The guidelines apply to all branded digital marketing communications, including social networking sites, websites, blogs, mobile communications and other applications.
The guidelines were developed jointly by DISCUS and the European Forum for Responsible Drinking, an alliance of Europe’s leading spirits companies.
The new DISCUS guidelines require:
Recognising that technology is constantly evolving, these new guidelines will be reviewed regularly and updated as needed.
Hemanshu Nigam, CEO of SSP Blue, an online safety/privacy firm, and the former chief security officer for News Corporation/MySpace, serves as DISCUS’ outside advisor on digital marketing, said: “The use of social networking sites and other digital platforms to market consumer products is evolving rapidly and these spirits companies are leading the way by working to stay ahead of the technology to ensure it is done in a responsible manner.”
Distilled Spirits Council president, Peter Cress, said: “Social media has become an increasingly important marketing channel to reach adult consumers of legal purchase age. These new digital guidelines reflect our companies’ strong commitment to extend their responsible marketing practices to these emerging media platforms.”
Under the DISCUS Code, beverage alcohol advertising and marketing should be placed in media only where at least 71.6% of the audience is reasonably expected to be of the legal purchase age (21+). The most recent Nielsen online syndicated data show that the Facebook audience was 82.22% 21 years of age or older, the Twitter audience was 86.86% 21+ and the YouTube audience was 80.96% 21+.
Source: Distilled Spirits Council
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