Mobile marketing and the right to privacy – page 2

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It's also important that the industry continues to educate consumers that it's possible to send them marketing messages that aren't based on personal information. For example, when consumers travel to another part of the country and start surfing the Web from their phone, it's increasingly likely that they'll see banner ads for companies in the area where they're traveling, such as the local newspaper. Consumers likely won't notice the information they are receiving has taken into account their current location, but in order to deliver the level of relevance the service that provided the information needs to use it.

Some consumers might see these geographically relevant ads and assume that their wireless carrier is using the location technology in their phone to pinpoint their whereabouts and then selling that information to third parties, all without their consent. But in reality, the banner ads probably are served up to all mobile users within the same metropolitan area. Hence the importance of being proactive in educating consumers about how mobile marketing works, instead of leaving them to speculate and fear.

In other cases, consumers realize how little a mobile marketing campaign knows about them when they don't provide information. For example, a local clothier could have an ad for a sale on men's suits sent to all mobile users within, say, 20 miles of its store. This shotgun approach can be effective because it takes only a few sales to make back the campaign's low cost. But at the same time, recipients who have no interest in suits may realize that mobile marketing campaigns don't know much about them unless they have already opted in to campaigns that are tailored to their specific interests.

Keep users in control

It's critical that the personal information shared at opt-in and collected during the user's participation is not shared with other parties without first obtaining the user's consent. MMA guidelines already stipulate that users must have a convenient way to opt-out.

Campaigns also should be designed to make it easy for users to find the privacy policy. For example, at opt-in, there could be a button that users click to have the privacy policy sent to their e-mail address for future reference.

If consumers believe that it's always easy for them to opt-out of a campaign or to manage that information, including having it purged, they're more likely to continue participating in it--and in future campaigns.

Marketing campaigns increasingly span multiple channels--such as mobile and PCs--in order to reach certain segments. Such combinations also affect privacy. For example, campaigns should be designed around the fact that many consumers will participate from both their mobile phone and PC. As a result, the campaign should give participants a single user identity that spans all devices, instead of forcing them to create and manage separate ones. Besides addressing privacy, that approach also improves ease of use.

Multi-channel campaigns also should have a single privacy policy that explains, for example, whether sites browsed on a PC will be used to determine which marketing messages are pushed to their mobile devices. By being upfront with consumers, this approach minimizes privacy concerns and improves the campaign's effectiveness by increasing participation.

Regardless of how a mobile marketing campaign is structured or its goals, it should always protect the consumer experience. Put simply, when consumers are protected, the opportunity is protected. Next month's column will look at some of the ways that the MMA and other key members of the mobile ecosystem are creating and updating industry best practices and guidelines that head off the worst-case scenario: privacy abuse that causes regulatory intervention, which could stifle innovation and reduce economic value of this channel's potential.

Mike Wehrs is president and CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). For more information, visit www.mmaglobal.com.

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