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How Big Brands Handle FTC Demands
- 1. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 HowBig Brands Handle FTC Demands Julia Pavone
- 2. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 Outline •FTC Definitions & Guidelines • Types of Compliance Risks – Examples – BrandVerity Study • Costs of Non-Compliance • Real World Examples • Proactively Taking Control
- 3. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 Learnto think like the FTC • Affiliates/Partners are seen as part of a brand’s marketing channel • If an affiliate/partner makes claims or discusses an attribute and receives compensation, need to follow guidelines
- 4. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 FTCGuidelines An advertisement or promotional message shouldn’t suggest or imply to consumers that it is anything other than an ad
- 5. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 Disclosures Disclosuresmust be clearly and conspicuously stated for any sponsored content
- 6. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 Lord& Taylor Exhibit A Page 5 of 5
- 7. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 ColeHaan – #wanderingsole
- 8. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 BrandVerityStudy • Failure is the Norm – 80% did not include a disclosure • Better Together – 79% of posts created through advertiser and affiliate collaboration included some form of disclosure • All Disclosures Not Created Equal – Only 21% of disclosures were adequate Download Today: bit.ly/FTCstudy
- 9. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 Costsof Non-Compliance • Public Reprimands – For Brands: Loss of customers – For Publishers: Loss of business • FTC Reprimands – Court Ordered Monitoring – Fines
- 10. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 HOWBIG BRANDS ARE STAYING PROACTIVE
- 11. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 Example:Large Agency – Online Retail • Actions Taken: Extreme Proactivity – Require all affiliate pages to have a proper disclosure on their pages stating there are paid links – Not allowing any affiliates into program without disclosure present • Benefit – Starting their program out with a requirement, rather than having to go back later and educate/enforce
- 12. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 Example:Credit Card Issuer • Actions Taken: Unique Disclosure – Each time an affiliate has their card, they have a unique brand specific advertiser disclosure • Benefit – Easy to show that they are being proactive – Helpful in monitoring since you can look for specific text
- 13. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 Example:Large Bank • Actions Taken: Control Traffic Flow – All referral links leaving publisher site only come from 1 page – All links for a specific card in any article on a page must only link back to one page on the site that will link back to the bank • Benefit – Able to ensure that every customer sees the disclosure, TOS, etc. if all traffic goes through one page
- 14. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 WHATDO YOU DO NOW?
- 15. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 TipsFor A Compliant Program Teach Create a Process Enforce
- 16. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 TipsFor A Compliant Program 1. Teach – Yourself – Colleagues – Partners Teach Create a Process Enforce
- 17. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 TipsFor A Compliant Program 2. Create a process – Review each affiliate site – Capture screenshots – Record remediation actions – Compile report Create a process EnforceTeach
- 18. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 TipsFor A Compliant Program 3. Enforce – When an issue is found, contact the affiliate and take action – Keep a record of the issues to show you have a process for taking action Enforce Teach Create a process
- 19. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 Summary •Affiliates/Partners are seen as part of your marketing program • Any endorsements by affiliates/partners need to have a disclosure if being compensated • Learn the FTC guidelines for your industry • Teach others what those guidelines are • Develop a compliance process • Enforce the your rules
- 20. COPYRIGHT BRANDVERITY, 2016 Q& A www.BrandVerity.com
Editor's Notes
- #3 pause in between bullets Examples of "Success" "Actions" brands are taking to be compliant Associated costs of risks
- #4 Ambiguity Learn to think like the FTC Referencing something on the slide
- #5 Included affiliate links embedded in blog posts Classic truth in advertising principle – anything that provides value from the brand to publisher makes it a promoted message – Cash payments, Free products Store credit, Discounts, Free services, Special access, Favors of any kind
- #6 ----- Meeting Notes (1/4/17 10:44) ----- pull preston's citations
- #7 (not link, etc.) Clear – significant minority of reasonable consumers – not everyone knows what affiliate marketing/links mean, must be able to understand them, simple straightforward Conspicuous – no scrolling, should not be able to click a link prior to seeing disclosure, proximity, stand out against background, can use one disclosure for a few links – must be clear http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=f24b6ea0-907f-47ac-9ccb-9f70c353c167
- #8 You probably think you are fine – are you? What do others look like? ----- Meeting Notes (1/4/17 10:59) ----- Think like the FTC - reviewed bloggers
- #9 100 blogs when commercial relationships existed – applied framework of evaluation 79% - Direct vs indirect affiliates, non-collaboration was a leak where bloggers were able to drive traffic without being explicit partners, one-step too far, no influence, FTC position
- #10 Court ordered – opening your books to FTC As a publisher – removed from program – may no longer have access
- #12 Including one of top 2 leading sports brands
- #13 Top 3 Credit Card Issuer
- #14 Leading national bank with over 2 trillion dollars in total assets Standardizing UX
- #17 Affiliates – understanding they don’t have the legal resources, might not be aware, rewards good publishers instead of taxing, empowers them to be compliant for other brands as well ----- Meeting Notes (1/4/17 13:35) ----- All this information is free and publicly available
- #18 Taxing because they have to send it in every month – great example to show you what process the FTC is looking for One off problems will not trigger the FTC, consistent non-compliance will Removed “Court order of Legacy Learning Systems” since it wasn’t part of the “process” steps
- #19 Highlight – keeping record is difficult without technology – screenshots, email recording, evidence that the communication triggered a change
- #20 Over last few months conducting study – published that this morning