Text messaging campaigns, or SMS marketing, are a popular promotional tool in all forms of business because you can reach your market quickly and directly. Politics likes this fact too.

Many Australians recently received a message from the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in their successful Medicare campaign. One point of interest on this is that registered political parties are among a handful of groups that can legally send messages without consent as per the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Anti-spam Act – always good to remember!

Above is the message that was sent out, and under that same act, the message obviously does not comply. According to the ACMA,

Any commercial electronic message you send must accurately identify you, as the person or organisation that authorised the sending of the message. If this condition is not met, the message is classified as spam.

In addition to this, the Act states that every message must also:

Include accurate information about how the recipient can contact your organisation, or you as an individual sender.

In the ALP’s case, a misleading Sender ID has caused some confusion regarding who the message was sent from. An interesting case with some very significant implications!

Note: This post does not advocate support for or against any political party involved and simply serves as a relevant and timely reminder of following the rules.