Nashville, TN – The National Conference of State Liquor Administrators presented a Best Practices Award to the Distilled Spirits Council last night during its 74th annual conference for the spirits industry’s “Best Practices Media Summit.”
“Our awards program continues to be an effective and meaningful way to advance our purpose as well as identify and reward those that exemplify the best amongst us,” said Eric Honma, president, National Conference of State Liquor Administrators.
DISCUS won the 2009 Best Practices Award for Innovations in Community Collaboration for its two-day Media Summit held Dec. 2-3, 2008 in Washington, D.C. The Summit was a free seminar to learn about the best practices in the area of advertising placements and content outlined in the DISCUS voluntary Code of Responsible Practices for Beverage Alcohol Advertising and Marketing.
“NCSLA’s recognition is extraordinarily meaningful to the spirits industry,” said Lynne Omlie, DISCUS Senior Vice President and staff liaison to the DISCUS Code Review Board, who accepted the award for the industry. “The Code continues to be pointed to as a model of self-regulation. These summits are just one of the many ways we strive to enhance awareness and share best practices in adhering to the rigorous content and placement provisions of the DISCUS advertising Code.”
The distilled spirits industry’s approach to self-regulation, pointed to as a model for other industries by the Federal Trade Commission, has been commended on numerous occasions by regulators, industry watchdogs and the media.
The Media Summit was attended by members of the beverage alcohol industry, their respective media companies, media buyers, advertising agencies, government agencies, trade groups and other interested parties.
The seminar included a full-day session covering advertising placements for print, radio, broadcast/cable and internet/digital media, as well as product placements for cinema. The second day session focused on emerging marketing technology and a training tutorial on the Code’s content provisions.
Featured speakers at the Summit included representatives from the Federal Trade Commission, beverage alcohol companies, media buying firms, and syndicated data sources that analyze media audiences such as Arbitron, Nielsen, Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI), comScore, and Experian Simmons.
NCSLA judged the nominations on several criteria including value to other states; relevance and scope of subject to states and industry; new innovation or new approaches; efficiency in terms of time, money and resources; replicable in other jurisdictions; sustainability; and measurable outcomes or lessons learned.