Wireless Marketing Groups MergeWireless Marketing Groups Merge

Two organizations that create standards for wireless marketing merged Thursday. The Wireless Advertising Association and the Wireless Marketing Association have united and will now be called the Mobile Marketing Association.

The new organization will bring together WAA's members--including America Online, DoubleClick, and Nokia--with WMA's U.K.-heavy membership that includes BT Cellnet, Lycos, and News International. The new group will focus on promoting wireless marketing while creating standards for all advertisers to follow. The standards relate to consumer privacy issues as well as the technical aspects of advertising.

Similar to the goals of the Internet Marketing Association, which focuses more on online advertising, the MMA hopes to provide enough rules and boundaries that the industry will be able to self-regulate and government won't enter the picture.