Mobile Advertising: What is Opt in and Opt Out?

I was invited to a media round table at Mobile Marketing Forum called When will Mobile Become the First Screen. I missed the start due to a short lunch with Andrew Grill. But when I got there, there was a hot panel.

We had: Moderator Laura Marriott President MMA

Panelists: Richard Saggers Vodafone, Russell Buckley AdMob, Jeff Herrmann Nielsen and Christian Gallardo Hernandez from Google (see new video in the video section).

The flow of the of the panel was fun and interesting with everyone giving an overview of what they were doing to excel the mobile advertising space.

At the end of the panel there were some questions. I asked, What does opt-in and opt-out actually mean. Sometimes they don’t really mean what they say. The panel looked confused, but I was trying to make a valid point.

Earlier on in the day Mobile Visual Search company SnapHappy (Magnet Harlequin) had said that it gets users to click on the advert but actually, then consumers have to “opt-in” to mobile advertising to get answers.  I am not sure if that is ethical and also is opting out as easy as it seems.

I have heard that once you opt in – you can opt in to mobile advertising from several different sources. But when you opt out  - you might only be opting out for one particular service. Not all of them you signed up for?

Laura Marriott said that in the US the MMA had defined the guidelines. Richard Saggers said, that was only the case for active mobile advertising and not for banners and passive advertising that Vodafone was using on Live!
Hmm.  I think that all mobile operators need to have guidelines (online) for consumers stating exactly what Opt In and Opt Out is. Without out this, Opt In becomes SPAM.