10 EXPERTS ON

MARKETING

Mastering the Review and Approval Process

Sponsored by:
INTRODUCTION

Whether you conform to brand guidelines or operate in a regulated industry, compliance is an essential and often
frustrating part of any marketing effort.
Compliance is a challenge many marketing organizations share, but the specifics for managing compliance varies among
regulatory environments and corporate cultures. To learn how companies build marketing compliance into their content
marketing workflows, with support from Workfront, we asked 10 compliance marketing practitioners the following
question:

Reviewing and approving work to ensure proper marketing compliance can be painful. What
are the biggest challenges you’ve seen in ensuring proper marketing compliance, and what
have you done to address them?
The essays in this ebook represent a diverse set of challenges, from a global investments firm that operates in different
regulatory jurisdictions to an insurance provider that not only has its own compliance requirements, but must submit its
marketing output to government reviewers, to a fast-growing tech startup in an essentially unregulated segment.
The specific challenges may vary, but the strategies these practitioners have adopted are practical and adaptable to other
marketing workflows. Anyone concerned with marketing compliance will find valuable and applicable tips and practices
in this ebook.

All the best,

David Rogelberg
Publisher

© 2017 Mighty Guides, Inc. I 62 Nassau Drive I Great Neck, NY 11021 I 516-360-2622 I www.mightyguides.com

Sponsored by:
2
FOREWORD

What’s keeping executives and brand managers up at night? Fear of noncompliance. Sure, compliance
has always been an important part of any organization’s marketing review and approval process, but
with content production ramping up, increased connectivity through social media, and way too many
channels to manage, compliance today is more complex than ever.
The stakes are higher, too. Regulating bodies have little patience for misleading or incomplete consumer
information. One error that shows brand inconsistency could be magnified millions of times within
minutes.
That’s why we asked 10 marketing and creative professionals to weigh in on the biggest challenges
in their compliance process and offer tips for how they’re responding to changing regulations and
establishing a consistent brand experience. You’ll get expert advice on how to retain control over your
compliance process without sacrificing speed. Best of all, you’ll be able to rest easy knowing that your
brand is not at risk.

Regards,
Joe Staples
CMO, Workfront

Sponsored by:
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS

LAURA DEGRAFF MEAGEN EISENBERG ERIC MOCK GORDON LASALLE VAUGHN

VICE PRESIDENT OF CHIEF MARKETING MARKETING BRAUN-WOODBURY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
DIGITAL ACQUISITION, OFFICER, COMPLIANCE OFFICER, CEO, MARKETING
BARCLAYCARD US MONGODB AMERICAN EXPRESS MARKETOPS CONSULTING COMPLIANCE,
Establish Expectations with Compliance in Fast-Paced Want to Streamline the Compliance as a Service: Creating USAA
Everyone in the Compliance Marketing Depends on a Culture Compliance Process? Develop a a Compliance Culture Trusting Relationships Reduce
Review Cycle of Responsiveness Partnership Culture P12 Compliance Headaches
P5 P7 P10 P14

DAVID LESUE JOBE DANGANAN JIM JARRELL JOSH SHAPIRO

CREATIVE DIRECTOR, GENERAL COUNSEL, DIRECTOR OF MARKETING VICE PRESIDENT AND HEAD OF
WORKFRONT SINDEO AND PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT, REGULATORY, CORE AND
Mitigate Risks and Prevent Errors The 4 Ps of STARK & STARK MARKETING COMPLIANCE FOR
to Ease the Stress of Achieving Marketing Compliance Compliance in Social Media THE AMERICAS,
Compliance P18 Marketing Requires Constant PINEBRIDGE INVESTMENTS
P16 Vigilance In a Global Marketplace, Adopt
P21 Strategies to Simplify Global
Compliance
P24

Sponsored by:
4
ESTABLISH EXPECTATIONS WITH EVERYONE IN THE COMPLIANCE REVIEW CYCLE

“Compliance is something you can’t afford not to invest in,”

says Laura DeGraff, vice president of Digital Acquisition at KEY
Barclaycard US. This is especially true in a heavily regulated TAKEAWAYS
industry like banking.
In DeGraff’s organization, every piece of content that goes
out the door—whether it’s a banner ad, paid search copy,
1 Set clear expectations
for each area of review—
communications, legal,
keywords, or online or offline marketing copy—must and compliance—about
pass three layers of review before release. The first layer what reviewers must do
LAURA is review by the communications team, which checks for and how long the review
consistency with branding, messaging, and Barclaycard’s should take.
DEGRAFF overall tone. “We have a master communication document
Vice President of Digital
Acquisition,
that we use for all our collateral,” DeGraff says. When the
communications team has approved the piece, it moves
2 When working with
vendors, orient them
Barclaycard US to your review process,
into the queue for review by both the legal and compliance and provide guidance
As vice president of Digital Acquisition teams. Both teams must sign off. DeGraff says, “We use a to minimize the risk of
at Barclaycard US, Laura DeGraff workflow tool to manage and document all three levels of having their work kicked
manages digital strategy and online
account acquisition for Barclaycard-
review for everything.” back by compliance
branded credit cards. With more review.
than 15 years of experience managing
online marketing for agencies, both
as an employee and as a consultant,
she brings a unique perspective to
campaign planning, implementation, You think of digital as the speedy channel, where you can turn
and analysis. Her expertise
includes paid search, search engine things on a dime, but for us, everything in digital goes through
optimization, affiliates, display, and
creative development. the same review cycle as pieces for other media.

