The HFSS Advertising Ban: Digital Impact Explained

From doughnuts to pizzas, crisps to protein powders, the new HFSS (High Fat, Sugar & Salt) restrictions on advertising have just changed the digital landscape for the food and drink industry. From January, if your products are high in fat, salt and sugar, the channels and strategies you can use to advertise just got a lot narrower. 

Covering everything from TV ads to Paid Social, the restrictions are sweeping – and flouting them could mean costly fines. So if you’re in the food and drink industry and are wondering what the new regulations mean for you, we’ve unpacked how you can stay on the right side of the rules while adapting your strategy to make sure your business stays on top.

Under 250 employees? HFSS advertising restrictions don’t apply to you

SMEs with under 250 employees aren’t subject to the HFSS advertising ban. This means you can continue to run paid advertising on Meta, Google, and other platforms as usual. 

For challenger brands under this headcount, this presents an opportunity to reach audiences in a space where your larger competitors can’t. You’ll be able to operate in the paid digital space, but with less competition from rivals who had previously been able to outspend you. 

Three Ways to Capitalise as a Challenger Brand

Less competition over high-intent search

With FMCG giants forced to pull their spend from Social and Search ads, the digital auction over some of the more competitive spaces and keywords could get a lot quieter. Bidding on high-intent search and shopping keywords could be cheaper, and you may see a better return for your investment.

Win on “taste appeal” with compelling creative

While large competitors can show their brand, they can’t show their products in ads. And they definitely can’t talk about why their products are so good. This means you have the visual advantage; with paid social ads or boosting, you can show your product in all its glory and focus on texture. The flavour visuals that trigger purchases in a way big brands can no longer do in this space.

Invest in an influencer strategy

For bigger companies, paying an influencer to promote an HFSS product is now banned. The influencer landscape is fast-growing, and taking advantage of this opportunity can give smaller companies a competitive edge. While your global competitors are now forced to rely on “gifting” (i.e. sending a free product and hoping for a mention) you can still execute fully paid, contractual partnerships. This allows you to retain control over the creative output, and create compelling, natural and channel-authentic content to promote your brand. 

What it means for larger companies

For businesses over the 250 employees, the door is shut. Paid digital advertising HFSS products isn’t possible, regardless of channel or demographic targeting. See a full list of the products in scope. 

This applies to all paid media channels (from Meta to TikTok, Reddit to Display). Paid Search is also banned and that includes branded search if linking to a landing page selling products covered within the category. Anything with a paid budget behind it falls into the ban. 

So, where does this leave organic social? Right now, as long as it has no paid budget behind it, organic posts are not included in the ban. So you can continue to use your organic channels as before, as long as you don’t boost this content. 

For CTV advertising, the new watershed now applies, meaning you won’t be able to advertise until after 9pm.

Three ways to adapt to the new HFSS advertising restrictions

Use “Halo Effect” of your non-HFSS variants

If you can’t advertise your flagships, think about which products you can prioritise for ads that are non-HFSS. Any ‘Light’, ‘Zero’ alternatives won’t come under the advertising restrictions, but can still feature your brand even if it’s used across non-HFSS and HFSS products. 

Sell experience over product

For the most part, the HFSS restrictions target the product, not the brand. This presents an opportunity to pivot back to ‘feeling’ advertising. While you can’t fill a screen with a close-up of a burger or cake, you can still take advantage of existing brand equity in creative ways. 

Audience attention: earn it or own it

When you advertise on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, you’re only ever renting an audience. So whether your business is subject to the ban or not, growing your own email database, website, and organic social channels is always a worthwhile investment. Shifting the budget you can no longer spend on paid media into first-party data acquisition sets you up for success in the longer term, giving you a direct line of communication with your audience.

Lets Chat

Digital Services | Toby Gould | Senior Performance Marketing Manager toby.gould@catchafireagency.com

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