Changes to the contemporary media and communications landscape have dramatically impacted
on the extent and nature of marketing. With the growth of digital technologies, advertisers today
harness social media, online video channels and mobile phones as well as traditional channels
such as television, cinema and billboards to promote products. The alcohol industry spends more
than £800 million annually in the UK on promotion and is fully tapped into new opportunities to
engage consumers. Sophisticated and multi-dimensional alcohol marketing strategies increasingly
integrate online and off-line promotions, reaching right across people’s lives. As advertising has
expanded across new technologies such as the Internet, so the volume and speed of marketing
communication pose increasingly challenging questions of regulatory control.