CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwire - May 4, 2012) - The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) today announced a public sanction against a member company in regards to lack of disclosure in a public campaign. WOMMA believes it is important to publicly announce this and remind the industry of the importance of self-regulation, as well as protection of consumers. WOMMA requires its members, and any company applying for membership, to display exemplary ethical standards in word of mouth marketing. WOMMA's Code of Ethics is available for review at (http://womma.org/ethics/code/).

"We regret that today's disciplinary action was necessary," stated David Witt, Chair of WOMMA. "However, we hold all our members to the same ethical standards. We do not target any specific organization, but when a company violates the standards, we have an obligation to take action.

"Part of WOMMA's mission is to define and promote ethical standards in the Word of Mouth Marketing and Social Media industries. We hope today's announcement will emphasize the importance we place on that role."

These actions were based upon specific instances and we believe the member company has made progress in addressing the problem issues. We trust their reassurances to conform to the WOMMA Code of Ethics will extend throughout and beyond the probation period.

The Members Ethics Advisory Panel and the Board of Directors chose not to name the member company as it is our goal to promote education as well as self-regulation. The process for the MEAP hearings can be found at (http://womma.org/ethics/disciplinary/current/).

About WOMMA
WOMMA, http://womma.org, is the leading trade association in the marketing and advertising industries that focuses on word of mouth, consumer-generated and social media platforms -- or marketing techniques that include buzz, viral, community, and influencer marketing, as well as brand blogging. The organization is committed to developing and maintaining appropriate ethical standards for marketers and advertisers engaging in such marketing practices, identifying meaningful measurement standards for such marketing practices, and defining "best practices" for the industry.

Founded in 2004, WOMMA members include marketers and brands that use word of mouth marketing to reinforce their core customers and to reach out to new consumers, agencies that deliver word of mouth services and technologies, researchers that track the word of mouth experience and offline and online practitioners.