Speaker 1: So in this session today, we're going to talk about legal regulatory compliance and governance for marketers. Now, this probably doesn't sound the most exciting topic. And if you are a marketer who is all about the creative, all about the campaigns, all about the communications, and you're not really thinking this stuff through, then this is an element of marketing, which is absolutely crucial to make sure that you are squeaky clean and appropriate in everything that you're doing. So it is an important building block. It might not be the end game. It might not be the most attractive thing that you're going to be doing within your role. But it is a vital part of the marketing machine, if you like, that enables you to do what we might term diligent marketing. So effective marketing requires really diligent adherence to legal standards, regulatory frameworks, compliance mandates, and governance principles, ensuring that each campaign and marketing activity that you do not only captivates, but cultivates trust and integrity in every engagement. Now, that's a big kind of quite glamorous, very wordy quote. And basically, what we're saying is that you can use this stuff to build confidence. You can use this stuff to build trust in the relationships that come from the marketing communications that you do. And this is really, really the solid stuff. These are the foundations behind and underneath the marketing stories that you tell. So it's about diligent marketing, basing the building of your brand, if you like, on solid foundations, because without this stuff, you're building what you might term a straw house, that the wind comes, you've got no evidence to back it up, and the wind blows the house down, is the analogy that we could be looking at here. So let's go through each of these. And I've got a little example for you at the end here that will hopefully bring this to life and show you some of the areas that you can start doing your examples and your work from. But let's begin with legal considerations. So we're going to keep this quite high level, quite top line. But these are four building blocks that you really need to think about. So we'll start with legal. So legal considerations in marketing. These are the things that encompass the laws and regulations that govern how products and services are marketing and sold. OK, so this is things like advertising standards, consumer protection laws, intellectual property rights. So these are the really big things. So when we say legal, there's an L that starts the word legal. And so we're talking the law. This is how I remember it. So legal law. And so it's kind of the formal official stuff. We have to comply with this stuff. Otherwise, we are opening ourselves up not only for criticism, but for getting into quite deep water. So an example of a legal consideration for marketing would be potentially, say, in the pharmaceutical industry, where legal considerations are really stringent. With regulations governing how drugs can be advertised and requiring marketers to provide balanced information and not make misleading claims about the efficacy of drug usage and their actual performance. So, for example, you know, a campaign for maybe a new antidepressant does not only highlight the benefits, but also clearly disclose the potential side effects. So there are laws in place that encourage, well, actually, basically say that we have to be really honest, truthful and open in disclosure. That's really what this is all about. So what can you do as a marketer then to consider your legal obligations? Well, here's a compliance checklist. So you can review advertising laws. So you need to ensure that all of your marketing materials comply with national if you're just in one country or, and this is important if you're overseas as well, international advertising laws. So you've got to know what the laws are in all the countries that you are going to be promoting and advertising. You've also got to look at and protect intellectual property. So this is checking that all brand elements, logos, slogans, messaging, propositions are registered and protected wherever you possibly can. And you need to look and double check that you're not infringing on somebody else's intellectual property. That's also important when it comes to highly competitive marketplaces where often these kinds of things are actually traded. So that becomes very, very important. You also need to comply with privacy laws. So you've got to ensure compliance with data protection laws like GDPR, obviously for customer data handling. So going and doing a short tutorial or a quick course or asking somebody who is in the know is absolutely critical so that you know you're compliant with your data protection. And document approvals as well, keeping a record of all marketing material approvals and legal checks that you've done. So it's not good enough just to say, well, we had a little look and we thought it was OK. You need to be logging and archiving every single diligence check that you have done. That's really, really important. So logging all material or versions of all material. And this is really just good practice. Having an archive of all of the previous versions of everything that you've ever created is important if you're ever challenged, because then you have the evidence of what you did to move from version three to version four and everything that you did in terms of checking compliance. So the legal considerations are really, really important there. But it's not just the legalities. There's also regulation. Regulation is a lot more local