FTC Disclosure Guidelines

What are the FTC disclosure guidelines?

FTC disclosure guidelines, what are they and why should you know them.

Up until a couple of years ago the use of endorsements, sponsorship and influencers in social media was the wild west.

As a result the FTC stepped in and issued extensive guidelines late last year and you should know them.

Why should you k The FTC has stepped up its enforcement in the form of warnings and fines

As a business, you are require to educate your influencers, ambassadors… on what should be disclosed and how and the FTC is quite specific about it

As an influencer, sponsored or ambassador if you receive anything of value you have to clearly disclose that you do and the notion of value is pretty extensive

As an employee of the company you have to clearly disclose it

Disclosures have to be clear and conspicuous. What does that mean?

To make a disclosure “clear and conspicuous,” advertisers should use plain and unambiguous language and make the disclosure stand out. Consumers should be able to notice the disclosure easily. They should not have to look for it. In general, disclosures should be:

close to the claims to which they relate;
in a font that is easy to read;
in a shade that stands out against the background;
for video ads, on the screen long enough to be noticed, read, and understood;
for audio disclosures, read at a cadence that is easy for consumers to follow and in words consumers will understand.

A disclosure that is made in both audio and video is more likely to be noticed by consumers. Disclosures should not be hidden or buried in footnotes, in blocks of text people are not likely to read, or in hyperlinks. If disclosures are hard to find, tough to understand, fleeting, or buried in unrelated details, or if other elements in the ad or message obscure or distract from the disclosures, they don’t meet the “clear and conspicuous” standard. With respect to online disclosures, FTC staff has issued a guidance document, “ How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising,” which is available on ftc.gov.

By the way, if you are in healthcare, so did the FDA and in financial services so did the SEC and FINRA.

March 11, 2018March 11, 2018

Instagram, is it for your business?

Is Instagram really the best business marketing platform?

I have been asked a lo

t of questions about Instagram recently.

I am assuming a lot of the noise comes from recent changes in the Facebook interface and algorithm, the organic reach disappearing and the fact that for businesses, Facebook has become an advertising platform where businesses and brands now have to pay to play.

Milleniums have been the most vocal in promoting Instagram as the newest and best marketing platform.

So, let’s dig into the numbers.

Pew Research is a well respected institution that has been tracking social media for several years so they are a pretty reliable reference

-80% of Instagram users are out of the US
-of the 800 millions active users, only 160 millions are in the US

-38% of users in the US are women, 26% men

-59% of users in the US are under 30

-95% of Instagram users in the US also use Facebook

-54% also use Pinterest
-63 percent of teenagers in the US use Instagram daily

Instagram is also a mostly mobile and visual platform

In the end, there is a lot more to marketing than fades and short term trends, not that I think Instagram is either.

The best marketing platform is the platform used by your clients and prospects. Before selecting a platform, look at the demographics and ask yourself the question, are the demographics my market or the market I want to reach.

If your market is young adults or teenagers, if your clients and prospects tend to be younger women, then definitely Instagram is a good platform for your business

August 5, 2015

Porsche Social Media Backbone of its Digital Strategy

For Porsche social media is not just an additional tool in order to connect to online-savvy audiences, it’s the backbone of their online strategy

Porsche is mining the always-on sensibilities of social media to encourage fans to share and consume content from one integrated platform, which is www.porsche.com . Porsche is using content curation tool Storystream to steer this efforts, building microsites that give fans a holistic view of what’s being said about certain car launches of campaigns worldwide.

“We do not believe in a linear progression through a virtual funnel, but recognise that each customer chooses their individual path to form a purchase decision. We thus believe that Porsche must understand the specific needs of the customer in his individual situation and listen to signals he/she is sending in order to cater the right content at the right point in time. In order to work in this context, every bit of content needs to be responsive,” Porche’s digital marketing and dialogue manager and Deniz Keskin told The Drum.

To accelerate the plan, Porsche is encouraging its agencies and ad tech vendors to get tighter to companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter in order to create content that fuels business goals. It’s an approach the car maker tries to balance with what it hopes are more agile ways of working directly with its marketing partners so that it can respond to communication challenges.

“Social media is more than an efficient and speedy way of communicating to a (primarily) younger target group. As a luxury manufacturer, we see more and more of our actual customers in that space,” said Keskin. The discipline is used to hit three key goals; building additional awareness for Porsche’s communications, amplifying the conversation around through brand ambassadors and listening to conversations that could become early signals for business issues.

“This is why we regard Social Media not only as an additional tool in order to connect to online-savvy audiences, but as the backbone of our online strategy,” said Keskin.

July 22, 2015July 22, 2015

FTC Social Media Endorsements Guidelines

Endorsements and reviews are big in social media, they can be effective decision making tools for consumers if they are truthful. the FTC published endorsement guidelines to help brands and businesses stay out of trouble

Suppose you meet someone who tells you about a great new product. She tells you it performs wonderfully and offers fantastic new features that nobody else has. Would that recommendation factor into your decision to buy the product? Probably.

Now suppose the person works for the company that sells the product – or has been paid by the company to tout the product. Would you want to know that when you’re evaluating the endorser’s glowing recommendation? You bet. That common-sense premise is at the heart of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Endorsement Guides.

The Guides, at their core, reflect the basic truth-in-advertising principle that endorsements must be honest and not misleading. An endorsement must reflect the honest opinion of the endorser and can’t be used to make a claim that the product’s marketer couldn’t legally make. Continue reading “FTC Social Media Endorsements Guidelines”

June 5, 2015June 5, 2015

Retailers Are Turning to Social Media For Market Research

Social media permeates every facets of business, from branding to marketing, sales, customer service and to often overlooked market research, product development and HR

Increasingly though, retailers and brands are turning to social media for market research.

Consumers have adopted social media in a massive way and, in spite of concerns for privacy, are sharing what they like, buy and want on platforms like Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram to name the biggest ones. Continue reading “Retailers Are Turning to Social Media For Market Research”

April 10, 2015April 10, 2015

Is Your Website Mobile Friendly?

Is your website mobile friendly or not, if it is not, you will want to know about April 21st

We’ve all heard and laughed at Geico’s commercial “Do you know what day it is”, April 21st is not hump day but if your website is not responsive (aka friendly to mobile devices like smart phones, I pads and other tablets) it’s the day Google will start penalize your rankings Continue reading “Is Your Website Mobile Friendly?”