Washington, D.C. – Industry leaders, government officials and media representatives from across the country gathered in Washington, D.C. on March 25th to exchange ideas on responsible advertising practices for traditional and emerging marketing platforms at the Distilled Spirits Council’s third Best Practices Media Summit.
“This Summit provides an important forum where leading media experts and beverage alcohol companies large and small explore and share best practices for responsible marketing,” said Distilled Spirits Council Code Staff Liaison Lynne Omlie. “Our goal is to ensure that existing and evolving communication channels effectuate our longstanding Code provisions regarding responsible advertising regardless of the medium.”
The conference sessions covered new and emerging marketing platforms, including social networking sites, text messaging and smart phones, as well as traditional media platforms like print, radio, broadcast/cable, and internet/digital.
“We think the DISCUS Best Practices Media Summits are extremely important,” said Janet Evans of the Federal Trade Commission. “DISCUS is to be commended for this ongoing initiative to bring together businesses across the beer, wine and spirits segments to ensure responsible beverage alcohol advertising that is directed to adults.”
Carolyn Panzer, Chair of the Distilled Spirits Council Code Review Board, stated, “The Distilled Spirits Council is the only trade association to gather an entire industry -- from new entrants to fierce competitors -- to enhance industry-wide compliance on responsible advertising. These summits ensure that the industry’s collective commitment to effective self-regulation remains steadfast in both traditional and emerging marketing platforms.”
The Summit featured speakers from the Federal Trade Commission, beverage alcohol companies, social networking sites, media buying firms, and syndicated demographic data sources, including MySpace/News Corporation, Google/YouTube, Arbitron, Nielsen, Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI), and comScore.
“We’re happy to be associated with an organization like DISCUS that really leads the way in responsible advertising. DISCUS and its members are really forward thinking when it comes to being responsible in new and emerging media,” said Brian Lane, Senior Vice President for Nielsen Media Tracking.
The distilled spirits industry’s Code of Responsible Advertising Practices and transparent public reports have been pointed to as a model for other industries by the Federal Trade Commission and have been commended on numerous occasions by regulators, industry watchdogs and the media.
To learn more about the Code of Responsible Practices for Beverage Alcohol Advertising and Marketing and the Code Review Board’s public reports, please see www.discus.org/responsibility/code.asp .