February 27, 2017

CAP Code Rule 2.1 states that marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as such.  When it comes to direct marketing, however, what about the envelope in which the marketing communication is contained?  CAP has boiled it down to three “need-to-know” rules of thumb.

1. An envelope is considered to be part of the marketing communication

The ASA has long taken the view, recently confirmed in Creation Consumer Finance Ltd t/a Creation, that in the context of a direct mailing, the envelope forms part of the marketing communication.  It therefore follows that consumers need to be able to tell that the envelope contains a marketing communication before they open it.

2. Company branding or logos alone are (probably) not enough

Some marketers have considered that having their corporate branding (SpicerHaart Estate Agents Ltd t/a haart and Darlows) on the envelope satisfies Rule 2.1.  Others have considered that including their company logo, web address and company name (Smart Pension Ltd), or a range of company logos (Vanquis Bank Ltd) is sufficient to alert the recipient to the marketing nature of the contents.  However, in the three scenarios above, the ASA upheld complaints because it considered that, despite the company logos or branding, the marketer in each case had failed to make their commercial intent clear.

3. Text making clear the commercial intent of the mailing should be sufficiently prominent

Whilst the commercial content could be obvious if there are clear marketing claims on the envelope, for those envelopes that do not have such claims the simplest way to comply would be to include text, in a clearly visible location, stating: “This is a marketing communication from [company name]” (the company name might not be needed if the envelope includes a clear logo).  However, care needs to be taken to ensure that this statement is sufficiently prominent and unlikely to be overlooked within the overall presentation of the envelope.  The ASA has upheld complaints where such text was considerably smaller than text elsewhere on the envelope and when the text was located away from the other main text.

CAP says that there are other issues to consider when producing mailings contained in envelopes, such as ensuring you do not mislead about the importance of the contents or that you do not cause undue alarm or distress.  To read CAP’s advice note in full, click here.