Social advertising

• Advertising (Russian market)
• Online advertising (Russian market)

2021

Mishustin approved the operator of social advertising on the Internet

In July 2021, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a government decree that was granted the autonomous non-profit organization Internet Development Institute (IRI) by the social advertising operator in Russia. The corresponding document is published on the official Internet portal of legal information. More details here.

The State Duma accelerated the allocation of quotas for social advertising

On April 26, 2021, it became known that the State Duma adopted in the second and third readings a bill on a quota for social advertising on the Internet. Deputies supported changes to the law "On Advertising." The document establishes for the largest network services, such as Yandex, Mail.ru, Rambler, Google and Facebook, the volume of social advertising at the level of 5% of the area or time.

The bill also provides for the creation of a monitoring system and a single operator for the placement of social advertising. The Ministry of Digital Affairs must decide on a single operator until July 1, 2021.

According to Alexander Hinshtein, chairman of the committee on information policy, information technology and communications, one of the authors of the initiative, there are already requirements for the distribution of social advertising on the Internet, but some companies ignore them.

There was no mechanism for implementing the requirement of the law, including the correct determination of a 5% share for the distribution of social advertising on the Internet. The placement of social advertising remained a voluntary wish of the sites themselves, "said Alexander Khinshtein. - The lack of systemic regulation has limited non-profit organizations' access to promotional tools for their initiatives. NGOs do not have sufficient competencies to choose the optimal ways to inform about their activities on the Internet and, of course, there are no advertising budgets commensurate with the budgets of commercial companies.

The non-profit organization-operator will receive forecast values ​ ​ of advertising volumes from advertising sites and post social content within a 5% share. For this, the operator will keep a record of advertising formats and spaces that are provided by advertising distributors - owners of information resources for social advertising, as well as place themselves.

The bill provides for the empowerment of the Government of the Russian Federation, on the proposal of the Ministry of Digital Affairs of the Russian Federation, to give a non-profit organization the functions of a social advertising operator for a period of five years. Powers can be terminated ahead of schedule at the request of the operator himself, as well as if the operator does not comply with the established requirements. The press service of the Ministry of Digital Affairs did not specify between which NGOs the ministry chooses.

{{quote 'The definition of the social advertising operator must be completed for the first time before July 1, 2021, "said Alexander Khinshtein.

The bill contains several innovations. In particular, the "executive body that performs the functions of developing and implementing state policy and regulatory regulation in the field of innovative technologies" will regulate advertising legislation. Concepts such as "advertising system," "advertising system operator" are introduced.}}

{{quote 'According to Part 3 of Article 1 of the Federal Law "On Advertising," social advertising must be up to 5% of the area or time allotted for the distribution of advertising. Formally, such an obligation already exists for Internet companies. However, there is no mechanism for implementing the requirement of the law, including the correct determination of a 5% share for the distribution of social advertising, the explanatory note to the document says. }}

A similar law has already been established for TV advertising, as well as for banner advertising.

The adoption of the bill is aimed at creating additional measures to support socially oriented non-profit organizations and simplifying the work of Internet companies with socially significant content when distributing social advertising on the Network. The proposed regulation will provide non-profit organizations with tools to promote their initiatives and will make it possible to inform about their activities on the Web in an optimal way, "the explanatory note says.

It is assumed that the regulator will not interact with the companies themselves, but with their advertising platforms. The requirements will apply to owners of information resources with advertising aimed at the Russian audience, to sites that are visited daily by more than 100 thousand users. The rules will not affect media sites. The ^[1].

Private sites will force to spin social advertising

On March 24, 2021, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted in the first reading a bill on mandatory quotas for posting social advertising on the Internet. We are talking about amendments to the law "On Advertising," according to which social advertising should be up to 5% of the area or time.

Similar standards already apply for television advertising, as well as advertising on banners. According to the head of the profile committee of the lower house and one of the authors of the initiative, Alexander Hinstein, formally such an obligation already exists for Internet companies, but in practice it is not fulfilled due to the difficulty of measuring advertising on the network. He noted that the bill extends the quota mechanism to all sites, including on the Internet. At the first stage, the document will affect the largest services, such as Yandex, Mail.ru, Rambler, Google and Facebook, the parliamentarian specified.

The State Duma supported in the first reading a bill on a quota for social advertising on the Internet

The bill provides that a non-profit organization will be selected, which will be given the functions of a social advertising operator. This organization will receive information about the volume of advertising distribution from advertising sites, as well as record the forms, methods and means of distributing social advertising on the Internet.

In addition, the social advertising operator will calculate the mandatory share of socially significant content and determine the formats available for use for the distribution of social advertising.

Transparency of the social advertising operator will ensure its annual report. In addition, in order to consider the distribution of social advertising and its content, the development of a methodology for determining and adjusting the forecast values ​ ​ of the distribution of social advertising, the social advertising operator must ensure the work of the council on the distribution of social advertising on the Internet.^[2]

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