Tag: Marketing Law

The 41st Annual ANA/BAA Marketing Law Conference Review

The 41st Annual Marketing Law Conference was held in San Diego last week hosted by the ANA (Association of National Advertisers). It normally has been held in Chicago in November each year but was moved to sunny, warm San Diego, which I was lucky enough to attend. I’ve been an attendee of this conference now for over 20 years, but I had not been to San Diego for some time. This ANA acquired the BAA (Brand Activation Association) back in 2014, which the Association had changed it’s previous name from PMA (Promotional Marketing Association). So I go back to the days when it was the PMA (who I first started blogging for) and I saw many new faces at this year’s conference, especially since it was held on the West Coast. Most of the sponsors, many from New York law firms, still remained the same. Each year they say that they broke attendance records and this one was no exception with what I was told was 856 attendees.

This year’s conference was titled “GET SMART: LEGAL COMPLIANCE” and featured another full agenda with more than 165 speakers, 65 sessions, and 15 roundtables. Day one of the Conference kicked off at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina at 9:15 am on November 4 with the first breakout sessions. I attended the first breakout session which was titled “Basics of Promotion, Sweepstakes, Contest and Gaming” since that is a what my business is mostly focused on. The speaker was Jason Mueller from Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, LLP who is a partner with the firm’s Dallas office. It was good to hear him speak about some of the many details of sweepstakes and contest that I pass along to our clients. One question I asked him was if he knew if entering a sweepstakes through text messaging still required an alternative method of entry since data plans could be consideration. He answered that in his opinion, no, and that there has never been a challenge to not including one.

On Day 2, Tuesday, the Breakfast Round Tables were held which I always like to attend to have a chance to ask questions in a smaller group. I chose the “Practical Answers to Sweepstakes, Contests and Social Media Questions” which was led by Larry Berney, COO and General Counsel for Don Jagoda Associates. Larry had a great hand-out for the group that included some of the many Q&A’s that I regularly are asked by clients.

After breakfast Ed Kaback, SVP/LAW of ANA who has been the legal member of the association since the PMA days, greeted us with his welcome and introduction of the co-chairs of the event. Bob Liodice, CEO of ANA, followed with his opening remarks in which he stated “We are all connected through growth no matter what business we are in. We all must drive growth to compete in today’s landscape”. He then shared with us a new campaign that the ANA is championing called #SeeHer. SeeHer’s mission is to eliminate gender bias in advertising and media, so that women and girls will see themselves accurately reflected in content. It’s goal is to increase the percentage of accurate portrayals of women and girls in U.S. advertising and media by 20% by 2020.

Linda Goldstein and Amy Mudge, both Co-Leaders, Advertising, Marketing & Digital Media Practice at BakerHostetler in New York again delivered their annual industry review to start of the general sessions on Day 2. Their presentation was titled “A Year in Review, Sweepstakes, Contests, Privacy, Digital and Social Media”. Linda opened up stating that there were no new major platform or regulatory changes in the industry this past year. She did state that it appears that brands are looking to keep consumers engaged as long as possible and that means that more time and effort is required by the consumers to gain an entry into a sweepstakes or contest. There has never been an enforcement for a time consideration, so it’s very low risk. However she recommends brands should stay away from asking for a unique consideration such as the “What would you do for a Klondike Bar?” promotion that encouraged consumers to wipe out their social media account.

This year the video part of their presentation focused mostly on Influencers. It involved a YouTube channel called Cool Times which was started by of couple that originally met through an online dating app. They decided to start posting funny videos that covered many different topics. Their relationship grew deeper and the guy surprised the girl with a proposal during one of their video recordings. They started planning their wedding and many bridal related companies were offering them free products and services in return for their promotion. They ultimately got married and became huge Influencers that people loved because of their authenticity. But we then find out that the girl actually was hired by Trilogy Marketing, a company that connects brands with Influencers, and she was in on the whole scam to connect her with her now husband/partner. He was never aware of it till he found a letter on her desk from the FTC staring that they were non-compliant with their endorsement guidelines and with COPPA regulations. So that was the end of Cool Times. We never found out if they stayed married, but we did find out that the whole story was fictitious!

Ron Urbach, Chairman & Co-Chair of Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice Davis & Gilbert LLP, was back later that morning with another highly entertaining presentation titled “The Upside Down World of Advertising and Marketing Law – Where the Past & Future Disrupt the Now”.  Ron started off stating that “Today, everyone can have their own reality show online. These new reality TV stars are today’s Influencers”. It is now a $6.5 billion market and estimated to grow to $15 billion by 2022. However, brands and Influencers are both at risk with the FTC getting highly involved and making sure that there is no “quid pro quo”.

