Disclosures and Digital Media

For every claim an advertisement makes there should be a disclosure. A disclosure is additional information that a consumer should know about the claim. On page four of the Federal Trade Commission's March 2013 report "Dot Com Disclosures", disclosures are important to make sure that advertising is truthful and not misleading, advertisers have evidence to back up claims, and advertisements are not unfair.

Consumers are used to disclosures on medical commercials on TV that say things like side effects may include dizziness, diarrhea, vomiting, etc. Here is an example for the drug Lyrica.

But disclosures are not just for TV commercials or ads on magazines, digital ads also need to follow the FTC guidelines. Digital media ads have more variety for example ads can be in webpages, on banners, on mobile devices or they can be pop ups. An ad can be a tweet but it might need a disclosure even though it's only 140 characters. 

Can't Fit the Disclosure? Don't Make the Claim!

Twitter is not the only place that has a limited space. Facebook has limited space too and so do banners. A lot of advertising is through banners. Banners are usually graphics or animation and it's hard to put a disclosure there without making them ugly. On page fifteen of the report the FTC said that a disclosure should be next to the claim even in the banner or it should be displayed clearly on the linked page.

Here is a rich media banner created by Sara Peterson Designs that shows a disclosure for the claim that if a customer buys a premium salad from McDonalds they can get a free week at the New York Sports Club.

The disclosure is in small text in the lower left hand corner of the banner and says that there is a limit of three 1-week memberships per customer. If a customer doesn't see the disclosure, they might think that they can eat a McDonalds salad every week and get free gym membership for a year.

Different Platforms in Digital Media

Another issue with digital media is that it doesn't appear just in one platform. TV commercials are on TV, magazine ads are in magazines but digital ads can be on desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and on smartphones. The FTC report showed an example of a webpage that had an advertising claim in the middle column and the disclosure in the left column. When the same page is viewed on a smartphone and the customer zooms in to read the claim, the disclosure disappears.  

Advertisers should have in mind what platforms their ad will be shown on and create different versions for different platforms. For example the McDonalds happy meal website solves this problem by creating an mobile version of the site.

Because there is a game on the webpage, McDonalds added a disclosure in the upper left hand corner saying that the entire webpage is advertising. 

The disclosure is even more clear on the mobile version and appears at the top.

Hyperlinks and Disclosures!

It's better to have the disclosure next to the advertising claim but if the disclosure is too long it can be hyperlinked near the claim. According to the FTC report on page ten, hyperlinks should only be used if the disclosure is not integral to the claim. 

On McDonalds main happy meal page I found what I thought was an advertising claim but there was no link.

  

I went to the McDonalds nutrition page for happy meals and found what I thought was another claim and there was a link. 

But when I clicked the link, it didn't bring me to a disclosure explaining why their quality and safety standards are higher than most of the restaurant industry. The link actually went to a page that was mostly advertising. This might not be a claim legally but as a regular consumer it seems like a claim that should be supported by a scientific study.

Disclosure Is Important!

We can see that having disclosures are even more complicated in digital media than traditional media. Disclosures in digital media are as important as any other media because they are still required according to the FTC. Digital advertisers should keep in mind that a claim in cyberspace is the same as a claim anywhere else. 

McDonald's & Content Marketing

Content Marketing

Content marketing is different from advertising. As Rebecca Lieb of Ad Age said, content resides on owned or earned media. Owned media is what a company owns like their website. Earned media is user generated content like comments on Facebook or Twitter. Content marketing doesn't interrupt people like normal advertising, for example, sometimes an ad appears before it allows you to watch a YouTube video. For content marketing the potential customer has to go and look for the content of the company (like go to their Twitter or Facebook page).

Justin Pearse wrote an article in the Guardian called "Why Brands Need to Avoid the Hype Surrounding Content Marketing". He says that companies should focus on their customers' needs and values. They should not produce content just for the sake of making content.

McDonald's Did it Wrong!

In January 2012, McDonald's launched a twitter campaign and they promoted a hashtag. The hashtag was McDStories, Which was about the farmers who grow McDonald's food. McDonald's was expecting to hear nice and warm comments from people but it didn't turn out that way. People started to tweet negative comments and make fun of the company.

Sample tweets from "#McDStories: When A Hashtag Becomes A Bashtag"

Like Justin Pearse said, there should be a customer need that the content is fulfilling. In #McDStories, there's no customer need being fulfilled or if there is, it's not clear. 

At the end of the Forbes article "#McDStories: When A Hashtag Becomes A Bashtag" it's interesting that the top comment is from Rick Wion, the Director of Social Media at McDonald's USA. It shows that they're engaged in showing their side of the story.


McDonald's Did it Right!


McDonald's launched a campaign in Canada called "Our Food, Your Questions". People can go to the webpage and ask questions about McDonald's through their Facebook or Twitter accounts. Since they started this campaign they answered 8802 questions. 

I think this idea is brilliant. This campaign fulfills a need that customers have. McDonald's is a fast food restaurant and fast food has a bad reputation. Many customers have concerns about the quality of the food and if it's unhealthy. Usually companies don't want to answer these kinds of questions because they don't want to highlight that their product might be bad for their consumers. With the website linked to Twitter/Facebook, they were able to create a large amount of engagement and, by having their questions answered, customers trust in the company increases.

The big difference between this campaign and the #McDStories campaign is that they have complete control over the message. They don't accept every question but they do answer a huge amount of questions. I think McDonald's should run this campaign in the US as well.

Fascination Advantage Personality Test

Sally Hogshead is the author of the book “FASCINATE” and came up with a test that’s called the Fascination Advantage Personality Test. I took the test and I received interesting results. The test was 28 questions asking about personality behavior and the answers were about how much you thought the questions were like you.

About the Triggers

Sally separates behaviors into seven different triggers: Power, Passion, Mystique, Prestige, Alarm, Vice, and Trust. The result of the test shows you what your primary, secondary, and dormant triggers are. She says that your primary and secondary triggers are how you naturally interact with other people. She believes that people are already using their primary trigger as their natural fascination talent but they should identify it and make it stronger. She also says that people can’t get others to love their ideas by just explaining them but they can fascinate others so that they will love their ideas.

My Result

Right after I took the test I got my result. My primary trigger is Passion, my secondary trigger is Power and my dormant trigger is Mystique. My archetype, which is a combination of my primary and secondary triggers, is "The Advocate”. The three qualities that are listed under the Advocate are Dynamic, Inclusive, and Engaging.

My Reaction

The advocate says that I’m an outgoing person that likes to talk to people and people are interested in what I’m saying. It says I have a lot of energy, I like to talk for the group and I’m creative and it inspires people. The result was interesting for me because it confirms what I’d already thought. I can see it in myself that my primary trigger is Passion. I can connect emotionally with people so fast, I can communicate with passion, and people like how I talk to them. I think it was true that Power was my secondary trigger and not the primary one because I have a stronger connection with being passionate.

The Role of Fascination in Digital Marketing

Any kind of digital marketing, for example a banner ad or a 30 second video on YouTube, needs to get the audience’s attention immediately. The audience should be fascinated with the ad in the first few seconds that they see it in order to continue to pay attention. Each of these triggers can be used in digital marketing to appeal to the customer. For example, a webpage can show emotional photos instead of a list of facts. It should have suitable colors and be attractive to look at but most importantly it should communicate the main idea in the first few seconds (for example through photos). If you are selling a product you should make the product visible immediately in first 9 seconds.

I think these ideas can be used to make digital marketing more effective.