Website I LinkedIn

Sponsored by:
5
ESTABLISH EXPECTATIONS WITH EVERYONE IN THE COMPLIANCE REVIEW CYCLE

DeGraff’s biggest compliance challenge is speed to market. “You really have to

plan for long timeframes to get things done,” she explains. “This is especially true
for digital marketing. You think of digital as the speedy channel, where you can
turn things on a dime, but for us, everything in digital goes through the same
review cycle as pieces for other media.” So, how do you manage that cycle for
accurate planning and scheduling?
First, set expectations. DeGraff says, “Each area of review—communications,
legal, and compliance—has to meet specific service level agreements. All the
people involved in compliance review know what they need to do, and we bake
All the people involved
those requirements into our workflow process.” Sometimes, that process can in compliance review
be challenging for agencies, especially those that work with different industries,
because they forget the long turnarounds involved in working with a financial know what they need to
company. “It’s important to emphasize to your vendors, sometimes months in do, and we bake those
advance, that when we make a change, we need to allow a month for the full
compliance review,” says DeGraff. requirements into our
In working with vendors, DeGraff provides guidance for minimizing the risk that workflow process.
pieces will be kicked back at the review stage. For instance, she organizes sit-
down sessions with new agencies to orient them to the process. Agencies also
receive a list of “trigger terms” that, if used, require that additional disclosures
accompany the piece. “Knowing these things in advance really helps keep things
moving smoothly from start to finish,” says DeGraff. “We don’t want to get tripped
up in review because if an agency submits something that legal requires changes
to, that can add weeks to the process.”

Sponsored by:
6
 COMPLIANCE IN FAST-PACED MARKETING DEPENDS ON A CULTURE OF RESPONSIVENESS

For Meagen Eisenberg, chief marketing officer of MongoDB,

compliance is all about consistent messaging and a KEY
consistent brand perception in the market. To achieve that, TAKEAWAYS
it’s essential to educate the marketing operations team,
maintain documented processes, and have team buy-in
on the importance of the workflow and approval process. 1 When compliance is
important in a fast-paced
“We’ve trained everyone on the team, and we have tools marketing environment,
in place that help us make sure we follow our compliance establish a culture in
which responsiveness is
rules,” Eisenberg says.
MEAGEN critical.
To achieve compliance in a fast-paced marketing
EISENBERG
Chief Marketing Officer,
environment, Eisenberg has designed the workflow
for agility and responsiveness. “The whole company—
2 Always have a pool of
authorized approvers
MongoDB that includes at least
including our design team, our web development team,
two or three times more
Meagen Eisenberg has spent more our operations team, our marketing services team, and the people than the number
than 20 years in tech fields. She has social media team—are all on Sprints using JIRA,” Eisenberg you need for approval.
been named Top 50 most retweeted says. “This enables us to re-prioritize things as we go. Things
by mid-sized marketers by AdWeek,
Top 25 for B2B marketing influencers, come up all the time—news and competitive situations—
received the Marketers That Matter and we need to be able to react to them.”
Award in Leveraging in the Bay
(2014), and in the Marketing Visionary
Markie award within the marketing
automation field (2011). Meagen
holds an MBA from the Yale School
of Management and a B.S. degree in We have an email alias to which everything goes that requires
management information systems
from California Polytechnic State approval. All six leaders receive every piece that is going out, and
University.
two of them must sign off before it can be released.
b
Twitter I Website I Blog | LinkedIn

