Vietnam
should have an effective legal framework to prevent unwanted text messages and
help develop advertising on cell phones as a good tool for companies to promote
their products and services to target consumers, advertising experts said.
The proposal was made by Do Kim Dung, vice
president of the Vietnam Advertising Association, and Lai Kok Fung, chief
executive officer and co-founder of mobile media firm BuzzCity, when they
shared their views with the Daily on how to make use of new technology and
innovations for efficient advertising.
Lai commented after he made a presentation at
a business briefing organized by the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam
(AusCham) in HCMC last week on digital branding and the mobile marketing
opportunity in Vietnam.
Dung told the Daily on the phone on Monday
that Vietnam’s current Advertising Ordinance and several relevant decrees did
not include detailed regulations and guidance for advertising on mobile phones
while more companies were annoying consumers with their junk messages and
calls.
Dung complained he often received at least one
unwanted advertising phone call a day though he had not provided his phone
number for the company whose marketing staff called him to sell the company’s
products.
Lai of BuzzCity said the beginning stage of
mobile phone marketing was text messages and this trend had been seen in many
markets, including those in the ASEAN region. However, governments have applied
appropriate measures to ban the SMS spam.
Lai took Thailand as one of the typical
examples when saying that one year ago, companies in that country were told to
stop sending junk messages or they would be fined and that since then the
situation had been improved.
Lai said companies were unable to send their SMS
advertising messages to consumers without their consent because this might hurt
their brands when customers felt that they were disturbed due to too much SMS
spam they received a day.
Lai said in Malaysia, the Philippines and
other regional countries, there were companies working with mobile carriers and
collecting the cell phone users who agreed to receive SMS advertisements. In
return, the user will be given a certain number of free calls and texts.
“So, mobile carriers should do that way and
should not allow anybody to buy their big databases to send advertising
messages,” Lai said. He suggested the Government should have regulations
banning the SMS spam.
Dung of the VAA said the SMS spam would not be
stopped in Vietnam for the time being given the absence of a law. He added a
draft law on advertising governing this was only planned for submission and
approval next year.
“There are a lot of things to do with junk
messages in Vietnam,” Dung said, adding this problem might be solved by 2015,
when the cell phone user had legal backing to sue the mobile carrier and those
companies that annoyed them with the SMS spam.
Both Dung and Lai painted a bright future for
advertising via modern channels like cell phones, the internet and digital
devices though they agreed television and print media would still dominate the
country’s advertising revenue.
The VAA put online advertising sales at VND480
billion (around US$23 million) out of the VND20 trillion (some US$960 million)
for the whole sector last year. Dung forecast this sector would record a
year-on-year revenue increase of around 15% this year and a rise of 20% for the
online advertising segment.
SGT
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