Dubai: With the recent change in a Telecommunications Regulatory Authority's (TRA) regulation, which allows customers to block SMS spam, you don't have to receive any SMS about sales or promotions to your mobile phone if you don't want to.
The long awaited measure taken by the TRA works in favour of retailers' best interests, experts say.
Mohammad Gyath, Executive Director of Technology Development Affairs at the TRA, told Gulf News that what pushed the introduction of the new regulation was the large number of complaints that the TRA had received from consumers who were upset about receiving commercial SMS without their consent.
"We had them [the complaints] for quite a while and so we looked into what can be done. We realised the best thing would be to allow consumers to block receiving such SMS," he said.
"It's about time," Dimitri Metaxas, Executive Regional Director of Digital at Omnicom Media Group (OMG), told Gulf News. "It is one of the most annoying means of advertising, so it's nice to give people the chance to opt out."
The TRA has also warned that in case of a complaint from a consumer, companies will have to show proof that opt-in consent had been given by the consumer.
Databases
While the biggest losers in this are the telecom companies, Metaxas said that what the new regulation is going to do is mainly force retailers and marketers to create their own databases of people who are willing to listen to them.
Metaxas, who blocked SMS spam on his mobile phone as soon as it came out, said that many times it's just a waste. "For instance, I used to get SMS ads in Arabic all the time."
Metaxas doesn't speak the language.
It's been proven in the past that if retailers or marketers build their own databases of receptive people, then their communication link with that group will be much more valuable, he said.
"If you think about it logically it's actually for their own benefit so only those who want to receive the SMS will actually receive it," Gyath said.
"Let's say you target 10 people with random SMS advertising. You are probably upsetting nine of them and have possibly reached only one. If as a retailer I see that one has responded then I multiply that number," he explained. "What I am not aware of is how many people I have negatively impacted." So when some see the number of responses from it, they assume it's working for them. However, the amount of collateral damage they are creating is not part of the equation.
The reason why many retailers and brands were so actively using this mass advertising approach was because it's been too cheaply priced in the country. "The SMS costs were quite cheap," Metaxas said. "They didn't recognise how many people were turned off."
Building that receptive database for brands is exactly what Mukkul Shyam is doing. Shyam is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of GetInfo, an SMS mobile platform that allows users to search and sign up for alerts for products and services that they are interested in.
"It's basically about customers asking for information," Shyam said. "Let's say you're in Deira and you're looking for an Italian restaurant. You SMS your query to 4727 and then you get a list of Italian restaurants in the area you are searching for and you will also receive the promotions and sales related to that request."
"The response is practically in a couple of seconds. The information is very relevant and it's a direct means of engaging for the merchant with the customer," Shyam said.
GetInfo launched in March this year and currently handles the entire messaging for over 150 customers across the region.
"In traditional advertising you are targeting thousands of clients and getting only a hundred. The results are very low," he said. However, a direct marketing platform over SMS can be very effective, especially if you're only targeting those who are asking for the information, he said.
While the service is free for the consumer, GetInfo charges its clients an annual fee for sending out their promotions to the consumers who ask for it.
The company does not pass on mobile numbers to any of its clients. However, it shares information on the demographics of the databases of every client which would help them in planning out their future marketing approaches.
Have your say
Do you think this regulation helps? Should they be banned? Tell us.
