All posts by : janinepaterson

It’s just a tv show

A post from a connection on LinkedIn started with:

“8 fundamental marketing lessons from the latest edition of Love Island”.

Like many reading this, I paused, slightly confused, before continuing to read:

“Na, just kidding”.

There were many comments from relieved LinkedIn users, probably like me thinking maybe we had got Love Island wrong!

Whether you love or hate it, there is no doubt that the show’s premise is not one to teach us how to market our businesses.

There are some tv shows that can teach us about life, love, and the universe. I have a guilty pleasure which has taught me a thing or two.

Doctors!

This is a programme on BBC1 on weekday afternoons. My husband calls it a soap opera, and it does have similarities to Eastenders and Coronation Street.

I don’t watch traditional soap operas, and although Doctors similarly follow the lives of the main characters, who all work at a doctor’s surgery, each episode looks at a particular medical condition or injury and the way this affects the patients concerned. They have covered many interesting and sometimes hard-hitting topics over the 20 series so far.

I am sure that real members of the medical profession may criticise the portrayal of the doctors, nurses and midwives shown, or how the various medical conditions are handled. Self-diagnosis, whether via the internet or from watching a tv show is never good. As the saying goes:

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”.

Luckily for me, there are no tv shows, as far as I am aware ?, that try to depict the world of marketing and advertising law, as only getting half the story about email marketing or how to advertise an alcoholic product compliantly could cause a whole heap of trouble should a business try this on their own.

With a medical issue, it is always best to ask a professional.

And the same applies when it comes to marketing your business legally.

Gary Thuerk could never have imagined.

Yes, that was the number of emails sent in 2022.

Gary, an American marketing manager, and the “father” of email could not have imagined where this would go when he sent the first email in 1978.

Email has become a necessity in life, both personally and in business with many people relying on it to keep in touch with the world.

However, for some, the intrusion of email by its content and frequency can cause frustration, annoyance and sometimes more serious outcomes.

Receiving an unwanted email can be an inconvenience. Most will delete and move on. But for some, the consequences can go beyond mere annoyance, especially if they have been targeted due to vulnerabilities.

Most companies sending marketing emails are responsible and just to make people aware of their products and services. The last thing on their mind is to cause upset to customers or prospects.

But if you don’t plan your email campaign properly, from researching your ideal audience to ensuring you have permission to send the email, you could find yourself on the ICO’s radar.

And this could mean being listed on their website as an upheld complaint, and as many companies engaged in email marketing have found out, a financial penalty.

It will be nowhere near the £4 million the ICO can impose for data breaches. However any fine together with the negative publicity of being featured on the website’s list of rule breakers can have a devasting effect on a company’s future.

Not only will customers and prospects think twice about engaging with them, but suppliers and other B2B contacts will also reconsider any relationship.

Email marketing can be a great way to promote your products and services, but it is also a channel where it is easy to get things wrong.

For when things go off track

My younger daughter has gone back to uni. I drove her back to Loughborough, telling the security guard at the entrance to campus that I was “returning an inmate”. He seems to appreciate the joke!

She ran me 2 days later. She had woken up in her uni accommodation to no electricity. Strange she thought.

She opened up the uni app and discovered that a pipe had burst in a flat above (she is on the 2^nd floor) and had flooded the flats below. So they had rightly turned off the electricity supply to the whole block.

Luckily for her, the flood was not in her corner of the block so she did not suffer any damage. Some of her friends did, however, as there were inches of water in some rooms, damaging their possessions.

The uni had to find alternative accommodation for 68 students.

They did well for Maddy. She was found a room in a flat across the courtyard, so didn’t have far to take all her belongings. Some of her friends were moved further away. She spent most of the weekend helping them move.

I can only guess at the nightmare this caused the uni.

But, like any other business, they probably had a contingency plan for when things like this happen.

This is an important part of running a business because things will go wrong, but I have found that many forget this when it comes to their marketing.

Take a product promotion for example. You cover the basics: how to enter; what products need to be purchased; what the prizes are and how they will be allocated.

But what happens if entry is via the post (because they need to include their receipt) and there is a postal strike, as we have experienced recently.

Or you’re sourcing your prizes from a 3^rd party company and they go bust halfway through the promotion!

You need to cover this in your terms and conditions, and you need procedures that you put in place to deal with them should they arise.

It can be difficult to think all this through and make sure you are covered, so sometimes having an expert eye on your plans is needed.

Although 28 companies can do nothing about this now!

I’ve written about the ICO and the damage a complaint to them can have.

They have the power to fine you up to £4 million for breaches of data protection, although most companies will never see a fine anywhere near this.

But there are other more important reasons to avoid coming on their radar.

The first is the adverse publicity and reputational damage an investigation can cause. Appearing on its website and in the media can cause a loss of respect and goodwill for a company, even if there is no fine.

The second is the disruption and stress caused by an investigation. The ICO will look at all your data processes, not just the one complained about, which can lead to some uncomfortable truths that may have been hidden, whether deliberately or not. A number of companies failed to comply with the TPS and have been shown to be less than trustworthy, demonstrating that they are not companies to do business with.