Sponsored by:
7
COMPLIANCE IN FAST-PACED MARKETING DEPENDS ON A CULTURE OF RESPONSIVENESS

Eisenberg has established an approval workflow that allows marketing to maintain

compliance while being both responsive and Agile. Her rule is simple: The
marketing team has six executives at director-level and above, including herself, all
of whom have approval authority. Every piece of public-facing content must have
signoff from at least two of those leaders before it can go out. “We have an email
alias to which everything goes that requires approval. All six leaders receive every
piece that is going out, and two of them must sign off before it can be released.” To
make this requirement work, the leaders must be responsive. Each manages his or I create a culture in
her own activities, but leaders can’t just review their own team’s output. Everyone’s which response is
team needs another leader’s sign-off, so they all pitch in to get it done.
critical. Everyone knows
“I create a culture in which response is critical. Everyone knows how important it is
to take the time to review materials, and leaders participate. I make sure response how important it is to
is recognized. It is very much a collaborative team experience.” Having six people
in the approval loop means that the necessary quorum of two is available, even if
take the time to review
some people are traveling. Speed is also important. “We consistently get approvals materials, and leaders
within 24 hours, and often it takes less time than that,” Eisenberg says. “People
responsible for getting something out can contact leaders to make sure their participate.
programs are getting the attention they need.”
Her next challenge with this process will come with growth. Eisenberg says,
“This system works great in our company of 800 employees, 40 of whom are in
marketing. I’ve seen it work in companies of 50 to 1200 people, as well.” But she
thinks it will need to be modified/automated further in larger organizations—
those of more than 2,000 employees. “The key is having a large enough pool of
trained approvers that the two you need for final sign-off are always available
while maintaining quality. You never want to have to wait for somebody who’s
traveling or on vacation or produce something that doesn’t maintain messaging
and branding quality.”

Sponsored by:
8
The greatest compliance challenge I face as a marketer is ensuring
that we follow all the rules while maintaining a sense of creativity
and timeliness. Providing content that meets a client’s needs is
critical, but managing risk is paramount.

Twitter I Website I LinkedIn

CHRIS DISKIN
VP, Digital Marketing, Wells Fargo

Sponsored by:
9
WANT TO STREAMLINE THE COMPLIANCE PROCESS? DEVELOP A PARTNERSHIP CULTURE

Like many large corporations, American Express has a

well-established marketing workflow and compliance KEY
review process. All marketing material goes through the TAKEAWAYS
brand department first, where team members review it for
compliance with corporate brand and messaging guidelines.
Then, the material goes through marketing compliance 1 To build a sense of
partnership, compliance
review. As Eric Mock, marketing compliance officer at officers should meet
American Express, explains, “Sometimes, the material with marketing teams,
introduce themselves,
requires feedback from the general counsel’s office or a line-
ERIC of-business compliance officer, but everything ultimately
explain what they do, and
walk marketers through
MOCK comes through our group.” the entire process.
Marketing Compliance Mock’s team serves as the last “line of defense” for ensuring
Officer,
American Express
that marketing collateral meets brand guidelines, but
they are responsible for legal and regulatory compliance,
2 To streamline compliance
in a large organization,
set up open office
Eric Mock has been the Marketing too. “Our biggest challenge is the inherent ambiguity of hours during which
Compliance Officer for American regulation,” Mock says. any marketing person
Express since 2012. Through data
can call and get a
analysis, Eric works to identify and
mitigate compliance risks and to quick answer to any
ensure adherence to the American compliance question.
Express corporate communication
policy. He also collaborates with
marketing managers to perform the
necessary due diligence required to Our biggest challenge is the inherent ambiguity of regulation.
ensure compliance. Eric often partners
with key stakeholders to develop The biggest thing I can do as a compliance reviewer is partner
proposed marketing campaigns. Prior
to his work with American Express, with our marketing organization.
Eric was a 403(b) Specialist for
Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.

Sponsored by:
10
WANT TO STREAMLINE THE COMPLIANCE PROCESS? DEVELOP A PARTNERSHIP CULTURE

“The biggest thing I can do as a compliance reviewer is partner with our marketing
organization.” That’s often easier said than done, however. In Mock’s case,
marketing compliance review is located in Florida, and the marketing department
is in New York. It’s true that everyone uses the same workflow system—one
that tracks and documents everything. Still, contention can exist between the
marketing department, which is responsible for meeting marketing deadlines, and
Mock’s team, whose job is to make sure the company isn’t breaking any laws. We have organized road
To create a partnership in which compliance is seen not as a roadblock to success shows in which a few of us
but rather as a resource that can help marketing achieve its goals, Mock’s team go to New York and meet
has initiated two important practices.
with small groups in the
“We have organized road shows in which a few of us go to New York and meet
with small groups in the marketing department. We introduce ourselves, explain marketing department.
what we do, and walk them through the entire process.” In this way, marketing We introduce ourselves,
gets to see the human face of the compliance team and can better understand
compliance’s operating constraints. Mock says, “When they see our processes, explain what we do, and
their perception changes quite a bit. They see we’re not trying to make their lives walk them through the
difficult and may have reasons for reaching out for more details.”
entire process.
Mock’s other big initiative was to set up open office hours when any marketing
person can call in with any compliance question. “We’re available to them three
times a week, the same times every week. They can call in, no matter where they
are in their campaign process. Our doors are open,” Mock says. Marketers can get
answers to early-engagement questions if they’re just starting a project, they can
get answers to regulations that may create confusion, or they can get clarification
on process questions. “It’s been a huge success,” Mock says. “Often, marketing
people feel that their hands are tied. This open-door policy has helped them be
proactive.”

