We’ve all come across influencers – whether across our social feeds, following someone of interest or inspiration via their own online blog, or our favourite “celebrities” (NB: We might have slightly different views on what a celebrity is these days, but it all means the same here…). Essentially if they are influencing you to take an action, think in a specific way or more commonly, make a purchase, then we can assume that they are an influencer.
But how can we work with influencers, without breeching advertising laws or regulations? (Something that can be very costly – both financially and reputationally!)
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all media. Its work includes acting on complaints and proactively engaging with advertisers to make all UK ads responsible.
Recently, we encountered a breech notice from ASA via one of our clients.
Looking into the “breech” we established that actually, the lines really are quite blurred and what we might think is acceptable or working legitimately, might not stack up for the ASA. So, we thought we’d share some thoughts and learnings…
For the brand:
- If you’re paying an individual, or gifting them an item, a stay or service then you are considered to be “commercially connected” and therefore, any related content that is being shared needs to be clearly marked that it is advertising.
- Where you have an element of “editorial control” – be that, signing off a social post or asking to include hashtags, tags or links – then you are in a partnership and you need to advise the influencer to disclose this.
- Communications with the influencer need to clearly indicate that you have advised them to mark their posts as an advert – with something like “AD”, “#AD” or “#ADVERT” at the start of their copy. Ensure you have written confirmation of this, for example, an email, just in case you need the evidence!
- The “Paid Partnership” tag on Instagram is not enough, particularly where the background of a video (for example) changes and makes it hard to be seen, clearly and consistently – therefore it’s important to encourage your influencer to also post the word “AD”.
- Where the influencer is part of an affiliate programme or they are posting links which direct traffic to discounts or to purchase, or where they will receive a commission for sales or clickthroughs, also needs to be clearly marked.
For the influencer:
- Payment doesn’t always have to mean money being transferred to your bank account. It can include gifts in the form of clothing, technology or food, hotel and/or attraction stays and visits, restaurant bookings, and paid-for services such as boat berthing, mortgages, wills, consultations etc. The list really is endless!
- Where the partnership is more formal and/or longer term – such as being an ambassador or partner – it is important that this is also disclosed with clear written words, such as brand partner, ambassador etc.
- If you do not have complete control over your content, including whether you post about the gift or not, and if you weren’t completely free to do and say whatever you wanted whenever you wanted, or to do absolutely nothing at all, then there is a level of editorial control by the brand – which must be highlighted in your copy.
- Disclosure must be clear, concise and obvious to your audience. Often you’ll see posts online where “AD” is written in a light colour or hidden by other objects in the photo or video, which breeches the conditions of the regulations.
All of these points are the responsibility of both the brand and the influencer, ensuring that content is properly disclosed and not obstructed or hidden at any point. This is being actively enforced by statutory bodies such as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Trading Standards Services, as well as by the ASA. You will also find consumers are hot on this too, and are actively calling out brands and influencers about being transparent where there are payments or “gifts in kind” being transferred.
You have been warned.
The wonderful ADPR team has written a blog about what the ASA guidelines cover – read more here: www.adpr.co.uk/blog/social-media/how-to-work-with-influencers-within-the-asa-guidelines
And as a final note, which we thought was important to add to reassure you all – we hadn’t breeched the ASA regulations and no penalties were issued, however it was a useful reminder to review and tighten our processes, and ensure we are consistently acting within the guidelines – for ourselves, our clients and our influencer partners.
For more information about what the organisation does, please visit the website, www.asa.org.uk.