1 in 5 Marketing Assets Had Compliance Issues in Q1 2024

In the first quarter of 2024, 1 in 5 marketing assets monitored and reviewed by PerformLine were flagged for a potential compliance issue.

We took a deep dive into this data to pinpoint the most common compliance issues and benchmark compliance statistics across channels.

Offer inflation, misleading language, and deception among top compliance issues

PerformLine monitors thousands of marketing assets daily for compliance using proprietary technology and expert rulebooks to search for potential violations.

PerformLine’s rulebooks are carefully curated collections of terms and phrases that are associated with specific compliance categories, regulations, laws, and guidelines that organizations use to monitor marketing content to identify potential compliance violations at scale. These rulebooks cover everything from broad compliance concerns (like UDAAP) to industry or product-specific requirements.

Please note that the specific terms called out for each issue are the commonly flagged terms, but are not an exhaustive list.

1. Disclosures

Disclosures include any information that lenders are required to include on their websites, social media profiles and posts, or other marketing materials regarding their products. Assets are flagged if any of the required disclosures are missing. This is most commonly identified in the mortgage industry but is applicable to other industries as well.

2. Offer Inflation

Offer inflation, also referred to as exaggerated claims, describes any statements or claims that aren’t entirely truthful or accurate. This type of language can lead to compliance issues because it makes a product or service appear more attractive or valuable than it actually is, which can deceive consumers.

3. Instant Approval

Instant approval language implies that all consumers will get immediately approved for a credit or lending product without any requirements or credit checks, leading consumers to believe that they’ll be approved no matter what—which is almost never the case.

4. Brand Misrepresentation

Brand misrepresentation is using deceptive or false language to misrepresent a brand’s attributes or product qualities. This issue is most commonly identified in the insurance industry but can also apply to other industries.

5. Incentivization

Incentivization is offering rewards, discounts, or other benefits to encourage consumers to apply for a financial product. If this is offered without proper disclosures around fees, risks, or eligibility criteria, consumers can be misled and apply for a product that isn’t a good fit for them that they wouldn’t have applied for otherwise.

Over 1 million compliance issues were flagged and sent for review

In the first quarter of 2024, PerformLine monitored 5.7M assets across and flagged 1.1M of those for a potential compliance issue.

Assets refer to a specific marketing item or communication, such as a document, web page, social media post, email, call, or message.

When an asset is flagged, the PerformLine platform has identified a potential compliance issue that needs to be reviewed and, if necessary, remediated.

Some notable marketing channel-specific stats…

We also took a deeper dive into benchmarking stats across specific marketing channels.

PerformLine’s Document Review helps streamline the compliance review of marketing materials from internal departments and external partners, affiliates, and other third parties. An impressive 97% of submitted documents undergo a thorough review process, receive instant and actionable feedback, and receive final compliance approval, all within 24 hours or less. 

PerformLine’s Web Monitoring solution, powered by the innovative Kraken Crawler, has been a game-changer in identifying previously undiscovered content with brand mentions across the web, with 2 out of 3 web pages monitored being new finds.

Through Social Media Monitoring, our clients can monitor major social media platforms at scale to ensure marketing compliance. Notably, 84% of the compliance issues we flagged were on popular platforms like X, Facebook, and Instagram.

Our Email Monitoring and discovery tool has been instrumental in finding and pinpointing potential compliance issues across sales, marketing, and partner emails, with 1 in 5 of the emails flagged for review. 

PerformLine’s Call Monitoring and Message Monitoring automatically review calls and messages for compliance violations and performance issues. Our platform flagged 25% of calls and 24% of messages for a compliance issue or performance observation.

Get the full marketing compliance quarterly review report

PerformLine’s Marketing Compliance and Enforcement Actions Quarterly Review focuses on the latest compliance issues and benchmarking trends that impacted consumer finance companies in the first quarter of 2024. Powered by our in-depth compliance monitoring and industry analysis, this review provides essential insights to help businesses navigate the evolving regulatory landscape effectively.

Access the full report for free here.

Monitor for marketing compliance with PerformLine

At PerformLine, our mission is to empower marketing and compliance leaders with the technology and knowledge to ensure that their organizations and partners provide accurate and compliant information to consumers across any channel.

We help leading organizations mitigate marketing compliance risk while increasing efficiency through:

• Time savings on hours spend manually searching and reviewing marketing materials for compliance
• Cost savings by identifying compliance issues and allowing for quick remediation before they turn into investigations or enforcement actions
• Automated discovery of unknown brand mentions and product promotions across marketing channels to find potential compliance issues
• Comprehensive coverage and oversight across marketing channels, products, and partners at scale through automated technology

Schedule a demo to learn more.