Original image by Me.
I met the owner of Lone Tree Brewery, a niche Israeli microbrewery located in the picturesque plains south of Jerusalem, about three months ago when she attended a seminar I gave on social media marketing for small businesses. The main focus of the talks was on Facebook Ads, which in my opinion are one of the most effective marketing tools available. At the time she said that her company had done some ads and saw little return, but that she felt what I was teaching had value. We haven’t spoken since the seminar, and I have been meaning to catch up with her to see how things are going. Then I read an article on cnet titled, For alcohol brands, social media a stiff cocktail.
The article discusses the potential difficulty that US alcohol concerns are having in using social media tools to market their brands on things like Facebook Pages and Ads, Twitter promoted tweets, and Foursquare. Generally state laws prohibit advertising by alcohol brands that target minors, and some states like Utah and Pennsylvania have stringent laws against this. According to Ted Zeller, a PA lawyer with Norris, McLaughlin, and Marcus who has represented the Yuengling brewing company, “if you’re an alcohol brand, I know of no federal Internet law restrictions as far as advertisements go–the same would be applicable to TV advertisements.”
Which raises a problem: lawyers advising alcohol brands who use social media campaigns need to consider and plan for the backlash that can come from violating a state advertising law related to company’s online advertising activities. According to Zeller, it’s a tremendous hurdle from a legal perspective.”
A quote from cnet, which sums up the problem nicely:
The irony is that social media, given the vast amount of personal information that users are prone to entering into profiles, ought to make things easier for an industry that needs to carefully target its advertising and marketing based on legal restrictions. But that information can be so vast and unverifiable, and a social-networking site’s reach so global, that it can instead get even more complex.
According to the article (and I agree with this), Facebook’s ad platform provides the best place for such companies to target their campaigns, because of the ability to specifically target users by chosen demographics. Using the ads tool, you can restrict the ad to display to users only over the age of 18. Pages can also be restricted to underaged users. Despite these controls, legal counsel would do well to insure that client companies are aware of the need to use such age restrictions and have ways of auditing campaigns for compliance.
What strategies would you suggest for alcohol brands that may face backlash from state advertising laws for social media activities?
Related articles
- For alcohol brands, social media a stiff cocktail (news.cnet.com)
- Social Media Marketing How Much Does A Facebook Fan Cost? (ferreemoney.com)
