With Iran’s Communication Regulatory Authority introducing a marketing strategy via messages, soon the disturbing adverts will become something of the past.
Furthermore, in order to keep the door open to businesses, according to CRA chief Hossein Fallah, a system has been devised by mobile phone operators for those willing to receive advertisement by messages.
Individuals can register with the system to receive marketing text messages in return for discount packages, reported IRNA.
The scheme requires senders to deliver telemarketing text messages only to those who have given consent to receive them through an online system which is regulated and monitored by the CRA.
Moreover, operators are required to identify senders of unauthorized marketing messages and take punitive measures against them.
Fallah says the online system will be unveiled in the coming days, adding that “in this way, marketing messages will be regulated.”
The CRA had previously banned operators from causing subscribers inconvenience by sending marketing texts.
CRA chief says such messages have dropped to one-tenth of the former volume in the past six months, a clear sign of success for the regulatory office.
The ratification of the directive was reported in March, obligating operators to contribute to the development of the system within a month.
According to a recent directive, operators are allowed to send “emergency messages” to subscribers. However, the ombudsman is yet to come up with a specific definition for emergency instances and critical situations in three months.
Previous Measures
The new mandate is part of a push by the CRA to regulate text message advertising. The regulator launched an automated system in November 2017 through which subscribers can register complaints about irritating ads which many consider as spam.
Through the system, users can file a complaint with the CRA against the phone number of irritant ad senders by sending the number to 195 via a text message. According to Fallah, CRA on average receives 300 complaints every day.
Furthermore, 3,000 advertising phone numbers were blocked by the CRA during the first week after the introduction of the automated system.
While previously the number of complaints had to reach five before an investigation could be launched, the figure dropped to two a few months ago, streamlining the process.
Imposing Presence
People live in a world of marketing. Every day they check websites that are peppered with adverts one cannot refuse to see, they walk in streets laden with advertising billboards, watch television shows interrupted by commercial breaks and repeatedly receive text messages with marketing content.
While industrialists and businesses profusely tout the luminous virtues of advertisements and the publicity campaigns’ economical profitability are not negligible, no one living in metropolises like Tehran can say the ever-looming presence of adverts is not a nagging nuisance from time to time.
Too much advertisement can become overwhelming to the public. The issue has come to the fore in recent decades in Iran, prompting the Tehran Beautification Organization to reduce the number of advertising billboards and the CRA to regulate telemarketing and text message adverts to mitigate their disruptive influence.
