2016 BAA Marketing Law Conference Archives

Here’s one more look back at 2016. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year. Usually I will post my end of year review a day or so before the end of the year. But this year I got busy and stayed away from the computer for a few days. So I’m posting it now. Here are 10 posts of what I thought reflected what was happening at the time and a few that were kinda cool for us. Happy New Year and here’s to wishing a happy, healthy and prosperous year for us all.

Last year for the Doritos annual Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest

My January posts always cover the Super Bowl along with all the marketing, advertising and promotions that go with it. Super Bowl 50 saw Payton Manning going out on top with the Denver Broncos defeating the Carolina Panthers. PepsiCo, the parent company of Doritos, was back again for their 10th and last season of their Annual Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest. Who will be in this year’s Super Bowl LI 2017?

Sweepstakes encourages participation in the WrestleMania Reading Challenge!

New for 2016 was this sweepstakes, a partnership between WWE and First Book that we got to host and administer. The sweepstakes encouraged families to read together for 15 minutes every day, then record what they did for a chance to win a trip to WrestleMania 32!

Facebook’s F8 Conference reveals new tools for businesses to connect with consumers

The social giant hosted their annual conference for developers known as F8 back in April. Here they rolled out more updates for their Messenger platform and launched a few bots on the platform as well. Facebook Messenger continued to roll out more updates as the year went on copying many of SnapChat’s features. Facebook ended the year struggling to deal with fake news on it’s platform which will continue to be an issue into 2017.

Giveaways, Sweepstakes & Contests…best practices for keeping them legal

I was encouraged to again write this legal review when I was asked the following question which varies a little from time to time, ”We are doing a quick giveaway via social media and want to check, are we covered from a legal aspect?” My question back is, do you have official rules? This post covers the rules should always include.

We’re celebrating brides this month with the launch of the A.C. Moore Crystal Coast Wedding Contest

It was the month of June, which is known as the “dads, grads, and brides” month. So I wrote a post on a Father’s Day promotion the week before and the week before that I wrote about a Twitter promotion for grads . So this post was focused on brides. A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts launched a chance to win a wedding with their Craft Me a Crystal Coast Wedding Contest. The grand prize wedding consisted of a trip for the bride and groom to the Crystal Coast, North Carolina, to get married on October 22, 2016.

Pilot Pen and Shonda Rhimes announce the $50,000 Overachievers Grant Contest

This was probably the biggest promotion that we worked on in 2016 and the one that has received the most comments from our post back in July. In fact I just received another one today asking about the winners. While we don’t have any part of the judging of this contest, the period for the judges to review all the submissions was till December 30, 2016. So we expect that they will announce the finalists on their web page very soon. So we’ll be watching for the announcement.

Raising an Olympian: Simone Biles and the Final Five at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

I wrote a few posts back in August covering the Summer 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. This surely was one of the greatest highlights of the year in sports for the USA. Simone Biles and Aly Raisman picked up the gold and silver medals respectively in the Women’s Floor final. Then the Final Five went on to win gymnastics team gold. Procter & Gamble’s “Thank You, Mom” ad campaign was back, featuring real Olympic athletes and their moms. Part of this campaign featured the “Raising an Olympian: Simone Biles – Rio 2016 Olympic Games” ad. P&G was smart enough to realize at the time that Simone was going to be a new star. See again this heartbreaking ad of Simone and her Mom for Tide.

Tonight’s the final game for the Dream Fan Experience Sweepstakes at Camden Yards

This was one of the last games of the regular season for MLB, with my team, the Boston Red Sox playing against the Baltimore Orioles. They ended up beating the Orioles for their sixth straight victory. They would go on to the post season only to get swept by the Cleveland Indians were we got to see David Ortiz’s (Big Papi) career come to an end. I was so glad that I made a trip to Toronto that season to see him play with the Red Sox against the Toronto Blue Jays. I had hoped to see a World Series with the Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, which didn’t happen. But the Cubs and their fans were finally awarded their first World Series title in 108 years!

Highlights from the 2016 BAA Marketing Law Conference in Chicago

I headed back to Chicago in November to attend the BAA’s 2016 38th Annual Marketing Law Conference. The BAA had another great year with over 750 professionals in attendance ranging from regulators, legislators, corporate counsel, marketers and technology innovators who gathered again at the Marriott Hotel on Michigan Ave. This is a great conference to keep up to date with the latest on regulations and rules in our industry. This year’s conference began the day after the election. So there were many discussions going on during the breaks and cocktail receptions about it. It will be an interesting 2017 to see what will now change.

Winner awarded $250,000 in the Great Home Giveaway during Ohio State Football Game

This sweepstakes we saw are largest prize to date awarded which happened during one of the intermissions of this football game between Ohio State and Michigan. Congratulations went to Kathy Lowery from Columbus. She got to choose between the following options: 1) A $250,000 Trinity Home in an existing Trinity Home subdivision; 2) A $165,000 credit towards building a Trinity Home in a Trinity Home subdivision throughout Central Ohio; 3) $100,000 cash option. Last we heard Kathy choose to take the $250,000 home. The Ohio State Buckeyes ended up defeating the Michigan Wolverines 30 to 27 in double overtime in what was reported to be the most exciting college football game of the season!