to you. And regulation basically are what we might term official protocols imposed by government bodies and or industry associations or bodies that dictate how products should be marketed. And this, of course, will include industry specific guidelines and general marketing regulations. So whilst these aren't laws, they're frameworks and they are best practice, if you like. And if you're in a regulated industry, then it kind of is law, because if you're in pharmaceuticals, financial services or telecoms, those are the three big obvious ones. Others are there as well. You will have a regulator within your industry, and that can be a formal regulator, part of the government, or it can be an informal one, like a trade association or a governing body within your industry. So you need to know what the regulations are and then you need to comply with them. So an example here, say in the financial services sector, regulatory requirements are particularly strict. So these focus heavily on transparency and honesty in customer communications. So a bank marketing a new savings account, for example, must provide clear, comprehensible information on interest rates and the terms and conditions of the account. When we say small print, that is what we've often heard in the past, but it needs to be kind of medium print or even large print now to be fully compliant with regulations. And often you can use those kinds of things and your compliance actually as a positive, because as we've said, businesses and firms and brands who do this stuff properly are often seen as the most trustworthy, the most reliable, the most honest and open in their industries. So there's a big example here for kind of using this for competitive edge and advantage. So we've, of course, got a little compliance checklist here. So what things can you do to make sure that you are complying with regulations? Well, first one is understanding sector specific regulations for your industry and stay informed and stay in touch. Watch their social media accounts, sign up for their newsletters, watch and monitor and look at the changes and trends in regulations relevant to your industry. You need to have your finger on the pulse, so to speak, for that. Make sure you attend regular training. There may well be internal training depending on your kind of organisation and what sector you work in, or you can go to look for the industry body. Most industries have a either regulating body or a trade association, and often they put on regular training sessions just to keep marketing teams up to speed with any kind of regulatory changes. So it's no good to be relying on something that's 10 years old or just a cursory glance a few years back about, you know, things that we've got to comply with and then not keep in touch. It's really important to make sure you are fully up to date. You need to audit all your marketing materials regularly. This is important and make sure that against the things that you've now learned about on your training or that you've been kept up to date with, that everything is compliant. If it isn't, remove it, update it, put it back into circulation. This is an ongoing process. All of this stuff that we're talking about is an ongoing process. Really important, but really advantageous if you do it. And then if you are in a regulated industry, engage with the regulators. Maintain communication with these bodies and ensure that your marketing practices as well as your materials and assets are up to date and compliant. Often they will have advisors and guides and they will be very, very supportive. Anybody who reaches out, they're not reaching out because they want to necessarily just tick all the boxes. They're reaching out because they want to forge a relationship so that they are potentially always the first to know when changes come into play. So actually getting into a relationship and treating your regulator or your industry or trade association as a stakeholder for your marketing is really, really sound idea. Again, just positioning you as the authority, thought leader or most compliant organization in your sector. Just think about how that might come across in terms of building trust with all stakeholders. It can look and make you sound really good because you've got the evidence to say that you actually are. Broader compliance in marketing as well. We need to think about how we comply. And this is really all about making sure that marketing practices adhere to legal and ethical standards. So it's not just about the legality. It's not just about the regulations. It's also about being ethical, avoiding false claims, respecting privacy, engaging in fair competition, being just a diligent and wholesome brand and set of people. A nice example in the food and beverage sector, for example, would be that a compliant brand would adhere to health and safety regulations, would have accurate labeling, would avoid misleading claims about the health benefits of the products that they have on their shelves. So, for example, a snack bar advertiser advertising as low in fat must meet specific regulatory criteria to be able to legally make that claim. So having the evidence to back up not only claims of this nature, product based, but actually anything that you may well try not to over claim in terms of your sustainability journey as a brand. Of course, there is that lovely word greenwashing, for example. So this is about complying and being compliant within marketing, just having the evidence to back up any claims that you're making, not kind of really over searching for these pieces of evidence, but