Sponsored by:
11
COMPLIANCE AS A SERVICE : CREATING A COMPLIANCE CULTURE

As the chief executive officer of MarketOps Consulting, Gordon

Braun-Woodbury has seen frustration over marketing compliance KEY
processes: Prior to opening his consultancy, Braun-Woodbury TAKEAWAYS
lived it. He says that to overcome the challenges of marketing
compliance, you must treat compliance as a service. “When I
worked for a ‘big four’ accounting firm, I spent a lot of time on a 1 Creating a service
level agreement for
major organizational education issue. Many of the people we were compliance processes
working with didn’t understand the value of brand consistency allows organizations to
set out clear guidelines
or regulatory consistency. They felt there was no legitimacy for
GORDON the central marketing function to have control over what they
for conducting
compliance activities and
BRAUN-WOODBURY were doing.” The first time those people were asked to send their reviews.
CEO, marketing materials through compliance review, Braun-Woodbury
MarketOps Consulting says that they balked. No one wanted to release ownership of the
materials they had worked so hard to create. 2 Capturing and
creating repeatable
Gordon Braun-Woodbury is a marketing compliance
business-to-business marketing To overcome this challenge, the firm’s employees needed to look processes protects the
leader with more than 30 years of at compliance in a different light, especially because accounting organization and can
experience in the professional services
sector, most recently as executive is a compliance-heavy industry. That meant creating a new help to streamline the
director, marketing operations, for view of compliance that was more useful to the people creating compliance process.
a Big 4 consulting firm. Gordon has marketing materials. “We positioned it as providing a service
led projects to select and implement
customer relationship management that would keep them out of trouble,” Braun-Woodbury explains.
systems, directed corporate “They tended to listen to that more than the brand consistency
communications teams, redesigned argument.”
marketing business processes, and
delivered large-scale organizational
change programs for corporate
marketing. You want compliance. You want the professional to stay
on message. You want to keep him or her out of trouble.
But you also want to have as light a touch as possible.
Website I LinkedIn

Sponsored by:
12
COMPLIANCE AS A SERVICE : CREATING A COMPLIANCE CULTURE

The move to “compliance as a service” was more than just what Braun-Woodbury
and his team called their efforts. The processes of compliance were services, as well,
which means governing compliance like you would any hosted service. “Another
challenge is staying out of the professional’s way,” Braun-Woodbury relates. “You
want compliance. You want the professional to stay on message. You want to keep
him or her out of trouble. But you also want to have as light a touch as possible.”
Braun-Woodbury suggests that to accomplish that light-touch control, a service level
agreement is a useful tool. “Design your marketing compliance so that you have a
service level agreement for a particular period of time in which you promise you
You have to set
will complete the marketing compliance,” he suggests. “You may have to layer in out, clearly and
different service level agreements for different lengths of documents, but setting the
expectations clearly and delivering against what you’ve promised is important.” transparently, what
By creating a service level agreement for compliance processes, organizations the rules are and what
can set out clear guidelines for conducting compliance activities and reviews. “If people are being asked
you’re just doing marketing compliance by what the compliance reviewers know,
by what’s in their brain, that’s a recipe for trouble. You have to set out, clearly and to comply with.
transparently, what the rules are and what people are being asked to comply with.”

Sponsored by:
13
TRUSTING RELATIONSHIPS REDUCE COMPLIANCE HEADACHES

Compliance review processes of the past won’t work in today’s

fast-paced digital environment, according to LaSalle Vaughn, KEY
executive director of marketing compliance for the United States TAKEAWAYS
Automobile Association (USAA). He explains that the marketing
compliance of the past was like a baseball game: Marketing
creatives completed their work in the first few innings, and 1 Involve compliance
advisors in the marketing
compliance review and approvals occurred at the bottom of the production process early
eighth. “We were to advise, review, and approve before things so that they can help
marketing teams achieve
go out the door,” he explains. “Fast-forward to 2017, and we do a
LASALLE lot more digital marketing and a lot more real-time, on-demand
compliance more easily
and position themselves
VAUGHN marketing. The pace has increased exponentially. We need to get as trusted advisors to the
Executive Director, things out much faster, but not seeing a marketing asset until the marketing team.
Marketing Compliance, bottom of the eighth inning can create a bottleneck.”
USAA
USAA takes a unique approach to avoiding that bottleneck.
“We’ve changed our approach to marketing compliance and
2 Compliance is the
result of a good mix of
LaSalle Vaughn is the marketing people, processes, and
compliance officer and an executive elevated our analysts to advisors. These advisors now travel with technology that work
director for United Services
Automobile Association (USAA). He is
the marketing teams to marketing shoots. We go on location together to build a
responsible for compliance oversight with the agencies. We are there, in real time, so that we can help repetitive, understood,
of all marketing and advertising for shape these materials from the start and avoid the bottleneck and effective approach
products, services, and advice from
before the asset goes into production.” This deep involvement in to creating marketing
USAA, its affiliates, and third parties. materials.
LaSalle also sets the strategic direction the creation process helps Vaughn’s team truly become trusted
of USAA’s Culture of Compliance and advisors.
Ethics Accountability program. As
a former executive operations and
strategy director, he was responsible
for creating strategy and transforming The business likes to have our compliance advisors with them
business units.
because we help get things done. Being present makes it
easier to build compelling and compliant marketing.
Website I LinkedIn

