The spectacular rise of social media and other online platforms has opened new opportunities for brands to engage consumers through promotions. Our attorneys help launch hundreds of marketing and promotional programs each year. From text and email message campaigns to cause marketing, sweepstakes and contests to coupons, rebates, premiums, free trials and loyalty reward programs, we know them all well. Beyond the sheer quantity, the quality stands out as well. Our clients’ work is inevitably among the most visible and influential promotions of any given year.
Staying Within the Rules
As a firm, we are steeped in the history and evolution of promotional techniques, from the first cents-off coupons to the latest TikTok Challenge to NFT/cryptocurrency giveaways to the latest global UGC contest. Our clients draw on that background to help them launch contests and other promotions across any and all platforms, and to protect them against possible violations of the rules governing them. Many of those rules were developed when promotions where primarily conducted by direct mail, so in the absence of updated laws and legal clarity, we provide the know-how — shaped by long experience — to apply those old rules to new promotional techniques and platforms.
Savvy Advice and Counsel
The need for updated laws does not stop regulators from closely scrutinizing promotional and marketing practices. It falls to our attorneys, therefore, to bring practical guidance to our clients’ promotional and marketing activities. Whether we’re providing sensible guidance on the commercial coventurer and charitable solicitation laws or strict legal guidance on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) or the CAN-SPAM Act, we understand the regulatory limits and we make sure our clients’ disclosures, releases and contracts comply with them. At the same time, we advise clients on how to market their campaigns as aggressively as possible within those limits. We look at everything with a market-savvy eye. We review their offers, draft their terms, scrutinize their communications and make smart judgment calls when the current laws seem outdated.
