ASA Adjudication on Green Cathedral

Ad

A magazine ad, for search marketing from Green Cathedral, stated "green cathedral ... The UK's only combined search agency".

Text that followed stated "Green Cathedral can make your search marketing more cost effective by combining PPC keyword buying with optimisation of your natural search traffic".

Issue

MediaCo (UK) Ltd, who claimed that they and other agencies combined PPC keyword buying with optimisation of natural search traffic, challenged the statement "The UK's only combined search agency".

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Green Cathedral believed the complainants had interpreted "combined search" to mean a company providing Pay Per Click (PPC) Keyboard Planning and Buying and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services in parallel. They explained that this approach, which was adopted by many agencies in the UK, involved a company providing those two types of search marketing services independently of one another. They explained that those agencies who offered PPC and SEO operated with two separate teams: one team would provide the PPC element and the other, SEO, which resulted in two separate reports.

Green Cathedral explained that they too provided PPC and SEO but, after tracking their clients performance on those two services, they devised a strategy that merged the two together. They said their approach maximised the search market performance and was more cost-effective. They asserted that they had one unified team of search engine analysts and consultants, who shared expertise and knowledge in both PPC and SEO, and who produced one combined set of results. They believed they provided a unique approach to search engine marketing and claimed that they were the only company in the UK that provided a combined, single service at such a level.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted Green Cathedrals explanation of how their approach was different from that of other companies in the UK who provided PPC and SEO services. We also noted their argument that, by combining the two services and having staff with knowledge in both services, their customers were able to save money. Nevertheless, Green Cathedral did not provide evidence to substantiate that they were the only agency in the UK that combined PPC and SEO into a single, merged service. Furthermore, we considered that readers were unlikely to interpret the ad in the way Green Cathedral had intended and were likely to infer that Green Cathedral were the only search agency that provided both PPC and SEO, which we understood was not the case. We told Green Cathedral to avoid that implication in future.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 19.1 (Other comparisons).

Action

We told Green Cathedral not to repeat the ad in its current form and to remove the claim "The UK's only combined search agency" from future ads. We also advised them to consult the CAP Copy Advice team when devising future similar ads.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)