Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Annual Report 2021, highlights the innovative and world-leading ways in which they have harnessed technology, in line with their strategy, to tackle misleading and irresponsible ads online.
Coinciding with the report, they are also announcing how they use of artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising and enhancing monitoring capabilities to help identify and take enforcement action against influencers who fail to disclose when their posts are ads.
The Report also includes:
- For the first time, a breakdown of complaints by nation, providing ASA/CAP with a clearer picture of national differences alongside the overall complaint totals.
- The key themes and issues – from environmental claims, body image, harmful racial and ethnic stereotypes and cryptoasset advertising, to age-restricted ads seen by children – that we’re shining a regulatory spotlight on to ensure the public is protected.
- Details of our Intermediaries and Platform Principles Pilot, a world first involving some of the largest companies in the digital advertising supply chain, that extends the ASA’s role online and aims to improve transparency and widen accountability in online advertising.
- Facts and figures including the record number of complaints received last year, the ad campaigns complained about and the media in which they appeared.
Using to AI help tackle unlabelled influencer advertising
ASA and CAP are announcing a dynamic new project that harnesses artificial intelligence to capture and analyse all Instagram Stories produced by ‘high-risk’ influencers who are on our radar for being unwilling or unable to clearly and consistently label when their content is an ad. Using machine learning algorithms to automatically identify potential ads in these posts, they are taking advantage of state-of-the-art image recognition and natural language processing techniques to categorise the images and videos influencers post. They also search influencer’s content for possible ad labels giving them the ability to identify which are likely to be ads but are not disclosed as such, in breach of advertising rules.
The technology is transforming the ability to act at pace and scale in identifying problems and take action. It automates what was previously a manual and labour-intensive monitoring process, resulting in efficiency gains, and enables them to prioritise where focus their attention – on influencers and advertisers causing most harm to consumers.
The immediate results from this project are:
- Monitoring dozens of high-risk influencers each week
- Captured and analysed more than 80k Instagram Stories for potential non-compliance since the project started
- Capturing and analysing nearly 20k Instagram Stories each month
ASA/CAP are eyeing improvements, scaling up this process, tracking what influencers are talking about and examining trends in ‘tagging’ and ‘mentions’. They are also ramping up monitoring of companies who partner with influencers and holding them to account. Repeat offenders who are unable or unwilling to follow the rules will face an escalation of sanctions and enforcement action. As part of that, they are currently considering lining up the worst offenders for referral to statutory authorities for consideration of legal sanctions as well as working directly with the host platform to pull the plug on problem accounts.
2021: Key facts and figures
The Annual Report provides a breakdown of the complaints and cases* handled by the ASA as well as the advice, training and compliance work undertaken by CAP over the last 12 months. In 2021:
- The ASA received a record 43,325 complaints (about 22,115 cases)
- Of those:
- Online remained the most complained about advertising media making up close to 1/2 of all complaints (20,735) but almost 2/3 of cases (14,558)
- Complaints about online ads were up 19% on 2020 while case numbers remained at the same level as the previous year
- TV was the second most complained about advertising media also making up close to 1/2 of all complaints (20,425) but only 1/5 of cases (4,802)
- TV complaints increased by 44%** on 2020 but there was a 5% decrease in the number of TV ads complained about
- Complaints about influencer posts (4,889) increased by 20% and made up almost 1/4 of all cases (3,648), a 9% increase
- There was an increase in complaints and cases about other online ads*** including:
- Video on demand (138% increase in complaints and a 22% increase in cases)
- Paid-for ads on websites, social media and apps (39% increase in complaints and a 14% increase in cases), and
- Audio podcast or on demand (54% increase in complaints and a 9% increase in cases)
- There was a decrease in complaints and cases for:
- Website, social media or app (own site) (1% decrease in complaints and 9% decrease in cases)
- Game (a 38% decrease in complaints and a 37% decrease in cases)
- 20,456 ads were amended or withdrawn as a result of the ASA’s work
- CAP delivered 866,145 pieces of advice and training to businesses on the advertising rules
*A case refers to an ad/ad campaign we have received complaints about. One case can have many complaints
** A Tesco ad featuring Santa with a Covid passport prompted 5,064 complaints making it the second most complained about ad of all time
*** Online advertising is a broad category and includes, among others: companies’ own websites, social media and apps, influencer ads, paid-for online ads, video on demand, search and game.
Complaints by nation
For the first time they are also reporting on complaints and cases broken down across the UK. Analysed the figures for each home nation as a percentage of the UK population, providing ASA/CAP with an insight into distinct variations between the nations.
Analysis reveals that:
- Proportionately, people in Scotland are more inclined to lodge a complaint about an ad, whether on the grounds of misleadingness, harm or offence, than people in any of the other nations
- As a proportion of the UK population, people in England complain about ads close to their population level
- People in Northern Ireland and Wales are less likely to lodge complaints about ads
- While people in Wales were less likely to complain, they were more likely to complain about issues relating to harm and offence in ads than people from England and Northern Ireland
As this is the first year theye’ve run these figures there is no comparative data that enables them to identify any mid- to long-term trends. While the reasons for complaints from Scotland being higher at a population level are unclear it could be explained, in part, by a national ad campaign the ASA ran across Scottish Media between September 2020 and March 2021. It resulted in a statistically significant increase (56% v 50%) in Scottish adults who are now more certain that an organisation exists to complain to about advertising driven by those who had seen the ASA’s ad (61% certain).
ASA Chief Executive, Guy Parker says: “Technology is transforming all our lives and as our Annual Report shows it’s also transforming how the ASA regulates misleading, harmful or irresponsible ads. As our world leading use of artificial intelligence to help tackle misleading influencer ads demonstrates, we’re harnessing and increasing our use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to deliver tech-assisted and proactive regulation. It means we’re better able to respond to concerns and ensures we continue to provide a one-stop-shop for advertising complaints for the public and responsible businesses across the UK.”
Source & image: ASA/CAP
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