Can you keep a secret? A mobile secret, that is

The ubiquity of the mobile phone is something we all take for granted – our mobile phones are in our pockets or purses or in our hands virtually all the time. This is truly the time for mobile to shine, but it has also caused a fair share of controversy. As people become used to this new and powerful media channel, they are coming up against issues of privacy and confidentiality that have never appeared before.

This accounts for increased government oversight of the mobile space, particularly in Asia where mobile telecommunications is largely unregulated. This is set to change, as countries like India and Singapore put laws in place to control spam and protect consumer rights. These will primarily affect companies that use the mobile channel to communicate with their customer base and plan to exploit the mobile space for mobile marketing or advertising.

The need has arisen for more enlightened marketing practices, which build customer confidence while respecting their rights to privacy. No longer will it suffice to send out mass SMS blasts to everyone, blanketing consumers with marketing materials in the hopes of finding one or two receptive people. A more intelligent and targeted approach is called for, one that is compliant to legislative regulations.

But mobile in Asia still remains an attractive proposition. Gartner estimates that mobile advertising will account for at least a third of advertising spend in Asia Pacific and Japan by 2015. According to Ovum, Asia Pacific mobile phone application downloads will exceed 5 billion by the end of 2011 – that’s a 189% increase over the 1.6 billion downloaded in 2010. Opportunities abound provided that companies are able to capitalise upon them.

Currently, privacy and the confidentiality of consumer data are uppermost in public awareness. Once the appropriate legal position is taken and standards have been accepted and implemented, this concern will disappear. Industry regulation and consumer adoption have addressed the privacy issue in other media, and it is only the newness of the mobile channel that has turned privacy into an issue. Future mobile-centric applications and interfaces will include privacy protections as standard, and will probably utilise sophisticated encryption or other methods to protect consumer confidentiality. For the time being, marketers will have to include it as a key issue when making plans. Businesses could do no better than to consider it when planning a strategy to penetrate into the Asian market.

Another approach is to embrace privacy and enshrine it as the centrepiece of their marketing strategy. There, the paradigm is for marketing to be a consensual, participatory affair, where consumers themselves decide to be marketed to, and agree to receive marketing material in exchange for privileges, points, discounts and the like. This is called opt-in marketing, a means to safeguard users’ privacy, and one that also empowers consumers to take charge of their own data.

When enrolling for the opt-in marketing programme, consumers decide what data to share, and indicate their interests at the same time. This provides marketers with a profile that they can use to achieve effective targeting, and consumers can choose to opt-out and stop receiving materials at any time. This ease of opt-out, while not mandated by law, is rapidly becoming an industry standard, yet another way that users’ privacy is looked after. This approach can also educate the market on the benefits of mobile advertising, demonstrated through campaigns that mobile advertising need not automatically assault consumer privacy.

As it continues to evolve, mobile advertising looks set to continue being the next most powerful medium of marketing and advertising. Asia’s current economic state leaves it positioned to be the leading market for mobile advertising at the global level – meaning that the most innovative and interesting mobile marketing campaigns will emerge from Asia in the near future. As mobile markets throughout the world continue to mature, self-regulation and industry standards will be among the key drivers that will make privacy less of an issue. Once relevant legislation is in place, consumer confidence will return, enshrining privacy as an essential component of mobile marketing and advertising.

Fabrizio Caruso, Managing Director, Asia-Pacific & Vice President, Business Development, Out There Media