Ad labeling: the good news and the bad news

We could not stay out of it, so we studied the new law on ad labeling and its main rules in as much detail as we could. In the end, we have two pieces of news, as it should be: a good one and a bad one.

Let's start with the bad one: a lot in the law itself is still unclear, and there are no clear rules on what exactly counts as an ad in each case. There is a general logic, advice and instructions. But many experts advise that in hard cases you talk to lawyers, get advice and wait for more detailed explanations.

But there is also good news, and we are happy to share it with you. There are clear rules on what does NOT count as an ad and does NOT have to be labeled. One of these is sending notifications to your own guest database:

SMS campaigns and push notifications: you do NOT need to label such campaigns.

Push notifications are exactly the kind of tool you have in the Loona.ai admin portal. You can start using them today without worrying about labeling and fines. We want to tell you more about what these notifications can do.

Most important, push notifications are completely free for all loyalty program users. What is more, we have already prepared the most common automations, and to start using them you will literally need to press two buttons. By an automation, we mean regular notifications that go out when a certain condition is met. We have already thought out the main automations, and setting them up takes almost no effort.

Available automations:

• Card sign-up - any reward for the guest becomes available as soon as they fill in the sign-up form. This automation works when the card sign-up step is set to "After download".

• Card added - the guest gets welcome points or a promotion as soon as they add the card. This automation supports the referral program.

• Transactions - an automation that thanks the guest with a push notification sent automatically after a purchase. This automation also supports the referral program.

• Birthday - an automation that gives the guest a gift on their birthday: points, a higher cashback % or a discount. The gift arrives on the birthday and lasts for X days that you choose.

• Loyalty tier change - if the card banner or color changes when the loyalty tier changes, you need to set this in this automation.

• X days without purchases - an automation that aims to bring a guest back after a long absence. For example, you want to give points to all guests who added the card and made no transactions for 60 days.

• Recurring event - an automation that repeats on a certain day of the week. For example, if you chose Feb 12, 2022 (a Saturday), the action will repeat every Saturday. You can use it both to top up the balance and to send automated push notifications.

• Custom event - an automation you can set for a certain date. For example, your company's birthday, Pasta Day, Fur Seal Day and so on. You can use it both to top up the balance and to send automated push notifications.

Also, if you did not find the automation you need among the ready-made ones, you can create your own automation for push notifications. Of course, this will take a bit more than 2 clicks. But all this effort is nothing compared to what you will get if you start using campaigns regularly in your work.

You can choose guests from your database by number of points, by money spent, and by many other criteria.

The main thing is that none of these campaigns need labeling, because they go to your own guest database. Of course, we advise you to start actively filling and growing this database if you have not done so yet.

And let us remind you that push notification campaigns are FREE. This means you stay in touch with your guests all the time without spending ad budgets on it.

But that is not all notifications can do! Besides the automations module, you can create one-time push notifications that can easily replace ad posts.

When we advise using them:

• you need to tell guests about an artist's show on the weekend;

• about a new menu;

• about a new location opening;

• to remind guests about yourself if they added the card long ago but made no transactions;

• an offer for groups of women or groups of men;

• a special offer for people with a high check;

• a PROMO CODE only for a certain target audience, and so on.

These settings give you options similar to targeted ads, only they reach your own guests, and they are completely free!

Yulia Popova, CEO & Co-founder, Loona.ai

Most important, working with campaigns inside the loyalty program helps you not only stay in touch with your guests and tell them about promotions and offers, but also do it fully within the law, without fear of fines.

And, of course, our main advice: start building your active guest database today, so your campaigns work as well as possible.