Reducing penalty risk by 84% for an advertising agency
We analyzed 117 campaigns conducted by an agency for the alcohol industry. We corrected social media communication that violated the Act on Upbringing in Sobriety. The agency avoided proceedings thanks to a quick reaction and a change in legal strategy.
The AdVantage Creative agency conducted campaigns for three large alcohol producers. We screened their posts and ads, finding 43 critical errors that could have ended in UOKiK penalties. Our actions allowed us to clean up communication in 19 business days.
The challenge
The agency managed an advertising budget worth 2.4 million PLN per quarter. In December 2023, their social media department published a series of graphics where people looked younger than 25, which is forbidden in the alcohol industry. Additionally, 37 Facebook posts lacked legally required warning labels. The risk of a financial penalty by supervisory authorities was then nearly 480,000 PLN, threatening the company's financial liquidity.
Our approach
The Seek Weed team, consisting of 2 lawyers and an analyst, entered the project on January 4, 2024. We applied our checklist of 18 critical points for substance marketing. We downloaded all graphic materials from the last 14 months. We worked directly on the agency's files, applying corrections in text and photo frames. We met with graphic designers twice a week to correct new ideas immediately before their publication.
The solution
We created a simple post verification scheme that takes a graphic designer 3 minutes before sending it to the client. Instead of writing long legal opinions, we prepared a list of 14 specific rules: what is allowed to be shown in a photo and what isn't. We trained 9 agency managers in the Act on Upbringing in Sobriety. We also introduced a system for automatically adding metadata with legal warnings to every published graphic.
Results
AdVantage Creative passed a re-audit in March 2024 with a result of near-zero risk. All new campaigns are 99.3% compliant with Polish law.
Timeline
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January 4, 2024Start of audit of 117 campaigns and analysis of graphic files.
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January 12, 2024Delivery of report with list of 43 errors for immediate correction.
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January 25, 2024Implementation of new instructions for the creative department and team training.
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February 15, 2024Final verification of all social media channels and project closure.
"Seek Weed didn't write us boring theories. They pointed out what to change in the photos so we wouldn't be shut down. They saved our biggest alcohol industry contract."