It’s a safe bet that responsible gambling advertising alone won’t be effective.

Today 4 gambling companies, William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral and Paddy Power, advertised that they would be advertising “responsible gambling” from 1^st October with new campaigns in the new year.

The problem with advertising is that, because it is expensive, it can be mistaken for a serious attempt to address an issue. Too often it is used as a quick, visible and short-term tactic to address a problem rather than an important and integral part of an overall marketing strategy.  This action could be seen as a promising move for the protection of vulnerable customers such as children if the advertisements were just a small part of a committed and integrated action strategy to change culture and ethical behaviours across all four companies.

Undoubtedly the stakes are high for these companies following the outrage expressed by government and the public at their exploitation of the vulnerable in the last few years, resulting in changes which have decimated their profits. Maybe they are more sincere about deep-rooted change and only time will tell.  But it is highly improbable that their cultures have changed so quickly and if the advertisements are “it” without changes in the leadership vision, values and actions over the long-term (perhaps replacing Paddy Power’s so called “Head of Mischief” with "Head of Responsible Business" for example) it is a pretty safe bet that the actions will not help vulnerable customers; but they might just reduce some of the heat on the sector which is presumably their real game plan.

Warning:10 is the average for children to start buying on-line

According to research conducted by the charity Pfeg, the personal finance education group, 10 is the average age that children start to purchase items on line. It is therefore just as well that financial education starts to be embedded into the maths and citizenship curriculum at schools this month in an attempt to help people manage their money better.

However, Business also has a responsibility in ensuring there is no exploitation of vulnerable customers such as children when it comes to money management.  And if they don’t there may be a big price to pay for their unethical behaviours as we have seen recently when Google agreed to refund c$19 million dollars to parents whose children ran up enormous bills by downloading apps from its Play store without their parent’s authorisation (an amount imposed by the US Federal Trade Commission).  Some of the children who downloaded apps went on to incur large bills through in -app purchases.  

Google is accused of allowing the purchase of items without a password and of not displaying information about charges. It has agreed to change its billing procedure so that it obtains the consent of the consumer before charging.  This is another example of poor behaviour damaging reputation and the need to engender a culture of fair treatment and transparency of operation to build trust.  Hopefully the new curriculum, which includes learning through financial games, will help to engender more savvy teenagers and adults, equipping them to deal more effectively with the increasing complexities of technology where privacy, implicit consent and big data are now fundamental parts of the digital game.

Business needs to support the “Fair Data” mark to help build trust with consumers

As businesses devote their energies to collect and manipulate consumer data for competitive advantage there has not been an easy, instantly recognisable way to show that an organisation can be trusted to use personal data in an ethical way. In the main consumers tend to gravitate towards companies they trust. Having a recognised ethical mark would help consumers make their choices separating the trustworthy brands who share their values. 

“Trust and privacy are becoming major causes of concern and consumers are losing confidence that businesses will use their data for legitimate purposes” said Jane Frost chief executive at the Market Research Society recently.  She advocates for companies to get the “fair data” accreditation. www.fairdata.org.uk. Once obtained this accredited mark shows customers that the organisation is ethical, transparent and responsible.  To become accredited an organisation needs to abide by 10 Fair data principles , and in time it is hoped that the Fair Data mark will become as recognisable and trusted as the Fairtrade mark.