ASA Adjudication on Interprise Solutions LLP

Ad

a. A direct mailing, for a software package, showed an office worker kneeling on a deserted beach with his hands stretched up towards the sky. In front of the man were the letters SOS written in pebbles. A headline stated "Sick Of Sage?" with the capital letters S, O and S highlighted in green. Text on the reverse stated "If so, take a look at Interprise Suite … Integrated CRM, BI, Accounts, eCommerce, Fax, Email, Reports, Stock, Order processing, Trade Counter etc, all with One look and feel, One database and One Business Logic i.e. not a bag of bits … Connected Works over the LAN or Internet out of the box. So remote users or users at branches, home etc. can access the system with no cost or complexity to do so, and no loss of user functionality. New technology that brings real user benefits." b. An internet banner ad was also headlined "Sick Of Sage?" with the capital letters highlighted. The same image as in ad (a) appeared below the headline. Text stated "If so, take a look at Interprise Suite".

Issue

Sage (UK) Limited (Sage) objected that the ads denigrated their product and took unfair advantage of the reputation of their trade mark.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

Interprise Solutions (Interprise) said the ads were phrased as a question and if customers and resellers were not "Sick of Sage" then Sage would have no need to be concerned because the ads would be ignored.  Interprise explained that their Director had been a Sage reseller for 16 years and had received many awards from them.  They claimed that he knew Sage's products better than Sage themselves did, having implemented many systems and supported many customers over that period.  

Interprise said, in their opinion, the Sage product range was a "bag of bits" because nothing integrated properly.  They maintained that Sage were in the predicament of having too many products from too many acquisitions, most with different code bases, different business logic, different looks and feels and different databases.  They believed there were no other words that better described the situation.

They sent an article from an accountancy technology website which reported a telephone conversation in 2006 in which the Managing Director of Sage stated "The software industry has let customers down badly - we've given them a bag of bits".  Interprise believed that asking a question did not break advertising rules.

They said they had not used Sage's logo, which they claimed was the only thing that was trademarked.  They added that using the words "Bag of bits" was no worse than what Sage had done themselves.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted Interprise's comments that the term "Sick of Sage" was posed as a question and not as a claim, and that only those customers who were dissatisfied with Sage's products would react to the ad.  We also noted their argument that Sage's Managing Director had himself used the term in a telephone conversation.  We understood from the article, however, that he was referring not to Sage products specifically but rather to the general situation within the software industry and the need to persuade resellers to promote integrated software packages instead of isolated products.

We understood that the name "Sage" was a registered trademark.  We considered that the initial letter of Sage in the "SOS" configuration drew attention to the trademark in a prominent way.  We noted the image below "Sick of Sage?" was of a man who had used the distress signal "SOS" to be rescued from the situation he was in.  We considered that readers would infer from this that Sage users experienced distress when using the Sage product and needed rescuing.  We also considered that the claims "bag of bits" would be seen as a reference to Sage.  We concluded that the phrase "Sick of Sage" in conjunction with the image and the reference to a "bag of bits" denigrated Sage and their products and took unfair advantage of the Sage trademark.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 20.1 and 20.2 (Denigration and unfair advantage)

Action

We told Interprise not to repeat the approach in future advertising.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)