Understanding Marketing Compliance with Simple

RECOMMENDED READING: What is marketing compliance? Read it now 

 

When a brand fails to meet marketing and content compliance standards, it potentially sets in motion a range of outcomes. 

 

External compliance risks

Whether it’s misleading information or a genuine mistake that bypassed the marketing approval workflow process, this is what brands can expect when they do not comply with advertising legislation: Effective compliance efforts are crucial to avoid these risks and ensure adherence to advertising legislation. 

• A warning is issued (that could be made public). For example, ACMA publishes a list of ‘spam and telemarketing enforcement actions’ which have been issued to brands that have not been compliant with protocols. No-one likes to be spammed or receive unsolicited phone calls, so it’s never good news for brands to be outed on the list. ACMA’s compliance and enforcement approach is available online for brands that don’t want to make the naughty list. 

• Expensive fines that will put a dent in the bottom line. To date, the highest penalty given to a brand for breaching competition legislation is $46 million, so the Federal Court isn’t taking non-compliance lightly. For some multinational brands, fines could exceed the hundred million dollar mark. That’s a good enough reason alone for brands to get on top of their marketing compliance. 

• Being shadowed by a consumer watchdog for the next few years.  And it doesn’t end with a warning or fine. If you’ve breached consumer laws, you can expect to have your marketing and advertising campaigns closely monitored for the next few years. 

• A brand’s reputation can be damaged. With socially-minded Millennials at the helm of social media and demanding that brands do better, reputations are at stake now more than ever. Misconduct can lose a brand many valuable customers which will inevitably eat into their bottom line. 

 

Internal compliance risks

When a business isn’t consistent with their branding and messaging, they risk losing an important connection with their customers which can result in a loss of sales. Compliance teams play a vital role in maintaining brand consistency and preventing internal compliance risks. Brand consistency is at risk when: 

• Old logos, colours, fonts and/or messaging are used in advertising campaigns 

• Brand assets are poor quality, absent or inaccurately placed on collateral 

• Brand messaging or tone doesn’t match the campaign or overall brand 

• Campaigns are a poor representation of the brand’s values 

• Products and services are not clearly promoted 

Now that we’ve covered the risks of being non-compliant, here are some of our best practices to help brands get their marketing compliance back on track and in shape and keep it that way. 

 

Review your marketing approval workflow. If you’re finding that Legal or Compliance are often missed in the approval workflow or are being sent approval requests at the wrong time, your marketing compliance is at risk. Ensuring that compliance and legal teams are included in the workflow is essential for maintaining compliance. It might be time to do a thorough review of your approval process to see where improvements can be made. Our tips on refining your marketing approval process provides a step-by-step framework for implementing a steadfast approval process. For more information and compliance templates, you can also refer to the ACCC’s Implementing a compliance program. 

 

Get up to speed with marketing compliance and technology. Marketing compliance is always changing to keep up with the rapid-pace of technology. Staying updated on compliance regulations across various marketing channels, such as social media and email, is crucial. In particular, marketers need to stay abreast of new compliance regulations around social media and data collection. ADMA’s Privacy & Marketing Compliance Course can provide the vital information you need to know your way around data management and consumer privacy. You can also request that your Legal or Compliance team update you when compliance laws change. For new staff coming on board, make sure that an overview of marketing compliance is included in their induction so that they are aware of its importance. 

 

Adopt approval workflow software to safeguard your marketing compliance. There’s a range of ways approval workflow software can safeguard both your external and internal compliance. This software helps streamline marketing compliance by automating the review and approval of workflows and ensuring no steps are missed. The system has an inbuilt approval workflow management feature that enables users to customise approval pathways so that Legal or Compliance review marketing content at the right time. Not only that, it guarantees that no reviewer will ever be bypassed in the approval process again. The system also has a robust feedback feature which dispenses with email approvals, as well as it saves an automatic audit trail of marketing work. In addition, it has inbuilt digital asset management (DAM) so you can save only your most current brand assets to eliminate any confusion about which version to use. 

 

If you don’t have a Compliance Manager, it might be time to hire one. Marketing compliance sometimes slip, not because people don’t care they’re just busy managing and doing a whole lot of other stuff. If marketing compliance keeps falling to the bottom of your to do list, it might be time to make a case for hiring a Compliance Manager who will be dedicated to keeping it a top priority. 

 

View your marketing compliance from a customer perspective. While you can have all the right processes, tools and resources in place to safeguard and manage your marketing compliance, sometimes you just need to get out of your marketing headspace and view your campaigns like a customer would. Is your messaging clear, especially content such as your terms and conditions? Are there any claims that aren’t 100% true? Is there anything cited that might be problematic for a governing body like the ACCC? If you can be truly accountable for the content you create, then that’s probably a good indication it’s ready for the public. 

