Regulating influencer marketing – what next?
If this is an area that interests you the article is probably worth reading in full, but in this opinion piece responding to the ASA’s review of how paid-for influencer marketing is signposted online and received by consumers, our MD, Sarah Burns, discussed the ASA’s approach to CAP code compliance on social media, making the point that, “#Ad is a blunt instrument that doesn’t reflect the subtleties and nuances of brand/influencer relationships, so what we need is a larger set of hashtags to choose, from so that we can come closer to representing the complexities of those commercial relationships. Those hashtags need to be intuitive and obvious and, of course, there needs to be an accompanying online and offline campaign to make the public aware of what their usage means.”
She also suggested that, ‘Maybe that [‘paid for’] message should appear in one form on Twitter, where characters are still in short supply and better use could perhaps be made of symbols or emoticons, and in another form on an Instagram story where an opening screen or flash that doesn’t compromise the content could be made mandatory, or perhaps the ASA could formally accept that Instagram’s ‘paid partnership’ feature is an acceptable label for paid-for content.”
Sarah concluded by saying, “Future influencer marketing regulation may not need to be so literal, but right now, when influencer marketing is still in its infancy, we need that transparency. The ASA is faced with a major challenge, but I hope the solutions it comes up with are bold and imaginative, because they need to be.”
Prizeology is able to support you with influencer marketing compliance and social media promotions.
