Responsible marketing and consumer information

Following our own codes

We have two codes that govern our marketing standards: the Diageo Marketing Code (DMC) and the Digital Code of Practice. The DMC is our mandatory minimum standard and applies across all our markets and governs every aspect of our activities, from research and development to marketing, promotion and packaging. We review it every 12 to 18 months to ensure it addresses evolving issues in the marketplace.

We ensure that the codes’ principles and practices – which provide a clear framework for marketing our brands responsibly to adults – are embedded across Diageo through an on-going programme of awareness, communication and training.

Our Digital Code is an extension of the DMC and provides guidance to our marketers on how to navigate the complexity of digital and mobile channels and technologies. This year, we refreshed the Digital Code to provide further guidance and enhanced compliance requirements reflecting our on-going commitment to leadership in responsible marketing. The refreshed code will be fully rolled out to relevant employees next year.

In recognition of the fast-moving nature of the digital environment, our internal cross-functional Digital Governance Leadership Team (DGLT) meets regularly to review emerging marketing trends and to set policy that governs our marketing activity in new channels, reinforcing our commitment to remain at the forefront of responsible marketing and self-regulation. The DGLT comprises representatives from marketing, corporate relations, legal and information systems teams.

Employees help ensure compliance with our codes by raising any concerns, or reporting breaches, through our confidential ‘SpeakUp’ helpline.

Abiding by industry marketing codes

We believe that the industry as a whole should follow standards of a similar level to those we set within Diageo. We abide by industry self- or co-regulation codes in markets where they exist and work with industry bodies to establish codes where they do not. See: ‘Stakeholder dialogue and alcohol policies’.

While we manage our business in compliance with industry codes, unfortunately we did have several breaches which are outlined in the table below. In each case, we took corrective action to ensure mistakes were addressed and will not be repeated.

For example, in the US, a billboard with a Diageo brand advertisement was placed by our media agency too close to a school in Seattle, Washington, despite a contractual agreement with the media agency to abide by the DMC. At our request, the agency undertook an audit of the brand’s billboard advertisements in the city to verify that this was a single mistake. We feel confident that these breaches are unfortunate anomalies and do not reflect an endemic compliance issue.

Following is the list of complaints made regarding Diageo’s marketing that were upheld by industry bodies:

Complaints about advertising upheld

(July 1st 2010 - June 30th 2011)

Making information available to consumers

Our Diageo Alcohol Beverage Information Policy (DABIP) stipulates that all new product launches, packaging renovations and promotional packaging changes are required to include responsible drinking reminders, allergen information, alcohol-by-volume and DRINKiQ.com on primary package. We also publish the nutritional information about our products on DRINKiQ.com, and on packaging where such information is required by law. To read more about our DrinkiQ programmes click here.

Where legislation prohibits any alcohol website, including our DRINKiQ site, we include nutritional information on our packaging. We continue to put this policy in place on all brands as packaging and labels are renovated. Where permitted under local law, all our business units must implement DABIP when bringing new, piloted, renovated or repackaged products to market.

Performance against targets

The table below sets out the targets that we measure to help manage our work in responsible marketing and providing consumers information to make responsible decisions. Commentary on each follows the table.

1. SmartApprove

This year we fully embedded our online tool, SmartApprove, throughout the business where technically feasible to make the process of checking and approving our marketing materials quicker and easier. All marketing activities in SmartApprove are reviewed by legal, corporate relations and/or marketing to ensure compliance with our codes and policies and a record of approvals is automatically kept on the system.

2. Online learning tool for Digital Code of Practice

As planned, we developed and distributed an online training tool to provide easy access to and understanding of our Digital Code of Practice to our employees and agency partners. This will be especially useful since we are continually updating the Code to match trends in the digital marketplace.

3. 100% compliance with DMC

This year around 0.1% of marketing executions were in violation of our code. These were a minute percentage of the thousands of pieces of marketing collateral produced by Diageo uploaded in our SmartApprove system, nevertheless, we are disappointed to have had any breaches and will continue to strive for total compliance.

4. Responsible drinking reminders on all advertising

An audit of our global materials revealed excellent compliance; responsible drinking reminders are a mandatory part of our Diageo Marketing Code.

5. Inclusion of DRINKiQ.com on all renovated and new brand labels

Diageo’s consumer information policy applies to Diageo-owned alcohol beverage brands in all markets. The development and implementation of this mandatory policy has been, and is, a journey. As a global drinks business, we face complex challenges in developing and implementing such a global policy on packaging, as we operate in over 180 markets with thousands of packaging variations, across spirits, wines and beers. Diageo is wholly committed to this policy and is investing the resource required to implement it across our business. It has been the subject of very careful planning to ensure we provide consumers with information about our brands so that they continue to make informed choices, and that we do so in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

Our process for implementing this policy is organic and will be undertaken as brands are renovated or launched. Our brand change teams and legal counsel provide guidance and instruction to our markets to ensure compliance. We are not aware of any brands that have not complied with the policy and are in the process of developing a comprehensive compliance report.

DRINKiQ

Diageo's DRINKiQ.com website promotes responsible drinking by increasing public awareness and dialogue around alcohol issues. Launched in 2008, the award-winning website was extended in 2010-11 to Belgium, and now covers 19 countries in nine languages: Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.

The website aims to bring together the best programmes and information – not just our own – for anyone with an interest in promoting responsible drinking. It contains experts’ views, facts about alcohol, responsible drinking tips, nutritional information about Diageo brands, and an outline of our approach to responsible drinking for consumers. In addition the site’s resource centre targets four specific stakeholder groups – parents, educators, law enforcers and retailers – giving information and resources to help them prevent and tackle issues related to the misuse of alcohol.

Employee engagement

Our DRINKiQ employee engagement initiative, an interactive session to discuss and encourage responsible decisions about drinking – or not drinking – has proved hugely successful. It has now been rolled out to over 19,200 employees around the world and is a formal part of new employee inductions in 21 countries. The initiative is designed both to help employees make responsible drinking decisions for themselves, and to give them the confidence to be ambassadors to discuss responsible drinking with others.

Workshops with stakeholders

As well as running internal DRINKiQ workshops, we also run workshops with stakeholders. For example, in Nigeria we worked with the Federal Road Safety Commission to include DRINKiQ as part of the country’s driving licence curriculum. Similarly, in Ghana, DRINKiQ sessions have been accepted by the National Drivers’ Academy as mandatory for all commercial drivers seeking to upgrade, renew or apply for licences.

Also in Ghana, we teamed up with the University of Ghana to train 68 peer counsellors to run DRINKiQ sessions with university students. The campus radio and Facebook site also referenced or linked to DRINKiQ.com as a way to raise awareness further. The sessions have been so well received that DRINKiQ sessions will become a mandatory part of the induction programme for 1,000 new students next year.

In China, having trained our employees in DRINKiQ, we ran sessions for selected bartender schools in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu. The training sessions attracted around 120 bartender students. It is our hope that these students will become ambassadors for the responsible drinking message when they turn professional.

Diageo Korea has been running DRINKiQ sessions with stakeholders since 2009 - including bartenders, local companies, universities, and members of the public sector. This year 47 DRINKiQ sessions were held with approximately 2,270 stakeholders and a DRINKiQ mobile application was released to support our awareness raising efforts.

Russia has also been running DRINKiQ sessions since 2009 and has engaged approximately 5,000 participants, including Diageo partners as well as students of 19 Moscow institutions of higher education, including Moscow State University of Management, Moscow State University of Transportation, and the Moscow International Business School.