Regulation of online advertising

One of the best ways to promote your brand, and engage with your customer is social media. With this in mind, Fashionista attended the IAB‘s recent seminar on “How to be Safe and Social“. The hot topic of the day was the extension of the ASA’s remit to cover digital media.

From 1 March, brands who use Facebook or Twitter will need to ensure that all content (including some types of user-generated content (UGC)) complies with the CAP Code, regulated by the ASA. Any online marketing communication which is intended to sell something now falls within the ASA’s remit and must therefore be honest, truthful and not misleading.

Given that Twitter only allows messages of 120 characters, brands should be careful to ensure that any offers advertised by tweet are not misleading by omission. UGC is another area of potential risk. CAP has provided guidance explaining that a brand must take responsibility for UGC where it adopts and incorporatesit into their own marketing communications, by for example re-tweeting a consumer comment, or including on their official Facebook page a photo posted by a consumer.

To get more detail of the changes, Fashionista recommends watching CAP’s Webcast available on their website here: Malcolm Philips of CAP gives some very useful examples to explain how the code will apply to the online world. There will be grey areas which will only be clarified as and when the ASA investigates complaints and publishes its adjudications.

Given the importance of e-commerce, Fashionista welcomes more policing of online adveritsing, but do her readers agree?