The UK’s junk food ad ban came into force this month, prohibiting ads that show high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) products on TV before 9PM, and imposing a blanket ban across all paid-for online media.
The HFSS legislation is aimed at tackling high rates of childhood obesity in the UK. A noble cause, indeed. But a second, still worthy, outcome is a chance at redressing the state of marketing today.
The new restrictions will bring a healthy shift away from product promotion and back to brand advertising – restoring balance to the UK marketingverse.
To understand why this is good news for marketing, we need to first take stock of what the junk food ad ban is not.
The ban doesn’t stop the brands selling us sugary drinks and stuffed crust pizzas from advertising. It only prevents them from showing the actual product.
TV advertising should, almost without exception, be brand led anyway. It’s not the right medium for shifting product.
An effective TV ad does three things: triggers emotion, reinforces brand codes, and does those things consistently over time.
Look at Specsavers, who has been running their incredibly successful “should’ve gone…” campaign for more than 20 years without a piece of eyewear in sight.
The job of TV advertising is to get the attention of consumers and build brand awareness and salience, so we can harvest it later with rational, ‘buy now’ messaging.
Most of us could take a leaf or few out of Specsavers’ book. The junk food ad ban will force some marketers, at least, to try.
Online channels, on the other hand, are often the right place for product-based, sales activation messaging. This part of the deal will make life harder for HFSS marketers, but not impossible. And perhaps a little more fun.
The new rules only apply to paid-for online media. That means owned channels, earned media and physical spaces are all fair game. So, if you’re a HFSS brand, you and your customers can post as many mouth-watering product shots as you like. You just can’t pay to place them.
In the meantime, your paid online media can focus solely on the work of brand building: distinctiveness, differentiation and ultimately pushing consumers through the purchase funnel – where they can experience all your other, legislation-free marketing touchpoints.
McDonald’s doesn’t need to show us a burger or fries. We see the golden arches and our mind makes that connection
It’s an unavoidable fact that established HFSS brands will come out of this smelling better than lesser-known brands.
Those with already-entrenched brand codes – the colours, sounds, shapes, characters, et cetera that identify their brand – will reap the rewards of that work now more than ever. McDonald’s doesn’t need to show us a burger or fries. We see the golden arches and our mind makes that connection.
This doesn’t mean other brands are necessarily doomed. After all, the second-best time to start establishing brand codes is now.
Whether we like it or not, the HFSS legislation corrects an over reliance in our industry on using performance advertising to bring in sales. Brands will have to think more creatively and get back to the fundamentals of marketing and brand management if they want to thrive under a healthier, more watchful UK government.
This will make marketers better. Mark Ritson has been teaching the importance of “bothism” in MiniMBA courses for 10 years.
Now a recent report brings that lesson into sharp focus. Combining data from Analytic Partners, BERA.ai, Prophet, System1 and WARC, The Multiplier Effect introduces “The Brand Advantage.” Researchers found that brands who move from a performance-led approach to a mixed brand and performance strategy saw a median ROI uplift of +90%.
A mixed brand and performance strategy saw a median ROI uplift of +90%
The other headline news buried in the HFFS restrictions is that every other media channel is exempt. Long-serving, highly effective channels like out of home, radio, cinema, print media and even PR are still very much in play.
TV ads are a fun, but distracting part of marketing. In the Marketing Communications module of the MiniMBA in Marketing, the takeaway isn’t how to make a brilliant ad. It’s how to deliver advertising effectiveness.
That means media decisions, budgeting, ESOV, S Curves and – crucially here – the superior returns of a multi-channel, synergistic approach. This Analytic Partners study, for example, found that an integrated campaign across five different media platforms results in +35% ROI.
And so, for many brands, a forced shakeup of the default TV + online approach is no bad thing.
In one fell swoop, the UK government has forced a whole swathe of marketers to confront what Mark Ritson has been shouting about for years: marketing communications is much more than creating new ads.
Advertising is not a separate discipline, but part of the bigger marketing picture. Market research and brand diagnosis tell us exactly who (and how) to target with our ads. We have to select the right brand positioning – i.e. what we stand for at a brand level. And we have to tie all that together into pointy brand objectives to achieve measurable business results.
For marketers who follow this strategic process, brand-level thinking becomes the default. And effectiveness will follow.
Advertising effectiveness is a skills gap that’s becoming endemic across our industry. A global marketers survey by System1 & Effie found that only around half of marketers surveyed were confident in their ability to deliver advertising effectiveness. And even less (40%) believed they could use creativity to drive business impact.
System1 & Effie – Global Marketer Survey (N386). Across US, EU, APAC. 2024
The answer is simple: marketers need training in the fundamentals. With the right training, marketers won’t need to panic when new regulations, tools or even public health crises hit, because the core strategic playbook remains the same.
Join Mark Ritson on the MiniMBA in Marketing and you’ll learn how to deliver marketing effectiveness, with or without product shots. Sign up for the next course here.
Interested in Team Training? Join Specsavers, Google, Adidas, Yakult and more – a global network of leading brands who are already training with MiniMBA. Contact our training team to find out more.
Cover: WD Stock Photos / Adobe Stock