 

RECOMMENDED READING: Is it time to review your marketing approval review process? Read it now 

Aside from sleeping better at night, staying on top of monitoring your marketing compliance has a range of benefits: 

• Avoid exorbitant fines. Effective compliance ensures that marketing efforts are aligned with legal standards, reducing the risk of fines. 

• Build and maintain a reputation based on trust. Ensuring that all marketing materials meet compliance standards helps build trust with consumers. 

• Refining your approval process has other benefits such as less revisions, better quality campaigns, faster turnaround times, more cost-savings! Streamlined approval processes for creative assets lead to better quality campaigns and faster turnaround times. 

• Enhance your competitiveness 

• Improve your profitability 

• Foster good public relations 

• Retain dedicated and happy staff 

 

RECOMMENDED READING: Best of industry practice for marketing compliance in tightly regulated industries of marketing compliance. Read it now 

What is marketing compliance? 

Marketing compliance is the system of policies, approval processes, and documented controls that ensure all marketing content meets legal, regulatory, and brand requirements before it is published. In regulated industries, it is a legal obligation enforced by bodies including ASIC, APRA, TGA, and ACCC in Australia – and FCA, FINRA, and FDA in international markets. Marketing compliance covers the accuracy of claims, the presence of required disclosures, the documentation of the approval process, and the retention of approval records. 

 

What are the main marketing compliance requirements in Australia? 

Australian marketing compliance requirements vary by industry. Financial services marketing is governed by ASIC RG 234, which requires financial promotions to be accurate, balanced, and not misleading. Pharmaceutical and therapeutic goods advertising is regulated by the TGA under the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code. Consumer marketing is subject to ACCC requirements on truth in advertising, pricing representations, and environmental claims under the Australian Consumer Law. Email marketing is governed by the Australian Spam Act 2003. APRA-regulated entities have additional governance requirements for approval and documentation of marketing content. 

 

What is a marketing compliance audit trail? 

A marketing compliance audit trail is a chronological, tamper-proof record of every review and approval action taken on a piece of marketing content – who reviewed it, what feedback was given, what changes were made, and who gave final sign-off, with timestamps and version references at every stage. Regulators may request audit trails to verify that approval processes were followed for specific pieces of content. Admation’s audit trail feature generates this record automatically for every asset that passes through the approval workflow – including rejected drafts. 

 

How does marketing compliance differ from brand compliance? 

Brand compliance ensures marketing materials meet internal standards – correct logo usage, approved colour palettes, consistent messaging, and authorised templates. Regulatory compliance ensures marketing content meets external legal requirements set by government regulators. Both are components of a complete marketing compliance programme. An organisation can be fully brand-compliant while still breaching regulatory requirements. A mature marketing compliance management process addresses both layers simultaneously within the same approval workflow. 

 

How do you build a marketing compliance process? 

Building a marketing compliance process requires: (1) documenting all applicable regulatory requirements for your industry and markets; (2) classifying your content types by compliance risk level; (3) defining mandatory approval workflows for each risk tier, including which reviewers must sign off; (4) implementing a centralised online review and approval system that generates an audit trail automatically; (5) configuring mandatory approval checklists for high-risk content; (6) integrating your approval workflow with your asset library to control distribution. For the full step-by-step guide, see Marketing Compliance Best Practices. 

 

What are the consequences of marketing non-compliance in Australia? 

The consequences of marketing non-compliance in Australia include civil penalties and fines from ASIC, ACCC, and TGA – which can run into millions of dollars per breach; mandatory campaign withdrawal and public correction requirements; civil litigation from affected consumers or investors; enforceable undertakings requiring process remediation under regulatory supervision; reputational damage from public enforcement action; and the internal cost of responding to investigations and remediating failed processes. Recent enforcement actions against major Australian organisations demonstrate that scale and the presence of a compliance function do not guarantee protection if the documented approval process is inadequate. 

 

How does approval workflow software support marketing compliance? 

Approval workflow software supports marketing compliance by automating the review routing that ensures regulated content reaches the right reviewers in the right sequence; enforcing mandatory review steps that cannot be bypassed under deadline pressure; generating a complete, timestamped audit trail that documents every approval action automatically; and providing centralised online proofing that captures all reviewer feedback on the correct version of every asset. Marketing compliance software like Admation is designed specifically for regulated marketing environments, where demonstrating a defensible approval process is as important as meeting the content requirements themselves.