The third reason is that the reprimands issued by the ICO are now listed on its website. These more informal investigations were previously confidential, but the ICO will publish these on their website unless there is a good reason not to, for example, the cases include issues of national security.

The change in strategic approach is to make the ICO more transparent. The Information Commissioner has said: “Members of the public, and those affected by a breach or infringement, are entitled to know that we have held the business or organisation to account, and that they have changed their practices as a result.”

Those issued with a reprimand may be more minded to comply with its terms if they know their progress will be public, and other organisations can learn from these cases to improve their own data handling.

This move seems reasonable to me, although I am not sure the 28 organisations issued with a reprimand in 2022 will agree as they will now be on the new Reprimands webpage as the ICO has decided to backdate this action to 1^st January 2022!

Personally, I would feel a little miffed as these investigations were started under confidential arrangements, but now all of this is public knowledge.

Yet another reason to avoid coming to the ICO’s attention if you needed any more. I appreciate it can be difficult to keep all those plates spinning throughout your data protection processes,

They all know what they are doing

A newsletter from a connection on LinkedIn talked about his aspirations to keep bees. He is having his first lesson soon.

I too have plans to keep bees when I finally find that piece of land to build my dream home.

We had a swarm of bees that came to rest in a tree n our garden a few years ago. It was fascinating to watch them.

We called a local beekeeper who had suffered the loss of a hive due to illness, so he was more than happy to come and collect them and see them happily working in the once empty hive.

We received 2 jars of honey in return!

Bees work together to support the Queen and produce new bees to build a stronger hive and ensure its future. They all know what they are doing, having specific roles to fulfil. Worker bees go out and find pollen, returning to explain the location by dancing. The drones’ (male bees) only role is to reproduce, eating honey when not mating with the Queen. As long as everyone carries out their role, the hive thrives!

What’s your point, Janine?

Well, the teamwork of the bees, each carrying out its designated role works to ensure the future of the hive is the same as your employees helping to build your brand and company and ensure its future.

Your people, like bees, need help to understand their place in the business so they can create the best company they can (making you money on the way!)

But to do this, they must be familiar with the rules that they need to follow and understand how these apply to their role, and this is no more important than when they are marketing your brand.

You may not know but I have been training people on the marketing do’s and don’ts for over 15 years and I can help ensure your employees become the best advocates for you by creating marketing that talks to your ideal audience and are legally compliant.

If your employees need the knowledge to promote your brand in the right (and legal) way…

However, no one complained!

I have posted before on the ASA rules on gambling and that these were updated in October 2022.

The changes were made to try and prevent those under 18 from seeing ads for betting and gambling products and services by not associating them with youth culture.

The new rules mean that people or characters who will appeal to those under 18 should not be used in an advertising campaign.

In reality, this means that popular stars in sports and in the media will not be able to promote betting services.

In the UK, this will mean that in sports that attract a youth following like football and cricket, both players and managers will be off limits in promotions.

In football, for example, this will mean players and managers of the national teams, the Premier League and maybe the Championship will not be allowed to feature.

This is something Ladbrokes found out to their detriment.

In the month the rules came in, they sent out a promoted tweet:

“Can these big summer signings make the question marks over their performances go away?”

The video embedded in the tweet showed Premier League footballers Philippe Coutinho, Jesse Lingard and Kalidou Koulibaly, set against a background of question marks, together with “Ladbrokes” in an image box.

The ASA received no complaints about the tweet, so you ask, how did it become the subject of an ASA investigation?

The ASA themselves challenged whether the ad broke the new rules.

Ladbrokes said they did everything to remove those under 18s from the ad’s audience.

Trouble was, they choose Twitter, and despite their own internal targeting and age-gating processes, Twitter allows self-verification and everyone knows that some children will lie if they think they will get something they’re not supposed to have.

So, had the ad appeared in a different medium where there could be proper age verification, it probably would have been ok.

An example of the Right Message and the Right Time, but the Wrong Audience because the Wrong Medium I think!

Ladbrokes thought they had got it right but get one element wrong and you can derail your whole campaign.

…because sometimes you can’t wing it!

I have written about my first kitchen disaster where a fault with the design of the oven led to my beautiful French apple flan being knocked across the floor.

I’ve had other issues with my cooking over the years but on the whole, I‘d say I’m a pretty good cook.

Maybe not quite to the standard to appear on a popular Channel 4 baking competition, but enough to provide a wide range of meals and sweet treats to the family.

What I realised as I was making the Christmas cake is that cooking has many similarities with marketing your business.

Sometimes you can just throw in all the ingredients, cook, and out comes a great dish.

However, I have found that when it comes to baking, you need to follow the recipe to the letter otherwise it won’t work. The ratios of flour to butter to sugar and eggs are important if you want to achieve a tasty outcome.

