Will your brand be affected by the HFSS ad ban? We can help…

From 1 January 2023, the government will be introducing a UK wide ban for paid online ads, including sponsored content on social media, and a 9pm watershed on TV ads for food and drink that is high in sugar, salt and fat (HFSS).

The ban will affect FMCGs, dairy companies, fast food and quick service restaurants producing and selling goods such as pizza, burgers, soft drinks, cakes, sweets, ice cream, biscuits, chocolate, crisps and much more. The ban applies to certain products in line with other Government policies to restrict the promotion and placement of HFSS products in retail.

So where does this leave brands affected by these restrictions? Not totally screwed, that’s for sure. Brands can continue leveraging organic marketing using their owned media such as websites and social content, media supporting point of sale/purchase/transactional content, as well as leveraging ads in digital-only audio media like podcasts, digital-only radio, and music streaming across all digital and smart speaker channels.

Due to the above exemptions, we believe that brands have now the opportunity to experiment with a non-intrusive, engaging and innovative form of advertising that makes use of voice technology and audio. Specifically, voice commerce, a channel which is rising at a faster rate than any other. According to agencies and the IAB, audio is a strong performing channel that is attracting budgets from other channels to audio. DAX recently published a report on the rise of digital audio advertisers and how “Two-thirds of advertisers plan to create ads specifically for voice-activated devices this year”.

With formats like Actionable Audio Ads you get full end to end attribution data including audio impressions and users, voice skill users, time of day conversions for sales and lead generation.

Faye McDowall, Head of Strategy at DAX also said: “Digital audio has truly secured its place on the media plan. Advertisers have embraced how audio adapts to the changes in our daily lives and many brands are just starting to leverage the power of the media.”

The importance of planning cannot be overstated. To ensure brands are prepared for the ban, we strongly urge you to begin exploring the idea of using digital audio and voice technology in your media plan now and begin planning the creative, strategy and overall campaign throughout 2022. By using a relatively new, innovative channel to market your brand and products, you’ll be able to deal with the HFSS ban without fear, and be one step ahead of your competitors.

In summary, digital transformation is rapidly taking hold of audio and is one reason the IAB forecasts audio revenues to double by 2023. In Q1 2021 Global reported more than half of its digital inventory is being consumed through smart speakers.  Audio campaigns are now being engaged with ‘in the moment’ using the power of voice assistants.   Soon it will be unthinkable to book an audio campaign without it being actionable, to do so would be like delivering a display campaign without the ability to ‘click’.

We have a proven track record with some of the most influential brands, and we’re ready to help you grow your business by creating engaging Actionable Audio Ad campaigns that will convert listeners into buyers.

Our team would love to hear from you if you’re interested in learning more about Actionable Audio Ads and how we can help your brand be delivering optimum performance leading up to the HFSS ban comes into effect.

Get in touch with us directly or contact – is it info@sayitnow.wpengine.com

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At SayItNow, we pioneer Actionable Audio Ads that deliver transactional and lead generation brand response campaigns for listeners using smart speakers. As a result, we can offer simple voice transactions, brand engagement, and attribution to audio and skills from the audio to the skill through our data suite. Our data suite consists of previously unobtainable real time information on Audio Ad Campaign performance, including:

  • Media to voice assistant engagement and benchmarking

  • Brand dwell time

  • Transaction reporting

  • How many coupons have been redeemed

  • Intent analysis: content report, popular paths, customer insight

  • End to end attribution

This means you can count on getting all the services you need, including media, creative, voice skill, and the data suite. Alternatively, we can provide audio, creative, skill and the data suite as a technology fee partner.

As an example of our work, watch the 1 min video of a Actionable Audio Ad radio campaign we worked on for ‘Berocca Boost’, allowing customers to purchase directly from a radio audio ad or watch a 3 min pitch we recently gave to Pizza Hut at MAD//fest.

If you’re looking for more inspiration on how to engage your customers and drive foot traffic to your physical store, restaurant or bar we can help. We recently worked with Diageo to leverage Amazon’s Send To Phone feature as a way to drive footfall in bars from an engaging in home whisky tasting experience.