just being able to confidently put those into place as part of the story. So everything that you do and say is evidence based. That's really key. So little checklist for being compliant in marketing. Label review, ensuring that all product labels and this applies to services as well. And again, this small or medium print on the back cover, for example, everything is accurate and compliant with local and international standards. So any kind of labeling of product or service has got to be accurate and compliant. Verifying your claims, verify all product and service claims through reliable and documented evidence. And of course, if you can have those claims verified by third parties, whoever they might be relevant to your product, services or brand, then that's even better because self verification is one thing, but having it verified by a trusted third party takes things to a whole new level. And again, if you're looking for this as getting some competitive edge, that can really help you score. So that can be quite exciting to do if you see an opportunity there. Consumer rights is also a big, big and important thing. So being and maintaining transparency with your customers about their rights and product guarantees. You know, we do things like, you know, disclaimers. We do things like opt outs on emails that we might send out. It's all these kinds of things that just reminds your customer that you are in this relationship in an open and transparent and honest way. And you're giving them an opt out if at any point they're not seeing or valuing or perceiving the value in that relationship anymore. So their rights are that they can opt out of this relationship at any point. So by just you acknowledging it is all part of this communication story. And you're also going to need to be doing regular, much as you did for the legal and the regulatory, regular compliance audits. So conduct regular audits to ensure ongoing compliance with any laws or any kind of compliance issues that you identify in your journey. That's really important. And the fourth and final thing of our legal, regulatory, compliance and governance rule set here, if you like, is governance in marketing. Now, what we mean by governance is that we're referring to the systems of rules, practices and processes by which your firm's marketing activities are directed and controlled. OK, so this is the systems and processes by which you do your marketing, by which you plan your marketing, by which you execute your marketing. And we're aiming here to ensure accountability, responsibility, openness, honesty, fairness and transparency in all of our marketing practices. So it doesn't sound complicated and it actually isn't really. It's about doing the right thing. But it's about, as we've already explored, it's about evidencing the right thing, making sure we've documented the right thing and always having things that are in alignment with the rules in our sector and the legality of doing business. So an example, for example, then in the technology sector where new products are rapidly developed and marketed, governance would focus here on ethical considerations like avoiding planned obsolescence. There's a tricky one for tech companies who are often criticised for, well, the battery didn't last long on this and now you want me to buy a new one. Or, you know, I've subscribed to this particular service and now to continue it, I've got to then resubscribe. Well, hold on, I thought that was for life. Those kinds of things have got to avoid planned obsolescence or even the perception of it. We've also got to ensure that marketing campaigns, for example, do not mislead about the technological capabilities. So kind of putting things in their rightful place, for instance, you know, marketing a smartphone should clearly outline the device's features without overstating its performance. So there's a technology example. But what kinds of things do you do currently where maybe because you can, you're pushing the boundaries of the claims that you're making? Governance will hold you in check and it'll hold you accountable. It'll hold you responsible for those claims. Now, we're not saying you can't push hard and you can't really squeeze all of the assets and get the best value from them. Of course you can. That's the idea of marketing. We need to, as the local government and our public sector phrase you often hear is sweating the assets is something that is regularly quoted there. And of course, that is part of marketing, but doing it within governance, doing it within a system of rules and practices and processes, which mean that we're accountable, but we've got an archive of what we did, why we did it, when we did it and who it benefited. And that's the key here. It's about governance in a positive way, as much as using it to actually police what you do. So what can we put into our governance in marketing compliance checklist? Well, we need an ethical marketing code. So we need to develop and enforce an ethical code of conduct for all marketing activities. We need to sit down as a team of marketers and maybe bring others who are customer facing into the mix as well and develop a code of practice so that every time we do something, we can confidently do it and put it out there in the knowledge that yes, we're doing this in a way that supports the brand. It supports where we're trying to go as an organization. So we're not fudging anything. We're doing this openly and honestly and ethically. We need to then have stakeholder engagement as part of our checklist. So regularly engaging with stakeholders, customers and