Sponsored by:
14
TRUSTING RELATIONSHIPS REDUCE COMPLIANCE HEADACHES

Much more than early participation goes into creating a smooth compliance process,
however. Vaughn explains that compliance is really the byproduct of three things:
people, process, and technology. About people he says, “You have to have the right
fit in terms of a compliance advisor.” That right fit is a person who’s both intelligent
and finds a solution where none is immediately obvious. That person should also
be humble and willing to listen, learn, and grow. “You have to empower compliance
advisors to help the business create compelling and compliant marketing assets.
To accomplish this goal, compliance advisors involve themselves from the first
marketing team meeting, where team members discuss the purpose of the People can be amazing,
marketing materials and how they will create them.
but they can only
“Compliance was seen as a dream killer,” Vaughn says. “Or the business stoppage
unit.” To overcome that perception, Vaughn recommends that compliance become a succeed for so long
valuable marketing partner. In part, that partnership is the result of great processes. if you don’t have the
“When you have a definitive process, people know what it is; it’s repetitive, so you
can go faster and deliver faster.” The goal for creating great processes is to be invited right processes and
in, he explains. “The business likes to have us there because we help them get technology in place.
things done.” Being present makes it easier to ensure that teams follow compliance
processes.
Technology is an essential element of a painless compliance process. “When you
don’t have the technologies people need to do their work, it’s stressful on them.” To
alleviate that stress, Vaughn says that it’s vital to have technology that will grow with
the changing needs of the business and compliance. A solution, he says, is to “allow a
third party to manage the workflow, the documentation, and the storage.” In essence,
delegating the technology component takes the stress off managing workflow
processes so that compliance can build a trusting relationship with marketing teams.
Vaughn adds, “People can be amazing, but they can only succeed for so long if you
don’t have the right processes and technology in place.”

Sponsored by:
15
 MITIGATE RISKS AND PREVENT ERRORS TO EASE THE STRESS OF ACHIEVING COMPLIANCE

“Compliance is so much more than just making sure you’re

not breaking the law,” says David Lesue, creative director at KEY
Workfront. “That’s important, obviously, but it’s also something TAKEAWAYS
that (most of the time) is black and white. It’s apparent when
people don’t follow regulations and standards that industries
and governments set. Speaking as creative director, however, 1 Make it easy for
people to access brand
maintaining the image of a global brand at a level I’m happy guidelines and logo
with is another story.” configurations and find
the materials they need
DAVID Lesue says that it’s usually the simple things that people don’t to stay on brand.
realize are important, like using the right colors and logos.
LESUE
Creative Director,
“We have so many people within the organization producing
all kinds of content and collateral, not to mention our partner
2 The right tools provide
visibility into the
Workfront compliance process,
network and vendors. It’s too much for one person to keep
reducing bottlenecks and
David Lesue has worked as a graphic track of without help. If my team had to grind everything to breakdowns.
designer, user experience designer, a halt every time someone needed a logo, we’d never get
art director, and creative director for anything done.”
the past 17 years. At Workfront, he
leads the creative services team (web,
print, and video) as creative director.
It’s important to make it easy for people to do work the right way, says Lesue. “I lifted a huge
He cares deeply about simplifying burden off my team by creating a central location from which everyone in the company can get
creative operations and presents often our brand guidelines and download the version of the company logo appropriate to their needs
at HOW Design Live, Adobe Max, and
other design conferences. Prior to
to make sure they’re staying on brand. A central, controlled brand standards repository is the
Workfront, Dave held leadership roles first step in an efficient compliance process.”
at Omniture, RiSER Media, Brigham
Young University, and Adobe.

