The CBS-owned Simon & Schuster is back in hot water after a new US Court of Appeals ruling which overturned a lower court's ruling that had dismissed the case. Class action certification is therefore still pending.
The case stems from a three-year campaign run by the publisher for the Stephen King horror novel, The Cell, when Simon & Schuster sent thousands of unsolicited text messages to consumers saying that the ‘next call you take may be your last.'
Laci Satterfield filed the suit on behalf of 60 000 people after her son apparently received the text message late at night. The 60 000 people stand to receive between US$500 and US$1500 each if the suit is successful.
Locally, there have been a number of campaigns that have drawn the fire of the media and public. Given that it's a new industry, it's not surprising that challenges occur in administrating competitions or promotions over SMS or MMS, especially when mass media is used to drive awareness of the campaign.
There are some base rules that need to be applied when running a campaign:
Satterfield obviously felt strongly about her son receiving scary messages late at night in a campaign that promoted a horror novel, which is probably why she resorted to legal action.
While mobile marketing has had its teething problems, the reality is that it's the way of the future. Mobile ad spend is on the rise (while traditional ad spend is declining) and consumer response rates to campaigns are astounding compared to response rates from traditional marketing channels.
However, campaigns need to be well-administrated to protect the consumer and maintain the integrity of the brand which is being marketed.