Coca-Cola general manager for Great Britain and Ireland Jon Woods says regulations around behavioural targeting will be the biggest regulatory challenge in 2012.

Speaking at the ISBA Annual Conference today, Woods said that the ePrivacy Directive would be a challenge for marketers this year but the key to tackling it would be to show transparency in the use of consumer data and cookies.

“We need to be transparent about what data is being taken and what cookies are being used so that consumers feel confident using our brands,” said Woods.

2011 was a significant year for regulation, he said, citing the Bailey Report, the expansion of the ASA remit to include brands’ own websites and the continuing challenge to establish a single online currency. He said the industry had responded well, with the Government seeing the benefits to responsible self regulation.

Woods said that generally, digital was a challenge in terms of regulation because of the pace of change.

“The issue is that the agencies we rely on to manage digital are experts but this might mean that they learnt this yesterday and are telling us today because it moves so fast,” he said.

Coca-Cola has recently updated its Responsible Marketing Code in direct response to the challenges digital has presented.