The new guidelines mark the first time the MMA has consolidated the "playbooks," or codes of conduct, of the four major U.S. carriers-- Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile USA. The wireless operators in March had agreed to align their mobile marketing practices to create a uniform set of guidelines. The MMA estimated the step would result in $200 million in reduced costs industrywide.
Key revisions include standardizing the language for how messaging and data rates apply. The guidelines are available for download at www.mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf. --Mark Walsh
The growth of mobile marketing and advertising has lagged far behind expectations in large part because of inefficiencies like conflicting guidelines at the carriers. At MasurLaw, we deal with them every day. Consolidating these various, and often secretly kept guidelines will help marketers a great deal in planning their campaigns.