Context
The ASA has published an article in relation to its approach to marketing campaigns. The article acknowledges the advantages of a marketing campaign over a single ad. Campaigns support consistent messaging and brand recognition. They broaden appeal by addressing various audiences and keep a message fresh.
However, when reviewing and assessing a complaint about an ad that is part of a campaign, the ASA looks at (and firms’ compliance functions and marketing teams should look at) the ad in isolation. To do otherwise would mean relying on consumers seeing the messaging across a whole campaign either by chance or of their own volition, which does not always happen.
Key points to note and next actions
- Marketers should ensure their advertising avoids being misleading by containing all the key information a consumer needs to decide whether to respond.
- ‘Responding’ could be deciding to purchase the product, but it could equally be entering a competition, participating in a promotion or even just clicking for more information.
- When it comes to standalone ads or ads that are part of a wider campaign, it’s not down to the consumer to do the legwork. Firms must ensure that each ad in a campaign is ‘standalone compliant’.