In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses must embrace adaptation while upholding their core values and ethical standards.
Mad Fish Digital, a B Corp-certified digital marketing agency, has always been at the forefront of adapting to our changing industry, driven by our core principles of accountability, collaboration, and innovation. We are proud to introduce our new Ethical Marketing Policy as part of our ongoing commitment to ethical growth and transparency in the digital marketing industry.
Why Ethical Marketing Matters
The modern-day Internet now serves as our critical platform for communication, commerce, and information dissemination. As it continues to evolve and permeate every aspect of daily life, so do the challenges it presents. Unethical marketing practices can erode trust, exploit users, and harm society and the environment. Mad Fish Digital recognizes these challenges and believes in being part of the solution.
Our Commitments
Mad Fish Digital launched nearly 20 years ago with an established company code of ethics. This code has served as our fundamental platform for operating. It provides assurances to our clients that we will be elevating their SEO and paid marketing efforts above that of blackhat tactics and questionable strategies.
As our industry has evolved and our services have expanded, we are excited to take that code of ethics and expand it into our Ethical Marketing Policy. This policy will continue to guide our team and ensure our clients’ work aligns with the highest ethical and legal standards.
In developing this policy, our B Team collaborated with leadership to identify critical ethical concerns within our industry and establish our company’s evolving approach to addressing them.
Our policy explores several key areas:
- Honesty in Marketing
- Rejecting Impact Washing
- Cultural Sensitivity in Campaign Creative
- Accessibility
- Permission-Based Marketing
- Ethical Digital Advertising
- Ethical Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Ongoing Service Reflections and Evolution
At Mad Fish Digital, our challenge lies in staying abreast of the rapid shifts in internet technology, digital marketing channels, and their integration into society. We strive to create opportunities for ongoing education regarding the ethical implications of these changes.
Part of our ethical marketing policy work is establishing regular evaluations and iterations. Our leadership team has created a regular cadence to complete assessments of our services through an ethical and legal lens.
Furthermore, we recognize that emerging technologies evolve rapidly, presenting both opportunities and challenges. We are always committed to innovating if it can help support our clients’ missions and strategic goals. With our ethical marketing policy in place, we are committed to also evaluating emerging technologies for their potential ethical, social, environmental, and legal challenges. We hope to be able to recommend new tools when they align with our values and benefit all stakeholders.
Commitment to the Future
At Mad Fish Digital, ethical marketing isn’t just a policy; it’s our guiding philosophy. As we embrace change and innovation, our commitment to ethics remains unwavering. We believe that by setting higher standards, we can contribute to a digital landscape that serves everyone with integrity, respect, and transparency. We hope by sharing our ethical marketing policy with others, we can all create a brighter, more ethical online future.
About the Author
Corrie Herman is the co-founder and Chief Financial Officer at Mad Fish Digital. Since 2018, she has been working with Mad Fish Digital’s Social Impact / B Team advising on how the agency can continue to serve the needs of its people and the planet. Corrie is currently the Finance and Governance Chair for the Local Portland B Corp Chapter, B Local PDX.