Compliance is so much more than just making sure

b you’re not breaking the law.
Twitter I Website I Blog | LinkedIn

Sponsored by:
16
MITIGATE RISKS AND PREVENT ERRORS TO EASE THE STRESS OF ACHIEVING COMPLIANCE

“Of course, we still need to approve those assets. At the end of the day, the
members of my team are the experts responsible for ensuring compliance,” he
points out. “The ability to manage our proofing and approval process digitally is
absolutely key to our success. We use the online review and approval features in
Workfront to enable that process.”
Lesue points out that when users need approval for an asset, they can send a I would say that 99%
request that’s assigned right away. “I can track which of my team members has
bandwidth and make sure that that team member has enough time to complete of compliance is
the approvals quickly,” he adds. “If changes are required, he or she takes notes mitigating risk and
directly on the proof, and the sender is notified in real time. All the files and work
are kept in the same place, so it’s easy to get up to speed and see which changes strategizing on error
have already been made.” prevention. Tools that
“Lesue says a process that’s backed by technology has helped his team to be allow us to be agile
more productive and to mitigate risk proactively. “We’re able to collaborate with
other teams and assess their needs as well as plan for work coming down the
and efficient without
pipe. It’s easy to see where bottlenecks and breakdowns are, so we are constantly sacrificing quality are
improving our compliance process.” critical.
“The best part,” Lesue says, “is that it’s a forward cycle. With the time we save
because we’ve eliminated the need to stop our production and search for
information or we’re constantly trying to put out fires, searching for information
and trying to put out fires, we can create templates, images, and icons that others
in the organization can use without our help. I would say that 99 percent of
compliance is mitigating risk and strategizing on error prevention. Tools that allow
us to be agile and efficient without sacrificing quality are critical.”

Sponsored by:
17
THE 4 PS OF MARKETING COMPLIANCE

Jobe Danganan, general counsel for Sindeo, is no stranger to

the challenges of marketing compliance. “I’m in the mortgage KEY
industry, which is heavily regulated. There are many players at TAKEAWAYS
stake here. There are federal and state agencies, but there are
also private plaintiffs who could form a class-action suit and sue
your company,” he explains. Marketing compliance is critical, 1 To ensure that all types
of marketing materials—
and the penalties for violating these federal and state laws printed and digital—are
with regard to deceptive marketing could be astronomical. For complaint, organizations
need to return to the
example, Danganan points to the Consumer Finance Protection
JOBE Bureau (CFPB), which has only been operating since 2011.
basic tenant that policies
and procedures should
DANGANAN Companies that are not compliant with CFPB regulations can face be dynamic, not static.
General Counsel, steep fines—up to $1 million per violation per day. At those rates,
Sindeo it takes only one small mistake to financially ruin a company.
“The biggest pain point is that there are just so many avenues
2 Presentation, placement,
proximity, and
Prior to assuming the role of general prominence are four
counsel and chief compliance officer for marketing these days,” says Danganan. “You have the regular measurements used to
of Sindeo, Jobe Danganan was marketing channels, such as fliers and direct mail. But now you ensure that all marketing
an enforcement attorney for the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, also have digital ads. You have Facebook ads. You have social materials meet federal
a senior counsel for the Financial Crisis media—Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn. You have blogs, websites, and state compliance
Inquiry Commission, an associate at and taglines that could be construed as marketing. And you have requirements.
top law firms, and a judicial appellate
clerk. A thought leader, Jobe has sales folks who are marketing your product day in and day out.
received industry awards; been quoted Any one of these marketing avenues could pose a threat to the
in numerous publications; and is a company in terms of marketing.”
sought-after speaker on regulatory
compliance, legal trends, and FinTech
disruption. He holds degrees from
Harvard; Princeton; and the University
of California, Berkeley. The biggest pain point is that there are just so many
avenues for marketing these days.
Website I LinkedIn

Sponsored by:
18
THE 4 PS OF MARKETING COMPLIANCE

The big question Danganan points to is, “How do you keep strict control of
marketing given the regulatory legal risk for having been found deceptive in your
marketing?” From his perspective, a few tips can help.
“One basic rule is that you must have policies and procedures in place tailored to
your company. Your board of directors must approve them, and they must address
the different state and federal laws that govern marketing,” he explains. These
policies and procedures must be living, breathing documents that are updated often
because regulators will be looking at your policies and procedures. It’s important, Every marketing
Danganan says, to remember that regulations change over time, creating the need
for dynamic policies and procedures. statement—whether
But, dynamic compliance controls are only one element of a successful compliance it be a digital ad, a new
plan, Danganan says. “You also need to train your marketing team and your tagline for the website,
sales team on the laws that govern marketing. Give them examples as to what
statements could be construed as deceptive.” These strategies may be “Compliance a web chat script, or
101,” but Danganan urges compliance leaders not to overlook them. Every
compliance program should be built on a foundation of tried-and-true strategies.
a phone call script…
Danganan also suggests maintaining a vested interest in the compliance program.
needs to go through
“Our compliance department keeps a really tight control on marketing. Every compliance.
marketing statement—whether it be a digital ad, a new tagline for the website, a
web chat script, or a phone call script—and any flier, like digital direct mail, needs
to go through compliance. Once there, we look for what we call the four Ps to make
sure that the marketing statement is compliant with all laws and regulations.” He
explains, “The first P is that the piece needs to be presented in an simple format.
Whatever the marketing statement is, it has to be easy for the consumer to digest.
The second P is placement. Really ensure that the placement of your ad is where
consumers can see and understand the product. Another P is proximity. Essentially,
disclaimers need to be in proximity to the general marketing statement. And the
final P, the statement has to be prominent.”

