Not so obvious 🤔
What exactly is direct marketing?
An important question when it comes to the ICO guidance.
Officially, it’s “the communication (by any means) of advertising or marketing material which is directed to particular individuals”. (Data Protection Act 2018).
Let’s break this down.
Communication: emails, phone calls, direct mail, social media posts, or anything on your website.
Advertising/marketing: promoting products or services but also your goals, ideals, passions, fundraising efforts, political messages, and corporate initiatives.
This means that charities, political parties, and even companies sponsoring charities or local community groups are covered.
For instance, Sainsbury’s tie-in with Red Nose Day, where they sell merchandise and raise funds in their stores, constitutes marketing for Sainsbury’s.
Directed to particular individuals: the marketing must be targeted at a specific individual or group of people.
This means that unaddressed envelopes delivered to all houses on a road or leaflets placed in every parcel sent by a retailer to their customers are generally not considered direct marketing.
But it’s not just about the message itself, the rules also cover everything you do before sending the message.
So, for example, if you pick and choose which houses to send the unaddressed envelope to, you still have to follow the rules, as although it’s unaddressed, the envelope is now directed to individuals and therefore direct marketing.
This may seem unclear, and yes it can be, so having an expert on hand to guide you through confusing rules like this can make all the difference.
JP Legal Assist is here to support business owners like you sort out what applies and what doesn’t to your marketing.