Happy New Year! Thanks again for being a reader of our blog, Promo Talk, and I hope you’ll continue with us in 2017.

2016 Annual BAA Marketing Law Conference Recap

We attended the BAA’s 2016 38th Annual Marketing Law Conference which wrapped up last week on Friday, Nov 11th. The organization (Brand Activation Association) had another great year in attendance with over 750 professionals ranging from leading regulators, legislators, corporate counsel, marketers and technology innovators who gathered again at the Marriott Hotel on Michigan Ave. This year’s conference was entitled “FACE-OFF: Dynamic Technologies Vs. Regulatory Controls.

“Ours is an industry of rapid evolution” stated Ed Kabak, SVP, ANA and Chief Legal Officer, BAA who kicked off the first official day of the conference. “Since we deal with best practices and the state of the art in Marketing and Advertising Law and Digital Media; IP and Privacy, FTC, State A.G. and state-regulation, Lanham Act, Class Actions, and other areas, this forum is invaluable for marketers to move responsibly forward.”

The conference started off with a day of pre-conference sessions dedicated to basics as well as advanced subjects. I arrived in Chicago that day in time to attend the “Advanced Social Media Sweepstakes/Skill Contests/The Major Platforms and Pitfalls session. This included a nice review of the major platform promotional guidelines including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. One case study reviewed was the “Drive a Tank” Sweepstakes where a gaming sponsor awarded a grand prize that allowed the winner to actually drive a tank on top of two cars. There were 1.8 million entries from 40,000 entrants who were awarded extra entries from sharing on Facebook and Twitter. There were several issues, such as they didn’t disclose with a proper hashtag to comply with the FTC’s endorsement guidelines and they had to take out additional liability insurance to allow for someone to actually drive this tank.

As has been the case in past years, once the conference officially opened we heard from Linda Goldstein, a Partner and Head of the Advertising, Marketing and Media practice at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP in New York who delivered her annual industry review. Linda reviewed some of the most newsworthy developments of the year and what they mean for marketing and advertising lawyers and professionals. Linda’s talk is always very informative and entertaining as she reviewed again the basics of sweepstakes and skill contests along with social and digital media legal issues from some of the latest promotions.

Linda noted that Scavenger Hunts are making a comeback and questioned if these type of promotions pose a time consideration. Delta Airlines ran a Snapchat promotion where participants had to look for filters throughout the LA area. How much time is too much? The Supreme Court did state in a prior ruling that a half an hour is okay. She recommended that you use your gut and impose limits if you feel uncomfortable about the risk.

As far as consideration in mobile promotions, data charges may apply if having to use only a mobile app. Text messages should still have an AMOE and you should disclose that text messaging charges may apply. However, if downloading a free app, there is no consideration, however if the app is a free trial and the participate has to actually cancel to avoid future charges that could be troubling.

Linda entertained us throughout her talk with videos of a new, imaginary app her team created called PizzaMon Go! It included real robots who would come to you and make you a artisan, personal pizza with your choice of toppings. Several issues arose as these young entrepreneurs launched this new technology including privacy issues, in-app purchase requirements, weather related issues that impacted events, and more. In the end, one of the robots was designated as our next Supreme Court Justice.

On Friday morning we were treated to another highly entertaining presentation from Ron Urbach, Chairman/Davis & Gilbert LLP, who also demonstrated how important it is for those in our industry to keep current. His presentation was on the interplay of marketing and advertising law to activate brands. Ron stated that every day attorneys make risk decisions when advising clients so it would probably be helpful for them to know what is on the regulators’ minds. We get asked the question quite often, what are the risks involved? Ron reminded us that Attorney Generals are political animals who will track publicity; that the “reasonable person” standard invoked by the FTC may not be what is considered reasonable at the state level; and that consumer complaints can drive AG actions.

Some recent examples Ron gave was that the FTC charged Lord & Taylor that it deceived consumers through paid articles and paid Instagram posts from the online publication Nylon that came from 50 “Fashion Influencers” promoting a certain dress. Warner Brothers Home Entertainment paid certain gaming influencers, such as PewDiePie, to post positive comments about the Shadow of Modor Game. The Kardashians have been charged that they did not disclose their relationship to the brands that they hype of Instagram.

Ron did emphasize that promotion is one way for a brand to develop trust with consumers. So it’s always best to be transparent. One thing that I have always heard since the early days of social media. The promotional terms for sweepstakes and contests are a contract with the brand and the consumer. So he advised not to use last year’s terms and to learn from the lessons of the last year. Be consistent with what you say to the consumers, in your ads, through your social influencers, entry materials and POS. Ron ended his talk with a video that asked people on the street “If you were a hashtag, what would you be?” Ron’s was #WhatIDoForClients. Here is another one of Ron’s videos that he shared with us on the “Regulators”.

This year’s conference did start off the day after the election. So there was quite a bit of discussion about it during the breaks and cocktail receptions. It was noted that Donald Trump has spoken out against the new privacy rules the FCC has imposed along with some changes to the advertising tax laws that are on the table. So 2017 looks to be the busiest congressional year yet. We can review what these changes will be at next year’s 2017 BAA Marketing Law Conference which will again be back at the Marriott on Michigan Ave. in Chicago starting on Nov. 13. Hope to see some of you again there.