Thanks to a rapidly growing selection of do-it-yourself marketing tools and staffing platforms such as Elance, small-to-medium businesses are developing their advertising campaigns without involving the experts …
… and it’s costing them dearly.
Turns out, there are rules when it comes to advertising. You might be surprised, like many business owners are, by what the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) deems unacceptable.
ASB chief executive Fiona Jolly has seen the cost of this mistake firsthand.
“I’ve seen examples of small businesses investing between AU$10,000.00 and AU$50,000.00 into an ad they can’t use because the ASB deems it unsuitable” she says.
And it’s not just blatantly offensive or outrageous ads that wind up getting the axe.
The ASB is made up of 20 people from a broad range of backgrounds, and if a single one of them complains about an advertisement, a formal investigation is immediately launched.
It’s a struggle for businesses to source their own information on ASB standards.
There isn’t any national legislation that covers each state. There are even cases whereby a business owner finds duplicate rules regarding their ad but can’t figure out which rule applies to them.
Most of the businesses that are making these mistakes don’t have in-house resources to ensure they aren’t crossing the line.
The world of marketing is complex, interwoven, and involves many departments and authorities. The ASB is just one of the authorities hoping to put an end to the trend of businesses breaking the rules.
This is what advertising agencies, marketing firms, and other media companies are here for.
Our focus, first and foremost, is to create marketing materials that speak directly to your target audience and establish your brand’s authority.
A big part of that, however, is making sure that these marketing materials will actually pass the boards that might take issue with them.
It’s all about creating a healthy return on your marketing investment, and that won’t happen if you have to start all over again after months of development and thousands of dollars spent.