Ron’s video presentation featured a game show called “Axed”, Managing Risk in an Insecure World. The game included three contestants that were competing to be hired as the General Legal Counsel to help launch a new car brand that is run by compressed air. There were also three judges who were sitting in a “Voice” like chair with their backs to the applicants. The contestants had to perform different tasks such as singing a popular song with different lyrics that related back to the new CPPA and GDPR data privacy laws. Tim was the first contestant to get axed out which left two women. They had to prove how far they would go for a client by eating out of a “can of worms”. One of the women won the job, but the other was then offered a position in “Paradise”, a play off of the Bachelor in Paradise TV Show.

Ron highlighted the issues the industry is facing with the new privacy laws and regulations. The GDPR in Europe is now a year old and there has been many issues and problems leading many to house cleaning. In the U.S. state law discrepancies will continue to exist until there is a federal law. Nevada’s new privacy law offers online business a different way for consumers to opt-out. Facebook’s settlement was a $5 billion penalty, the largest ever imposed on any company for violating consumers’ privacy. The Equifax settlement affected 147 million people. The TikTok platform through a COPPA settlement issued a $5.7 million fine. The FTC & NY fined YouTube for not disclosing kids’ content they collected. Ron noted that with 5G coming soon, there will be even greater issue and navigating the privacy maze will be difficult.

It was another very informative conference and I had the chance to meet some new people, many from California. So thanks to all who put on another great conference. Next year it will be back in Chicago, Nov.11 -13, 2020, at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile. Not the warm, sunny San Diego we experienced this year, but at least I’ll have a chance to visit my daughter who lives just NW of the city.

The 2019 41st Annual ANA/BAA Marketing Law Conference will be taking place in San Diego

Next month is the 41th Annual ANA/BAA Marketing Law Conference which is taking place in San Diego this year instead of Chicago where it has normally been held. This year’s dates are November 4-6 which will be at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina.

I’ve attended this conference many times over the past 20 or so years, but this will be my first time in San Diego. I like to attend to help keep up with new information regarding the legal and regulatory issues facing the industry as well as to assist with promoting and covering the event for the association. Plus it still is the greatest networking event in the industry and is known as the broadest marketing, advertising, and privacy law conference in the country.

This year’s conference is titled “GET SMART: LEGAL COMPLIANCE” and features another full agenda with more than 165 speakers, 65 sessions, and 15 roundtables. We’ll dive into the laws about advanced marketing, advertising and promotion, sweepstakes, digital and social media, privacy, intellectual property and issues now facing the industry. The keynote speaker will be Noah Joshua Phillips, commissioner at the FTC, who will be joined by the top legal minds to discuss new forms of content, new platforms, new markets, and the challenges they present and how to overcome them.

Some of the cutting-edge topics will include the latest on virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, influencer and real-time marketing, native advertising, sweepstakes, sports marketing, ad tech, fantasy sports, the CCPA and the CDPR privacy policies and alcohol and marijuana marketing. Some of the speakers from major brands include American Express, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Google, Hulu, JetBlue, KFC, Microsoft, NBCUniversal, P&G,  Sony, Target, Twitter, Uber and Whole Foods.

Last year they had another great attendance record with over 830 attendees and they expect another high number this year. Will have to see if moving to the west coast affects attendance. I summarized last year’s conference with this post. Two years ago the conference started the day after the presidential election and this year the start date has been moved up and will actually take place on Election Day. It’s not a presidential election year, but still important that we vote. New York State now allows early voting, so I’m covered.

Ed Kabak, SVP, Law for ANA will again kick off the first day of the general sessions on Tuesday morning with a welcome message and introduction of the conference co-chairs. One of the highlights of the conference will again come from Linda Goldstein, Co-Leader, Advertising Marketing & Digital Media Practice, Baker Hostetler LLP in New York who will deliver her annual industry review on Sweepstakes, Contests, Privacy, Digital and Social Media. Last year Linda was joined onstage by Amy Mudge, Co-Leader at the firm. They opened up stating that by 2020 50% of all searches will be voice and that marketers need to up their game because games are now involving more and more people. The video part of their presentation involved a fictitious game called HiQ 15, which was similar to the HQ Trivia game app, and it demonstrated clearly some issues that involved influencers and data collection that were not fully disclosed.

Ron Urbach, Chairman & Co-Chair, Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice, Davis & Gilbert LLP, who’s presentation is also another highlight of the conference. His presentation this year is titled “The Upside-Down World of Advertising and Marketing Law, Where the Past and the Future Disrupt the Now” and will take place later on Tuesday morning.  Last year he shared with us a video presentation that included a journey into a world where what was true and what was not was very blurred. It emphasized how the social network platforms had been used to spread some real fake news.

If you’re interested in attending you can register here. I’ll be at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina, so please say hello if you’re there. I’m really looking forward to visiting San Diego! Any tips of where to go and what to see please let me know!

