The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) this week issued new guidelines that seek, respectively, to streamline the mobile ad market and codify privacy regulations.
The IAB’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence on Oct. 20 released the final version of a document that creates a single, JavaScript-based common application programming interface (API) for mobile rich media ads and that establishes best practices for mobile marketers.
The association’s “Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions,” or MRAID, is intended to eliminate the use of multiple incompatible APIs that force marketers and agencies to continually rewrite the code underlying their ads so they can run across different apps.
“Greater emphasis is being placed on mobile by advertisers, which is a fantastic tribute to mobile’s benefits for brands,” Scott Jensen, VP of digital products and applications at The Weather Channel Cos., said in a statement. “However, the industry’s rapid growth also gave birth to a number of inefficiencies that need to be addressed if we’re to move ahead. Simplifying and streamlining the process for designers of ad creative through MRAID today will only further the chance of stronger mobile media buys in the future.”
On Oct. 17, the MMA issued its first set of documented privacy policy guidelines for public comment, which, MMA global CEO Greg Stuart said in a statement, “fill an urgent need for all companies doing business in the mobile marketing industry.”
The guidelines, Stuart said, will provide developers of mobile apps with “clear and transparent policy language that can be quickly and completely understood by the consumer.” They include annotated guidance on core privacy principles, methods to inform consumers about how data is collected and used, and guidance on information security.
The MMA is accepting public comment on its proposal through Nov. 18.
