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The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), the self-regulatory group for the U.S. distilled spirits industry, just released new guidelines for advertising distilled spirits online.  The guidelines were drafted in cooperation with the European Forum for Responsible Drinking, which is the European counterpart to DISCUS.

The full guidelines are available here, and include lots of common sense strategies for responsible online marketing, e.g. identify marketing as such, provide and honor a privacy policy for user data, age gate, market only to adults, and include social responsibility statements.  The guidelines also get specific, instructing advertisers to only place ads in media where 71.6% of the audience is the legal drinking age.  Recent Nielsen data shows Facebook at 82% 21+, Twitter at 87% 21+ and YouTube at 81% 21+.

Digital marketing communications that are intended to be forwarded by users, such as with a share, download or email “button click”, should include instructions to individuals downloading the content that they should not forward these materials to individuals below the legal purchase age.  On a related note, if users provide content on the advertiser’s site or a site controlled by the advertiser, the advertiser should be monitoring and moderating the content every day, or at a minimum once every five business days, to remove inappropriate content.

Imbiblog is published for general informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. Copyright © 2011 · All Rights Reserved ·

In just a few weeks, Kristen Techel, Partner at Strike & Techel, will be speaking at the Wine Law conference in Denver, Colorado. The two-day conference, presented by Law Seminars International, runs April 11^th-12^th and covers rules, regulations, challenges, and practical advice for the wine industry. Kristen Techel will be part of a panel discussion on social networking platforms entitled “The Brave New World of Internet Marketing: Establishing a Web Presence Utilizing Social Media” at 3 p.m. on April 12^th. Co-panelists include Benjamin Weinberg, Esq., Editor-in-Chief at Unfiltered, Unfined and Michael Lazlo, Esq., with Laszlo & Associates. The conference will be held at the Grand Hyatt Denver Hotel. If you will be attending the conference, please feel free to stop by and say hello to Kristen!

Imbiblog is published for general informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. Copyright © 2010-2011 · All Rights Reserved ·

We’ve posted about alcohol and social media before, but are revisiting the issue to discuss geo location and location-based advertising.

Websites and mobile apps like Foursquare, Shop Kick, and Facebook Places allow advertisers to identify the location of their audience members and then send an offer based on the consumer’s location.  The marketing potential for alcoholic beverage suppliers and retailers is epic.  Presume a social media savvy consumer, Joe, who checks in everywhere he goes and provides personal information across a variety of web platforms.  Joe likes craft beer, and he likes to drink it in San Francisco’s Haight district.  These geography-based applications will allow the brewers, bars and restaurants that Joe interacts with online and via the geo apps to know when Joe is in the Haight and send him a coupon for a discounted pint of craft beer, expiring in only a few hours. The opportunities for a personalized call to action are profound.

Though the technology is very cool, there are plentiful legal pitfalls. Leaving aside regulatory acronyms all mobile advertisers should heed (e.g. MMA, FCC, FTC, TCPA, CTIA), there are alcoholic beverage law issues with geo targeting. The rules on alcohol discounts vary by state and by the party selling the alcohol.  How will these programs ensure that the underlying offers are legally compliant? How will the geo location sites identify users who are underage or have a chronic drinking problem? What about states where solicitation requires a license, or is prohibited? We expect to see alcohol advertising tiptoe into geo location in 2011, and expect to see regulators follow quickly.

Imbiblog is published for general informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. Copyright © 2010 · All Rights Reserved ·

One of our areas of focus at Strike & Techel is the regulatory framework for the advertising and promotion of alcoholic beverages.  Under that lens, we’ve been curiously watching the proliferation of alcohol marketing via social networks. The trend is mushrooming, and alcoholic beverage regulations haven’t developed to account for the specifics of the new technologies. Though there is not an intrinsic problem with utilizing social networks to reach your target market, uninformed use of the channel can end up violating a host of alcoholic beverage laws.  We expect to see significant regulations imposed at the state-level in the coming years based on companies that “push the envelope” in ways that make state regulators uncomfortable.

That doesn’t mean you should sit idly by while other companies capitalize. We advise our clients and friends to proceed with caution and use common sense.  Make sure your advertisements are not aimed at kids. Don’t give away alcohol, valuable prizes or promotional discounts unless you’ve confirmed legality.  Be mindful of state lines, and the fact that you may be able to market to a consumer in your home state in a way that you MAY NOT be able to market to a consumer in your neighboring state.  And the big one that seems to keep coming up: a promotion offered over Twitter or Facebook or FourSquare requires no less compliance because it is offered on a social media platform. Give yourself lead time to get the proper legal clearance for any promotion.

Imbiblog is published for general informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice.