Due to the intact market of Iran on a global scale, there are many companies and brands that wish to begin investing in Iran to run branches or form any representative offices in Iran. The very initial step is to thoroughly read and understand the legal perspective of advertising and marketing in Iran, carefully. The challenge to enter a completely new market in Iran is to find some local consultants who are experts in international business and are aware of all codes, edicts, rules, and rights in Iran. In such a case, you will become a company that protects any business deal and would guarantee yourself a safe entrance to a new market. Moreover, you also will stay away from many costly drawbacks by being armed with this information beforehand.
It is also necessary to mention that the Iranian government generally defends the legal rights of foreign companies and brands active in Iran. There is no difference between Iranian companies in Iran and foreign or international licensed investors, registered branches, and representative offices.
An important part of a successful business in a country like Iran is to design and implement marketing and advertising campaigns for your products or services efficiently. However, all brands have a legal duty to guarantee that everything in an ad is honest, and not misleading. You should ensure that your marketing events don’t break the law. Considering all the rules in advertising, different organizations such as the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Islamic Guidance, Advertising Organization, etc. have written down their own rules and regulations for approving radio and TVCs, billboards, internet advertising, or any other means of ads. The point is that these regulations can easily affect different areas of your business. These restrictions may occur in how you label your products, how you plan and implement marketing campaigns, any possible health or eco-friendly claims you may make, and more importantly, how you advertise to kids. This is the reason that investors from other countries usually prefer to have local advertising partners that are aware of the working conditions, regulations, and official rules.
Rules and regulations of advertising and marketing in Iran give TV and radio commercials, print advertising, out-of-home advertising, and even social media advertising the freedom to express what they wish to publish, but they should not violate the Islamic principles or the civil code.
There is a countless number of laws in advertising in Iran but the following are the most crucial ones that all kinds of ads are obliged to follow in Iran:
- Producing and publishing irreligious articles or materials which are harmful to Islamic codes and promoting subjects that might damage the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Iran
- Broadcasting offensive and religiously banned materials and publishing crude pictures and issues which violate public civility
- Prompting people and groups to act in contradiction of the security, dignity, and interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran within or outside the country
- Insulting Islam and its holiness or offending the Leader of the Revolution and recognized religious officials (senior Islamic jurisprudents)
- Within all kinds of ads, men and women, especially women, must entirely obey the Islamic hijab that is precisely defined and stated in the Iranian constitution
- Running advertising campaigns is only acceptable for products and services whose qualities have been officially proved by one of the registered research centers in the country
- Rules and regulations of advertising in Iran about e-commerce push companies to deliver precise, exact, complete, and not-deceptive data of the products or services to the audience. Moreover, the name and identity of the person or company that benefits from this advertising have to be completely introduced to the users. Customers also should be given enough time and power to make decisions about sharing their personal information
The legal perspective of advertising and marketing in Iran is not limited to what we mentioned above which is not written anywhere else. There are many more regulations that any company must know before starting advertising in Iran.
Zigma8 | 360° Creative Communications as one of the leaders and world-class standard agencies in the Middle-east and Iran enjoys a team with more than 15 years of experience in creative, branding, and the advertising industry in Iran will provide you with all kinds of advertising for all types of businesses while considering the whole legal procedure precisely. Zigma8 would provide the best consults to get the most benefits out of the advertising and marketing processes in Iran. Moreover, our experienced lawyer partners would assist and guide companies and managers to achieve the most welcome situation in the Iranian market. To have a better notion of what we exactly do, check out our works, or just leave us a line at our contact in order to enable us to give you the best piece of advice.