The 40th ANA/BAA Marketing Law Conference Review

The 40th Annual Marketing Law Conference was held in Chicago last week and put on by the ANA (Association of National Advertisers). I was again able to attend which I’ve been doing now for over 20 years, but not every year. This association acquired the BAA (Brand Activation Association) back in 2014, which had changed it’s previous name from PMA (Promotional Marketing Association). So there are now many new team members, but most of the sponsors have remained the same and now presenting a wider range of content and technologies.

This year’s conference was titled “Upping Your Game: Pragmatic Business and Compliance Strategies” and featured another full agenda with more than 135 speakers, 65 sessions, and 15 roundtables. Day one of the Conference kicked off at the downtown Chicago Marriott at 1 pm on November 7 with several breakout sessions. Like the conference two years ago, it started the day after Election Day, this year the difference being midterm elections vs. a presidential election. During Dan Jaffe’s presentation Friday morning, Legislative Year in Review, he spoke a little about the results of this year’s election and cited how many women we elected to Congress and to state positions which received a huge round of applause from the audience.

I arrived in Chicago early on the first day of the conference and was able to attend one of the first breakout sessions, “The Basics of Promotion, Sweepstakes, Contests and Gaming”. Even though I do know most of the basics, it was a great overview and refresher that was presented by Barry Benjamin, Partner at Kilpatrick, Townsend & Stockton, LLP. I also attended the next breakout on Alcohol Industries which, since we have many alcohol beverage clients, provided me with a great amount of background as to how the industry has been regulated. That evening started out with another welcome cocktail reception which is always a great networking event to see familiar faces and meet new ones.

Then on Day 2 Thursday, after several Breakfast Roundtables that we had the choice of attending, Ed Kaback, Co-Chair of the event and team member since the PMA days, greeted us with his welcoming remarks.  Bob Liodice, the other Conference Co-Chair, followed with his opening remarks presentation that included an extended version of the Extra Spearmint chewing gum love story commercial from the Wrigley Company as well as the inspirational father-daughter relationship commercial from Windex which had many of us in the audience on the verge of tears. Bob stressed in his remarks that even though many of us attendees are from different industries and are lawyers, government regulators as well as us advertising agency folks, that “Growth is the key to all of us no matter what business we are in”.

Linda Goldstein, a Partner and Head of the Advertising, Marketing and Media practice at BakerHostetler in New York again delivered her annual industry review on the morning of Day 2. Linda was joined onstage this year by Amy Mudge, Co-Leader at the firm. Their presentation was titled “A Year in Review, Sweepstakes, Contests, Privacy, Digital and Social Media”. Linda opened up stating that by 2020 50% of all searches will be voice. Marketers need to up their game because games are now involving more and more people. The video part of their presentation involved a fictitious game called HiQ 15 which was similar to the HQ Trivia game app. In the HiQ 15 game participants had minutes to play at a certain time each day in which they had to answer 12 questions correctly and whoever had the highest score was a winner. But as the game evolved, it added sponsors and advertisers who were collecting data of participants without their consent and also influencers who were not fully disclosing that they were being paid to promote a brand or product. The topics of both consumer data and privacy and well as influencer marketing and endorsement guidelines were all a big part of what was discussed throughout this year’s conference.

Friday was the final day of the conference and Ron Urbach, Chairman & Co-Chair of Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice Davis & Gilbert LLP, was back for the morning’s general session with another highly entertaining presentation. This year’s title, “PURSUIT OF “TRUTH” IN ADVERTISING”, tied very much into what we have been experiencing in politics with the media and the continuous use of the term “Fake News!” and also how the social network platforms have been used to spread some real fake news. His video presentation included a journey into a world where what was true and what was not was very blurred. It asked the question, “What is Truth?” and overall is the good of what social media has provided us outweigh the bad? Today social media is much more then just the platforms that deliver it to us. Consumers have become more and more the providers of this content. We need to remember that social media is still only 10 years old, so it’s still in its infancy. Ron asked if the advertising industry in general will be regulated more in the future to determine what is fiction and what is fact. He ended with this hashtag, #StandForTruth.

It was a very informative and fun three days in Chicago. So thanks to all who put on another great conference. Ed Kabak said that they had record breaking attendance with about 850 attendees. The big news is that after many, many years of having the conference in Chicago, next year it will be in San Diego, Nov. 4 -6, 2019, at the Marriott Marquis. Quite a bit difference from November weather in Chicago.

This year I stayed over an extra night till Saturday in order to meet up with my daughter, Alex, and her boyfriend, Tyler. Alex is living outside of Chicago working as a veterinarian at Golf Rose Animal Hospital. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Formento’s that I would highly recommend when visiting Chicago.