By Eric Holmen

Change seems to be the dominant theme across the country these days.

Americans voted for change in the presidential election, consumers have changed their purchasing habits, businesses and investors are anxiously monitoring every change undergone by a fragile economy, and regulators are changing their approach to the industries they oversee.

In an environment like this, it's only fair then to wonder how the mobile marketing market will change over the next year, and in which direction the future will nudge our rapidly growing industry.

For me, an early indicator of impending change is the first implementation of the Federal Trade Commission's amended Telemarketer Sales Rule (TSR) on Dec. 1, prepping the stage for a new wave of evolution within the industry.

This piece of legislation aimed primarily at landline voice marketing, has many larger implications for mobile and other emerging direct marketing channels.

The TSR's enforcement, therefore, is prompting many marketers to consider the sweeping changes in the regulatory environment.

Technically, the amended TSR mandates that all prerecorded voice calls "provide an automated interactive keypress or voice-activated opt-out mechanism," but the message it sends is loud and clear: permission-based marketing is the way forward.

If you're not ahead of the trend, then you're behind the regulatory 8-ball.

Express your consent
Express consent programs, driven by opt-in and built around the concept of welcome and expected messaging, have been steadily gaining prominence among mobile marketers, as mobile users are acutely sensitive to invasive marketing.

Next month's TSR enforcement only highlights the importance of respectful communications for both the traditional voice and mobile channels.

With the new regulation, the FTC is simply articulating the public's preference for easy opt-in and opt-out.

The second phase of the rule goes even further, requiring express consent from any recipient of a pre-recorded sales call by Sept. 1, 2009, a move that will mark a push across industries toward permission marketing.

New rules, new tools
This also represents an opportunity for mobile marketers to make opt-in easier and more transparent, as T-Mobile demonstrated recently by dropping their double opt-in requirement for commercial SMS messages.

The new rules really only reinforce what responsible marketers, retailers and forward-thinking businesses have been practicing for a number of years.

Permission marketing and relationship marketing have been gaining momentum for some time, reflecting a widespread trend among consumers to avoid unwanted advertisements and to willingly opt-in to receive content, promotions, and special offers.

Mobile marketers were among the first to recognize the value of this "choice generation," flourishing in an age of DVRs and targeted ads on Facebook, and have increasingly built strategies around this behavior.

Express consent and opt-in must continue to be cornerstones of ethical communications even as our industry progresses and changes.

Change we can believe in
From the consumer's perspective, this will be interpreted as a welcome and anticipated change in marketing and advertising.

The long-held and yet often unspoken perception of marketing as a struggle between eager companies and uncommunicative customers is quickly becoming outdated.

In its place is rising a new partnership, a relationship between marketers and end users consisting of permission-based messaging and relevant content, the foundation of which is express consent and opt-in.

This is the change looming on the mobile horizon. This is the change our industry must embrace and that consumers can believe in.

Eric Holmen is president of SmartReply Inc., an Irvine, CA-based mobile and relationship marketing firm. Reach him at .