At Promotions & Privacy Law LLC (P Squared Law), we provide a full range of legal services that support our clients’ promotion and advertising activities. From our location in Tampa, Florida, we assist profit and not-for-profit businesses and organizations of all sizes and industries in complying with the myriad of laws and regulations applicable to promotions.
Regardless of industry or size, for-profit and non-profit companies and organizations rely on promotional activity to grow their business, expand their reach, or enhance their brand. Promotions broadly include advertising offers, contests, sweepstakes, charitable solicitations, employee incentives, trade promotions, and other programs that share at least one goal – create positive attention!
As rapidly evolving technology continues to drive and enhance communication, companies can reach bigger and more relevant audiences all over the world. Yesterday’s local campaign now has an international following! Of course, the greater the reach, the more jurisdictions an ad campaign can touch. With promotions and advertising regulated at the state and even local level, it becomes especially important to ensure that the snazzy advertising plans don’t turn into legal liabilities.
From concept to completion, P Squared Law works with clients to navigate increasingly regulated areas and steer clear of legal obstacles that might snag their exciting advertising campaigns. We review the structure for legal issues, collaborate on creative approaches that minimize risk while maximizing ROI, counsel on collateral materials and content for consistency with required disclosures, and identify potential hazards in advance.
Our practice broadly encompasses communications in all types of traditional and emerging media, such as:
| | Broadcast | In Person |
| Online | Digital | Wireless |
Promotions and advertising use a myriad of delivery methods and agents, including:
| Social Media | In-App | In Pack |
| | Telephone | Under Cap |
| SMS | Direct mail | Scratch Cards |
| Home solicitations | POS | Influencers |
| Native Ads / Advertorials | Endorsers | Word-of-mouth |
| Scan to Enter | Cross-platform | ATDS |
Traditional delivery is augmented by innovative technologies, including:
| GPS-enabled | Filters |
| Push | Gamification |
| Geo-fenced | Event Apps |
| Targeted | Algorithmic |
Today, promotions often involving hi-tech approaches that present unique legal or quasi-legal considerations, such as:
| Psychographic | Behavioral / targeted |
| Augmented / virtual reality | Algorithmic or AI |
| Connected devices | Always-on Tech |
| Repurposed Tech | Chatbots |
These are just categorical examples. Since current ad campaigns often include varied selections from the menus above, the resulting combinations frequently implicate additional concerns that might not be present individually.
Whether singularly or in countless potential combinations, we issue spot and regularly advise our clients on a variety of legal, regulatory, contractual — and even PR issues — that can stem from the content, including:
| Claim substantiation | Testimonials & endorsements |
| Other regulated claims (e.g., “free,” “going out of business,” “made in USA,” “green”) | Heightened scrutiny claims (health, safety, efficacy) |
| Interoperability claims | Infosec claims |
| Common law privacy | Rights of publicity |
| IP rights | Statutorily restricted logos & imagery |
Other risks may be triggered by the audience, the industry, or competitors, such as:
| Children’s advertising | Age-restricted content |
| Regulated products | Novel products (CBD, etc.) |
| Charitable solicitations & commercial co-ventures | Comparative ads |
| Guerilla marketing | Dietary / supplemental products |
Given the size and diversity of today’s audiences, the issues above can pop up individually or in countless combinations. They occur in advertising efforts as simple as narrow word-of-mouth campaigns or as complex as multinational integrated cross-platform competitions with public voting or panel judging. At P Squared Law, we provide legal support for promotional and advertising activities in the full range of possible contexts.
Our promotions practice includes a depth of experience in the more comprehensively regulated areas of gaming, especially tech-enhanced and multi-purpose marketing programs, such as:
| Skill contests | Fantasy gaming |
| Sweepstakes | Instant-win games |
| eSports | QR-code scavenger hunts |
| GPS-facilitated contests | Geofenced activities |
| Wellness incentives | Other gamification |
We also frequently assist clients (both not-for-profit and profit) in planning and implementing charitably-tied campaigns. The phrase “no deed goes unpunished” surely was uttered (or exclaimed) by those who first explored the charitable solicitation law thicket that creates snares for the unwary but well-intended cause marketers!
Charitable activities take a range of forms, including:
| Solicitation appeals | Raffles |
| Casino nights | Commercial co-ventures |
| Charitable sales promotions | Other fundraising activities |
P Squared Law provides legal support for all these and other types of charitable promotions.
To better protect clients in various cooperative marketing endeavors, we regularly draft and negotiate a broad variety of ancillary documents and releases for participants, collaborators, and others involved in marketing communications. We assist individuals in a wide range of roles, including official spokespersons, podcast guests, webcast interviewees, vlog subjects, conference panelists, authors, publishers, contributors, and others involved in cooperative events. We prepare documents such as:
| Collateral rights documents | Publicity releases |
| Guest presenter agreements | Location agreements |
| Endorsement contracts | Social media guidelines |
| Product placement specifications | Sponsorship agreements |
| Ad agency agreements | Commercial co-venture agreements |
| Prize supplier agreements |
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Our philosophy is simple: We help our clients minimize risk as they bring exciting messaging campaigns to fruition, while maximizing ROI. To accomplish those goals, we design creative compliance approaches that are both feasible and administratively less burdensome, while ideally adding value to the campaign. By first identifying the client’s marketing objectives, we can tailor the legal approach to reduce risk while preserving reward.
Our client-centric approach allows maximum creativity while benefiting in efficiency from decades of experience working side by side with clients. We assist from initiation of an idea to realization, covering aspects such as program concept, legal structure, creation of rules and agreements, contingency anticipation, data collection and prize issues, state registration, advertising, administration, and post-promotion requirements and fulfillment. We are equally accomplished in simple hyperlocal promotions and in international multi-phase integrated campaigns, in which we work in tandem with our robust network of foreign counsel contacts.
We recognize that today’s marketing clients and in-house counsel frequently work under tight deadlines and tighter budgets. Consequently, we employ innovative approaches to develop rules and other legal materials that respect both constraints.
We have developed a logic-based promotions portal that allows clients to securely provide the essential information without being overwhelmed by lengthy forms and time-draining irrelevant questions. We provide helpful explanations along the way. This approach saves both client and attorney time by expediting the process of promotion review and rules drafting.
If you have questions or would like to learn more about our promotions practice at P Squared Law, we welcome you to contact us.
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