Sponsored by:
19
 Marketing compliance is like speeding: The rules are strict on paper, but everyone
speeds a little, and some people speed a lot. Like speeding, ignoring marketing com-
pliance—including privacy and regulatory guidelines—can get you to your destina-
tion faster, but the more you push, the greater the risk of getting caught and suffering
penalties. Being overly compliant also has its risks, just like the super-slow driver who
not only gets there late but causes accidents along the way.

b
Twitter I Website I Blog | LinkedIn
KEVIN LEE
Executive, Chairman, and Founder, Didit

Sponsored by:
20
 COMPLIANCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING REQUIRES CONSTANT VIGILANCE

As director of marketing and practice development for Stark &

Stark, a midsized regional law firm with offices in Pennsylvania KEY
and New Jersey, one of Jim Jarrell’s primary responsibilities is TAKEAWAYS
to ensure that the firm’s marketing and advertising activities
comply with American Bar Association and State Bar standards
and regulations related to attorney advertising and professional 1 For general brand
advertising, maintain
conduct. To do that, he must oversee compliance in three creativity with blanket
primary areas of marketing activity: approval that can
used whenever it’s
JIM • Print media advertising, which is mostly created in-house; appropriate, and on short
notice.
JARRELL • Television advertising, which is created through an agency;
Director of Marketing and
Practice Development,
and
• Social media, which is managed in-house.
2 If your law firm has a
social media presence,
Stark & Stark monitor comments and
postings continuously.
As leader of the Stark & Stark
marketing team, Jim Jarrell is
responsible for planning, managing,
and directing the execution of
firm-wide marketing and business
development strategies. He has nearly
20 years of experience marketing
professional services, including stints
in financial services, management The challenge I face in marketing and advertising our firm’s
consulting, engineering, and legal.
services is to ensure that our message complies with national
and local bar ethics guidelines.

b
Twitter I Website I Blog | LinkedIn

Sponsored by:
21
COMPLIANCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING REQUIRES CONSTANT VIGILANCE

As the firm’s marketing director, Jarrell assumes the role of front line compliance
on behalf of the firm and has one overriding challenge: “The challenge I face
in marketing and advertising our firm’s services is to ensure that our message
complies with national and local bar ethics guidelines. It’s a fairly small set of
rules in the ethics guidelines, so I don’t have a checklist of trigger points for an
ethics violation. I just know the issues. What I typically do here and have done
in other firms is default to the most restrictive ethics code for the states in which We get notifications
we practice law.” That said, Jarrell notes that different marketing content requires
different levels of oversight.
whenever somebody
Print and television advertising are straightforward. Jarrell is involved in those
posts something on
initiatives from the beginning and builds compliance into them from the ground our page. We have a
up. For general brand advertising, Jarrell’s team maintains creativity with blanket marketing manager
approval that they use whenever it’s appropriate.
who monitors our social
In television ad production, the firm uses an agency that specializes in working
with law firms and is generally familiar with rules governing law firm compliance. media feeds, and I also
Jarrell says, “We work closely with that agency whenever we’re doing production pay close attention
on a new series of tv assets to make sure the scripts are compliant.” The initial
scripting happens months in advance of shooting, and is done mostly through throughout the day.
email. “We typically go back and forth a few times on scripts,” says Jarrell. There
is also some editing at the studio on the day of the shoot, and Jarrell participates
to make sure the messaging complies with ethics rules. “Any attorney featured in
an ad approves the creative before it is published, and all TV ads are given final
approval by the Chair of the Personal Injury group before they go into rotation on
TV,” Jarrell says.

Sponsored by:
22
COMPLIANCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING REQUIRES CONSTANT VIGILANCE

Social media marketing presents a different challenge. For instance, according to ethics opinions from various jurisdictions,
anything on a law firm website or social media site or on an individual attorney’s social media site is considered advertising
and must be fully compliant. That restriction even applies to comments that site visitors leave. For instance, if someone on
LinkedIn inadvertently endorses an attorney for an area of law he or she does not practice, that attorney could be sanctioned
for a violation. At Stark & Stark, the attorneys’ personal social media activity is self-managed, which can be risky and time
consuming. “That’s probably 90 percent of the reason most attorneys don’t engage in social media,” Jarrell says.
Stark & Stark does engage in corporate social media, with blogs, a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, and on LinkedIn, and as with
print and television ads, Jarrell reviews everything the firm plans to post before it goes live. In these growing areas of social
engagement, compliance requires constant vigilance from the whole firm. Stark & Stark can be held responsible for content in
blog post comments at its website or on Facebook. “We get notifications whenever somebody posts something on our page.
We have a marketing manager who monitors our social media feeds, and I also pay close attention throughout the day,” Jarrell
says. “One of our biggest challenges in marketing compliance is just staying on top of developments in internet technology and
regulatory opinions related to that.”

