MMA Updates Best Practice Guidelines

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), which represents more than 500 member companies worldwide, has released the latest edition of its Consumer Best Practices (CBP) Guidelines for cross-carrier mobile content services in the United States. The MMA says the Guidelines, updated twice annually, have become the baseline set of rules for cross-carrier mobile content services in the United States. The Guidelines can be downloaded here.
The guidelines are produced by the MMAs CBP Committee, whose mission is to develop and continually update a cross-carrier code of conduct that balances consumer protection with the revenue opportunities. The guidelines provide measures of acceptable and unacceptable practices for all players in the ecosystem to follow for cross carrier messaging, interactive voice response (IVR) and mobile web services in the US.
The success of a mobile marketing campaign is measured largely by the user experience,” says Chris Black, Director of Mobile Marketing at AT&T Mobility, and Co-Chair of the CBP Committee. By representing a cross-section of carriers, technology companies, brands, media companies and consumer advocates, the CBP Committee is uniquely qualified to provide the level of timely, hands-on guidance that the industry needs as the mobile channel grows.”
Highlights of the December 2007 CBP Guidelines include guidelines for free-to-end-user (FTEU) guidelines for messaging services; sweepstakes and contests; mobile web and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) opt-in and billing modifications; affiliate marketing; and participation TV.
The CBP have been instrumental in creating a play book for cross carrier services in the United States,” says  Laura Marriott, MMA President and Co-Chair of the CBP Committee. We applaud the efforts of all in our industry in creating a model which will be replicated in markets around the globe.
The new guidelines also reflect contributions from new CBP sub-committees, including IVR, Marketing to Children, Participation TV and Mobile Web. The sub-committees were formed to help facilitate the rapid development of the guidelines to ensure the MMA stays at the forefront of industry development and self-regulation.
The MMA Consumer Best Practices Guidelines Committee is comprised of the following member companies: Alltel Wireless, AT&T Mobility, Bango, Chapell & Associates, denuo Group (a Publicis Company), Jamster, Lavalife Mobile, mBlox, Inc., MMA, MTV Networks, MX Telecom, NeuStar, Inc., Qmobile, Inc., SinglePoint, Sprint Nextel, Sybase 365, Telescope, Teligence, The Walt Disney Company, T-Mobile USA, VeriSign, Inc. and Verizon Wireless.
The MMA will host its annual CBP Industry Forum in Denver on 16 January 2008. The Forum provides the opportunity for participants to comment and input into the guidelines and best practices for the mobile marketing industry in the United States.