The DMA (Direct Marketing Association) says that its Mobile Marketing Strategy Steering Group, which was created a year ago, will achieve full Council status at its annual elections in January. The Mobile Marketing Council, Vice-Chaired by Fiona Cuthbert (pictured)of customer information company, Acxiom, will join the Associations 15 other Councils, including the Email Council, Interactive TV Council and Telemarketing Council.
DMA Head of Interactive Media, Robert Dirskovski, says that as Europes 5th largest professional body in the communications sector, the DMA felt that it needed to demonstrate to its membership, and to the wider marketing community, the benefits of mobile marketing, in an age of integrated marketing.
“Mobile is becoming increasingly important, and not just to direct marketers, so we need to give guidance to our members on how to use mobile” says Dirskovski. “The DMAs primary role is to ensure that the industry can prosper within a self-regulatory regime, so each Council is constantly looking at the relevant legislation to ensure that a fair balance is maintained between commercial freedom and consumer rights. In this respect, we are taking a close look at the TV Without Frontiers legislation. This is a huge piece of legislation which many people think is attempting to regulate technologies that do not yet exist.”
The European Commission has already circulated proposals for the legislation. The DMA anticipates that the EU will have a draft document in November, with final implementation throughout the Union by 2010.
Dirskovski says that the DMA will have Best Practice guidelines for mobile marketing before the end of November, and will shortly launch a Benchmarking Survey, which will be similar to the one it has been running for the past year for email. This will act as a tool to help agencies and clients to determine success rates of the medium. He says the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has been kept abreast of the DMAs plans, and is currently considering whether to participate in the Benchmarking Survey.