And this is the case when it comes to marketing your brand. There may be a few areas where a “throw it all in and mix” process might work, but when it comes to the rules governing advertising, these need to be followed otherwise the consequences will be far worse than an inedible cake!

And this is when the problems start.

To properly follow the rules, you first need to know what they are, and then how to apply them to your business.

When you want to bake a cake, you turn to a recipe book.

But what do you do if you want to advertise your brand?

You ask a marketing law expert!

And it has nothing to do with money

I’ve heard many people say there is no need to worry about the ICO. Yes, they can fine you up to £4 million, but it won’t happen to you.

It’s true that most businesses are unlikely to receive a fine anywhere near this figure, or a fine at all.

So, why should you worry?

Because it’s not their financial penalties that have the greatest effect on a business, it’s the other consequences of a visit by the ICO that can sink a company!

Many people don’t realise the depth of questioning involved when the ICO starts an investigation. Questions not just on the issue raised, but questions about all aspects of your data handling activities. This can bring to light things you may not realise are a problem and can certainly cause a few sleepless nights.

Whatever the outcome, a visit from the ICO will have a toll on your business. There is the time spent finding the answers to those questions, which can involve auditing your systems and speaking with suppliers, then nervously awaiting their decision.

And even though you may not receive a fine, the reputational damage that inevitably comes from a regulator’s investigation could weigh heavy.

5 companies found this to their cost when the ICO investigated complaints about breaches of the Telephone Preference Service register. The companies had made marketing calls selling insurance for appliances, for example washing machines and boilers.

Not only did they ignore the fact that recipients had objected to receiving marketing calls, they also targeted a certain demographic, homeowners over 60 who had landlines. During the calls which were sometimes distressing to the homeowner, they used high pressure tactics to acquire payment details, providing false and misleading information about the policies.

These practices came to light because these companies ignored the law, which allowed the ICO to delve deep into their operations. The fines weren’t large by the ICO’s standards, the biggest one being £140,000, but the exposure of the people running these businesses as unscrupulous and uncaring, with the ICO commenting that 1 company broke the law on marketing to “maximise turnover and profit” will have more long-lasting consequences.

This behaviour is an extreme example of what can be revealed when the ICO become involved in investigating alleged breaches of data protection laws.

The vast majority of responsible businesses aim to operate within the law but it can be easy to miss something in your processes that inadvertently crosses the line of what is legal. And this can remain hidden for years until it comes to light as a result of a complaint about something completely different.

What you need is an expert eye that can review your marketing processes and provide valuable feedback, not just on its compliance with the law but also best practice.

Never seen this before…

I don’t know if you’ve had the weather I’ve had this past 2 weeks, but it’s not been this cold for years.

I hadn’t realised how cold it was until my husband brought in the milk!

We have a milk delivery, I know very old fashioned, and they deliver at about 3 am, so when we opened the door at 9 am, this was the sight that greeted us.

I’ve never seen this before! It took 2 days in the fridge to thaw out.

The cold weather has affected many things, including work. A training session I was hosting for a client has been postponed til the new year due to the snow (and the train strikes).

So I found myself in the office unexpectantly, allowing me to continue working on my goals for 2023.

The company will be 3 years old in January and I think I haven’t done badly, steering it through a pandemic and the more recent financial crisis.  We are still here!

I am sure you are all looking at what you want to achieve in the next 12 months.

Reviewing your marketing activities is a good start.

What worked and what didn’t? Can you do more of the former and less of the latter?

Yes – and that won’t look good on a CV

I was reading the enforcement cases on the Information Commissioner’s Office website the other day.

Yes I know this may sound like something only a data “geek” would do, and I don’t claim to be one of those, but sometimes you find some interesting things.

What caught my eye was a story about the ICO starting criminal proceedings against 8 individuals for allegedly accessing personal data on the databases of vehicle repair garages to gain “leads” for personal injury claims.

They gained access to the systems between December 2014 and November 2017 and took personal data relating to hundreds of thousands of customers who used the garages to repair accident damage. The garages were unaware of the activity

Personally speaking, the garages should have been aware of this, as they obviously have a responsibility to protect this data, but this is not part of the current case. There may well be further action around this in the future, as the investigation was a complex one, and I would suggest the actions or inactions of the garages concerned formed a part.

The individuals face charges under section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, which carries a sentence of up to 2 years imprisonment, and section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998, which is punishable by a fine, as the alleged offences happened before the introduction of the GDPR. However there are similar criminal provisions in the UK GDPR, should offences since May 2018 come to light.

You will all agree that this is an example of how NOT to do lead generation.

And when it comes to the use of personal data in marketing, it is easy to forget that there are a number of negative consequences of getting it wrong, a criminal conviction is just one. Lead generation already has a less than rosy reputation, but it can be done legally and with a good ROI.

So, I hear you ask, how do we do it legally? Well, you start by knowing the rules and then applying them to your activities.

Simple?

No, this can be confusing and complicated for many business owners, so if you are looking at using lead generation services, and you want to make sure you do this legally…..