spiritsNEWS

spiritsNEWS April 2014

The spiritsEUROPE Road Map 2015 sets out our actions to deliver increased consumer information and awareness and also to develop more responsible attitudes towards alcohol.  It builds on the progress made in previous commitments to the European Alcohol and Health Forum while seeking to increase the coverage, scale and visibility as well as the involvement of external stakeholder and quality of monitoring and evaluation.  In parallel, the sector reinforces its commitment to responsible marketing communications through effective self-regulation.

The third year report to the official database of DG SANCO shows progress in 3 areas:

• Training seminars on responsible marketing communications, with specific focus on digital media. In 2013 and early 2014, four countries hosted seminars: Ireland, Germany, Hungary and Estonia, gathering about 120 professionals.  Belgium, Portugal and Austria have expressed interest in hosting similar events in the coming months.  This is in addition to the 9 countries already visited in the last two years.  The seminars are a complement to the online training facility (www.marketresponsibily.eu).

• Progress in the use of responsible drinking message (RDM) on advertising and on product labels, in the form of a consumer information website.  Progress has been made in the use of RDMs on advertising, particularly in central eastern European countries, a very positive signal that underlines the efforts of our members.  While the overall percentage of coverage of RDM on labels remains difficult to assess due to the absence of a comprehensive labelling monitoring project in 2013, voluntary sectoral agreements are being taken and an increasing number of companies are displaying either the responsibledrinking.eu portal or their own consumer information website addresses.

• Tackling underage drinking and irresponsible drinking by adults: incentivising action along the value chain.  Thanks to the great amount of work produced by our members and partners, numerous prevention and education programmes are now well established and copied from one country to another (www.drinksinitiatives.eu).  We have managed to involve a wide range of partners, from medical professionals to the retail and hospitality sectors, an essential link in the value chain as their staffs are the ones in direct contact with consumers.  Improvements in measurement and evaluation of such initiatives have to be made and we believe we are contributing to making a significant difference in changing awareness, attitudes and in the long term, behaviour.