Sponsored by:
23
IN A GLOBAL MARKETPLACE, ADOPT STRATEGIES TO SIMPLIFY GLOBAL COMPLIANCE

As head of the Americas Core Compliance Group at PineBridge

Investments, a global asset manager, Josh Shapiro oversees KEY
core compliance for North, South, and Central America. His job TAKEAWAYS
includes handling regulator registrations and filings as well as
marketing compliance reviews. Shapiro’s group is part of a global
compliance team of 30 people who serve all jurisdictions in 1 When compliance
approval depends
which PineBridge operates. on receiving reviews
from multiple people,
When creating marketing materials, Shapiro says, “We try to somebody should have
JOSH have one piece suitable for use globally rather than different the role of comment
versions for each jurisdiction.” The marketing team develops aggregator to ensure
SHAPIRO materials that, when approved, go into a library. Anything new timely review.
Vice President and Head added to the library must pass compliance review. Whenever a
of Regulatory, Core and
Marketing Compliance
sales team adds something to an approved piece—for instance,
to customize a presentation for a client—Shapiro’s team must
2 Design your workflow
so that compliance team
for the Americas, members can focus on
PineBridge Investments review that additional material for compliance. In addition, his compliance issues that
team checks everything in the library periodically, Shapiro says. are most important
Joshua Shapiro is a legal and “The marketing library contains only approved materials. If for the pieces they are
compliance professional who has something’s in the library, any team in the world can pull it and reviewing.
spent his career working in-house for
financial services companies. He lives use it with confidence.”
and works in New York City.

We try to have one piece suitable for use globally rather

than different versions for each jurisdiction.

Sponsored by:
24
IN A GLOBAL MARKETPLACE, ADOPT STRATEGIES TO SIMPLIFY GLOBAL COMPLIANCE

When a piece requires global marketing review, someone in the jurisdiction in

which the material originated enters it into a marketing approval platform (MAP)—
an application the company developed in-house. MAP manages the review process
and serves as a records repository and audit trail for all marketing review activities.
Shapiro says, “A sales or marketing team submits its piece into the system. Team
members answer questions about strategies, the client, where they will use the
piece, and whether it is a rush item. Based on their answers, MAP directs the
material to the appropriate review teams, who have 72 business-hours to approve,
approve with changes, or decline the piece.” Everything a person or team submits The marketing
to MAP is considered a final draft, with compliance review the last hurdle before library contains only
approval.
approved materials.
A marketing compliance person in the jurisdiction in which the item originated
serves as an aggregator. “If something is submitted in the Americas for a global If something’s in the
review, then a marketing compliance person in the Americas is responsible for library, any team in the
aggregating the global comments,” says Shapiro. “If I see that something’s coming up
and I haven’t heard back from our team in London, then I would chase them to get world can pull it and
comments so that we stay under deadline.” Compliance teams in other jurisdictions
work the same way.
use it with confidence.
The process streamlines compliance review. For instance, quarterly reviews
often result in updates of basic things like number of employees or other factual
information—called data updates. When a piece goes through the system as a
data update, the teams can focus specifically on the information that has changed.
Shapiro says, “We have predefined policies and guidelines on how to create
marketing material. We have regular conversations and training with the relevant
teams. The process allows global compliance teams to focus on things that really
need their attention.”

Sponsored by:
25
Conquer marketing compliance
chaos with Workfront
Workfront gives marketers a single tool to govern the marketing
compliance process from start to finish with:

• Automated approval workflows

• Standardized proofing tools

• Streamlined reviews get content approval

faster and with less effort

workfront.com

network workfront.com � + 1 866 441 0001 � +44 [0] 1256 807352

 Mighty Guides make you stronger.
These authoritative and diverse guides provide a full view of a topic. They help you explore, compare, and
contrast a variety of viewpoints so that you can determine what will work best for you. Reading a Mighty
Guide is kind of like having your own team of experts. Each heartfelt and sincere piece of advice in this guide
sits right next to the contributor’s name, biography, and links so that you can learn more about their work.
This background information gives you the proper context for each expert’s independent perspective.

Credible advice from top experts helps you make strong decisions. Strong decisions make you mighty.

© 2017 Mighty Guides, Inc. I 62 Nassau Drive I Great Neck, NY 11021 I 516-360-2622

www.mightyguides.com