The MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) has announced that the top 4 US mobile operators (Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T) have agreed to incorporate their “mobile marketing guidelines” into the MMA’s best practices guidelines.

This should make it much more efficient for brands and agencies to launch mobile campaigns, with industry savings estimated at over $200 million per year.

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MMA president and CEO Mike Wehrs said, “By working with the MMA to create an industry-standard set of guidelines, these four carriers are playing a pivotal role in enabling the mobile marketing opportunity for years to come. The cost reductions of $200 million or more clearly proves beneficial to the entire industry, especially given today’s economic challenges.”

The MMA will work with these companies to incorporate their mobile marketing guidelines and codes of conduct – known as “carrier playbooks” – into a unified document to be maintained by the MMA. According to the MMA, this effort should result in five key benefits:

• Promote a consistent consumer experience including standardizing key consumer disclosures
• Enhance efficiencies in running short code programs
• Accelerate the time to market for mobile campaigns
• Ensure monitoring programs and audit results are more consistent
• Reduce operational costs across the mobile marketing ecosystem

The MMA will review the first draft of the document in early April, with the final document to be released to the public by the end of June 2009.

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“The MMA’s unified best practices are an important step in streamlining the processes and reducing barriers and cost to enter the direct-to-consumer market,” said Venetia Espinoza, T-Mobile Director of Mobile Apps and Partner Programs. “These changes are important for the ecosystem but will also foster the development of new and innovative mobile services for consumers.”

Read the full MMA press release.

08.04.2009    Tags: associations, MMA, T-mobile, USA, verizon