everybody else to gather feedback on our marketing strategies and their impact. So how is this thing playing out in the real world? You know, marketers are sometimes criticized for coming up with great ideas, but not really truly listening and then claiming to be market centric or listening to the customer, putting the customer first. But then they have no evidence of actually when they did that. So stakeholder engagement allows you to evidence the fact you've actually done that, that that's vitally important. Having transparency reports as well. So publishing regular reports that detail marketing outcomes, expenditures and customer feedback. And again, when it comes to things like being challenged for privacy, when it comes to being challenged for things like greenwashing, having a transparency report is a really important thing to have at your disposal because you don't want to be on the back foot. You don't want to be sort of having to react in a moment when challenged. You want to be able to bring something out, you know, very, very proactively and say, look, we're ahead of the game here. We've already done our due diligence. We've looked at legality, the regulations. We are compliant. Here is the evidence to say we're doing good governance in marketing. It's just about doing the right thing. And also having, though, as a bit of a check and balance, having an oversight committee, an oversight committee to establish a marketing review and approval process that for all of your major stuff, not necessarily every social media post, you do not want to surround yourself with kind of too much red tape and bureaucracy that means you stifle your creativity and you just can't do stuff. As long as you've got those ethical marketing codes, you've got your brand guidelines, you've got those rules of engagement as well, you could argue in here, then you don't need to take the small stuff to your oversight committee. But you might want to have an oversight committee to approve, review and approve all major marketing campaigns and strategies. So again, you can see those things playing out perfectly in the real world. So those are the four kind of key areas to really work with. And you could translate these into something that could be a useful kind of series of activities, do these things in collaboration. And you might want to if you take this stuff, because it does sound dry when you sort of see it at a surface level. But when you start to break it down and think, how does this actually work in practice, you can see that there is a very, very simple trade over to things that are a bit more meaningful to your rest of your marketing team. Or if you have to sell this into the wider business or organisation and get support, you can now talk at a slightly different level because legislation is at a macro level. It applies to all businesses. And as we said, an example is GDPR. So it's the macro. So when people say, well, what do you mean by legal governance? What is that? We say, well, legislation is the macro. It's the big, big picture. It's the widest stuff. You know, it's our pestle to use marketing acronym there. So it's the political stuff. It's the environmental stuff, sociological, it's the technological, it's the sort of all the other kind of economics impacts and things that happen. It's the macro stuff. So what's coming in there from a legal perspective that we need to pay attention to? So let's collaborate and figure some things out, have those conversations. The regulation stuff is at a micro level. So this applies to, as we know, all businesses and people within our sector. So the example are industry standards and certification. So if we've got to get our ISO or there are particular sort of industry certificates that we have to get to be able to operate effectively, that's more the language that the rest of the business and your marketing colleagues will understand. So maybe rather than talk about our regulatory framework, you say, well, at a micro level, what's going on in our sector that we need to adhere to? That would be something easier to talk the language of regulation. And when we talk about compliance and governance, what we're looking at here really is guidelines. This is the internal bit of our macro micro internal audit, really, if you like, or analysis. And of course, guidelines at an internal level apply to everyone in our business. These are things like brand guidelines and the step by step rules of engagement we have with customers. Maybe it's our CRM strategy, whatever it happens to be. So start talking at an internal level by using the word guidelines. That's an easier one for people to translate in. And ultimately, what we're trying to do here is to protect ourselves, is to surround ourselves not with over bureaucracy, not with meaningless stuff, but useful evidence that's going to enable us to be confident we've got the foundations upon which we can develop really effective marketing going forward. And remember that the backbone of successful marketing, it really does. And I promise you, this really works. It lies in robust, legal, regulatory, compliance and governance strategies. So the bigger picture, the rule book, if you like, of the way that we operate as an organisation. So stay informed, stay compliant, let your marketing efforts be as lawful as they are creative. And let's continue as an industry of marketers, as really, really positive, diligent marketers and business developers, let's market responsibly. That to me is the key here. That's the key mantra behind legal, regulatory, compliance and governance in marketing.