ACCC: Newspaper advertising no longer enough to reach consumers
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is the latest regulatory body to embrace the growth of social media, telling businesses that it is no longer enough to use newspaper advertising to alert consumers to product recalls.
The body found that while last year there were 779 recalls in Australia – some involving many thousands of product – in some cases consumer responses were “nearly non-existent”.
The ACCC’s “Review of the Australian product safety recall system” report which analysed the effectiveness of the current recall system outlined the changes necessary to increase awareness and recall response rates.
The ACCC’s deputy chair Peter Kell said:
This is very significant news. Cue the doomsday bell ringers “Bring our your dead (newspapers). Bring out your dead (newspapers)”
Contrary to popular belief, you can add social media to your existing channels. It doesn’t have to replace them.
I don’t believe you, Ben. In fact when I get home I’m destroying my TV.
But Ben S, most marketers are lazy and or stupid. They don’t want to add things. They want one thing to do everything.
Hold on, can anyone pass this message to Stephen Conroy? Maybe he can figure in some incentives for the newspaper industry to keep them profitable …