do, but if the program simply states that a months un-used credits carries over to the next month before they expire it seems they can bypass this requirement.
Record Keeping: Records of opt-in and opt-out should be kept for a minimum of one year after the subscriber has opted-out of the program.
Chat: There are a lot of guidelines on mobile chat services, a lot of them technical and a lot relating to the upper limit on chat charges…which changes by carrier. Also, the guidelines require that people are unsubscribed from the service after 90 days of inactivity.
Viral Marketing: The guidelines also cover viral marketing, and seem aimed at ensuring the marketing is truly viral rather than ambush. For example, messages inviting friends to join have to be specifically sent by the person rather than generated automatically by accessing their contact list — which is similar to a major complaint against SMS.ac a while ago. It should also be obvious who the forwarded message is from, and people can’t be offered inducements to forward the messages to their friends.
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