OPINION RICHARD HARTLAND DATA8 Is new MPS
a move in the right direction?
The recent announcement by Defra and the DMA that it is to launch a new website allowing consumers to opt-out of receiving all types of “unwanted advertising mail” raises a number of important issues that have been forgotten in the furore, says Richard Hartland.
T
he Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) have confirmed to the database marketing world that they are to work together to launch a new website in April which will allow consumers to opt-out of
receiving all types of unwanted advertising mail. You’ve probably read all about it by now, perhaps on the Database Marketing website. if you haven’t, what it effectively means is that it will be much easier for consumers to opt-out. At the moment households have to register with at least three different services to stop the different types of unwanted mail from being delivered: these are the Mailing Preference Service (MPS), the Your Choice Preference System and Royal Mail’s own Door to Door opt-out service.
WASTE TO ZERO TARGET The government has signed a three-year deal with the DMA with the experess intention of reducing the waste from direct mail to zero, which many in the direct marketing industry see as a commendable goal. Defra said that by 2014 the amount of unwanted direct will fall significantly as a result of the marketing industry increasing its current use of “suppression lists” (which includes opt-out, do not contact and gone-away lists). Their estimate is somehwhere around the 25% mark.
LEGAL ISSUES
However this does raise a number of very important issues that seem to have been overlooked in the excitement of the launch. Although Defra and the DMA have announced a new version of the MPS, there has been no accompanying change in legislation regarding the MPS. The assumption there seems to have been made by the DMA that the MPS is currently law – although this view remains legally unchallenged. In the absence of a permission statement explicitly giving permission to mail any individual, it is certainly always best practise to MPS data. Indeed, if you are a member of the DMA (and again subject to opted-in permission) then it is a required feature of DMA membership to MPS your mailing lists.
SCREEN SAVERS
At Data8, as members of the DMA, we are obliged to recommend that clients always MPS cleanse their data where there is no opted-in permission. Our view is that if clients have good opted-in permission at the point of data capture then no legislation change is likely to affect their rights to contact their customers. However, if these permissions are not in place, or clients would find it difficult to prove how and when they collected the permissions, then it is best advice to MPS screen the database before mailing. n
Richard Hartland is Technical Director of data enrichment specialist Data8.
10 November 2011
www.dmarket.co.uk
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