This article was written by Yael Warman, Content Manager at Leverate.
France’s restrictive laws on advertising are a familiar headache to merchants of various industries.
In 1991 it was the tobacco and alcohol industries that suffered from the effects of the Evin law, which banned most advertising for alcoholic beverages and tobacco products. 1993 brought with it Sapin law, which banned the standard 15% commission of ad agencies, by requiring media companies to send rate cards and invoices directly to the advertiser, even if the purchase was being done through an ad agency. In 1994, the French government introduced the Toubon law, a law which requires the use of the French language in advertising.
Last year, France’s lower house of Parliament passed a bill requiring advertisers who use digitally altered images of models to disclose it by indicating the image has been “retouched”. Now, the turn to face the music has arrived for Forex and binary options brokerages, who are being banned by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) from doing any digital advertising.
Where does this latest ban on advertising leave the FX and binary options industries?
These industries heavily rely on Affiliates , who in turn rely on digital advertising and while this strategy has proven successful in the past, as the market becomes more competitive and restricted, brokers should look elsewhere for customer acquisition. Until Parliament votes on the introduction of the new law, we are still uncertain as to which media will be off limits, however, some out-of-the-box ideas may very well be considered fair play by the French authorities.
Influencers
When you say you are great, people think you are self-centered and egotistical, but when someone else says you are great, that is a fabulous endorsement. Influencer marketing is essentially relying on someone else to do the talking for you. It is about letting someone your customer base trusts tell them why they should trust you and give you their business.
Influencers in this day and age are typically well-known bloggers and social media mavens who, although they may only have a few thousand to a few hundreds of thousands followers (as opposed to celebrity endorsers whose fan base is in the millions), their followers trust what they have to say and they charge far less than a celebrity in order to highlight your brand.
For influencer marketing to work, the content should come directly from the influencer, which not only makes it more credible and genuine, but it reduces your two largest digital marketing expenses: content creation and content distribution.
Influencer marketing has proven to be so effective that a recent study performed by Nielsen Catalina Solutions for a company in the food industry showed that influencer marketing delivered 11 times ROI over all other forms of digital media.
Native advert
Native advertising is successfully filling the gap between publishing and advertising by letting the adverts follow the natural form of the user experience and the flow of the editorial content. By definition, native advertising, also known as custom content, sponsored content or corporate journalism, is a form of paid media in which high-quality content, which matches the visual design and function of the publication in which they are included, is sponsored by a brand. Even the most venerable publications like Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Guardian, and many others are embracing sponsored content.
Native advertising is exponentially more effective than traditional banner ads, generating an overall 88.6% higher brand awareness and a study discovered that 25% more consumers look at in-feed, native ads than standard banners.
Facebook communities
If you audience shares a common interest (e.g. forex investments), you can create a Facebook community, which as opposed to a Facebook page, is more bilateral, engaging and dynamic. A Facebook community works in a way similar to forums, in which discussions on various topics can take place. You can create a community of people interested in your content and because you have set it up, as an admin, you have control over what type of content is posted and what the tone of the group is. Facebook communities may be entirely free of advertising, giving its members a safe place to share ideas on a topic. The benefits, you have an engaged audience who knows you and your brand in a more human sense and you may become an influencer of your own brand.
Facebook communities are time consuming though, so make sure you have the resources to help it grow and maintain it actively so users would want to take part.
The above ideas are simply out-of-the-box alternatives to what has become traditional digital marketing. There is still a lot of uncertainty as to what will come of the new French law, however, no matter where your business may be, these are great alternatives to look at in order to grow your brand organically and build customer loyalty and trust.
