Online & Mobile Digital Interactive Advertising: Video Games, Branded Entertainment, Native Advertising and Beyond

Over the last decade, advertising, marketing and promotional activity has undergone revolutionary and transformative changes. Rapidly supplanting the traditional commercial monologue of print, radio and television, we find ourselves in a world where there are more interactive, mobile communications devices than people on the planet.

We live in a world where people rely on search engines (not traditional libraries or books) for information and where content is available online and virtually everything can be searched, researched and discovered with a click! Increasingly, everything we see, hear and feel are smart, interconnected and interactive. The advertising and promotional industries have not been blind to changing consumer preferences and habits. In a world in which consumer studies consistently show that consumers trust their peers more than corporations and advertisers, no wonder ‘influencers’ have arisen from the ranks of bloggers, YouTube producers and Web and mobile-based content producers. Technology has given consumers the tools that can enable them to either choose to engage with advertising or skip through and avoid promotional messages entirely.

Whether marketing to children or senior citizens, gamers or teachers, digital interactive advertising is increasingly seen as the gateway to consumer engagement with brands, promotions, products and services.

Regulators, courts and law enforcement may struggle to keep up with rapidly changing technology, but they too have not been blind to the dynamic changes taking place in the way advertising is made available and the form and methods used by sponsors and agencies to deliver advertisements and promotional messages to the consumer marketplace. The Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, State Attorneys General, and numerous Federal and State agencies, as well as the courts are racing to meet the challenges of regulating and enforcing the rules in this brave new world.

When it comes to advertising, marketing and promotional activity, much has changed but the objectives have not – advertisers want to reach consumers with meaningful and effective advertising; regulators want to protect consumers from being deceived, misled and being subjected to unfair trade practices. Increasingly, digital and interactive technology is also giving a much wider array of providers (e.g., wireless carriers, browser and search engine providers; gaming platforms), access to valuable and often sensitive consumer data, including personally identifiable information.

This program examines how many of the fundamental principles of law and regulation that apply to advertising, marketing and promotional activity have been transformed to meet the challenges of today’s interactive, digital ecosystem and where challenges still lie ahead. Emphasis will be given to examining some of the new forms of advertising used in video games, through native advertising and digital product placement, in branded entertainment and in mobile media and how the law and regulation applies and what is likely on the horizon.

Learning Objectives

I.     Grasp fundamental principles that continue to regulate the consumer marketplace – from children to senior citizens

II.    Identify the major trends and the legal and regulatory implications to advertising and promotions being driven by mobile, digital interactive technology

III.   Highlight areas of increased regulatory scrutiny and concern

IV.   Describe approaches to compliance and provide practical insights in guiding clients as the technology ecosystem continues to evolve