The recently published ASA Annual Report 2021 makes interesting reading for anyone engaged in marketing, and particularly so for email marketing as it shows the ASA’s intent with regard to legislation, and its enforcement.
It gives a number of pages to its staff, although many, if not most, readers will ignore them, and page through to those specific headings which refer to our marketing segment. Not to be missed is the one headed ‘2021 in numbers’. This section is largely graph led, showing ads amended or withdrawn after action during the last six years, and another showing the increase in advice and training over the same period. A few highlighted boxes give the major points.
The next few pages concentrate on a subject which has definite implications for email marketing, especially those aimed at children or where children might see our emails or website and respond to them. It gives three ‘layers’ headed: Placement, Targeting, and Content. Placement relates to general media where children make up 25% or more of the audience, and Targeting explains the additional steps advertisers must take when targeting their ads. Content is a bit more nuanced than you might have assumed. All three are explained clearly, and show why an alcohol ad targeted at those with an 
interest in football and house-buying would be seen differently by the ASA as one targeted at those with an interest in football alone.
Page 10 describes children’s changing media habits. A graph shows a general drop in the number of adverts children are exposed to on TV, going from 2010, when the figure was around 225, to 2020 when it just topped 200. Legislation with regards to exposure of children to alcohol ads has dropped at a faster level than exposure to adverts in general. However, exposure to gambling ads is only a little lower than 10 years ago. This has implications for email marketing.
The page headed ‘Tech-based ad regulation’ concentrates on the steps the ASA is taking to identify the minority of online ads that break the rules. This appears to be mainly about online sites disproportionately popular with children, where ads for alcohol, gambling and products high in fat, salt or sugar appear. It goes on to say that marketers of these products should be doing more to target their ads to a legitimate adult audience and away from a child audience.
There is a strong indications that the ASA will concentrate its efforts on inappropriate adverts which are targeted at children or which children might see. The question arises as to whether we can prove that the subscribers to our email marketing lists are of a certain age, and what steps we have taken to ensure this. It’s best to accept that an ‘Over-18’ tick-box on the signup page will be deemed as insufficient. We should also be concerned about adverts on our websites. As ever, it is vital to be able to show what steps we’ve taken to ensure children are not attracted to improper products.
