Who: The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
Where: United Kingdom
When: 17 April 2023
Law stated as at: 23 March 2023
What happened:
The ASA has recently updated its guidance on influencer marketing following various ASA rulings and a consultation with key industry stakeholders.
The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) partnered with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to publish the influencer guidance (known as the Influencers’ Guide) in September 2018 amid the rise of influence marketing on social media platforms. The guide is a best-practice guide, which provides advice around affiliate marketing, the rules on when content should be disclosed and how to make clear that ads are ads.
The Influencers’ Guide reinforces that influencers should understand that their followers and other social media users must be able to recognise an online ad as commercial content. The risk of failing to disclose this information is that the ads could be deemed as misleading and therefore breach consumer protection laws. The ASA and CMA expect paid-for endorsements to use clear labels like #Ad or #Advert on marketing content, including paid-for influence social media posts; posts about a gifted product; and posts as part of a brand collaboration.
Other important updates include:
- Guidance on the disclosures required for paid collaborations, gifts and affiliate-links, ambassadorship (whether paid or and non-paid), and where the influencer has a commercial connection to a particular brand (for example they are a shareholder or owner); and
- Links to resources which provide influencers with a number of scenarios in which when they may or may not need to disclose their content is advertising.
Key advice resources
The Influencers’ Guide is part of the ASA’s bank of resources on influencer marketing which aim to help influences and marketers ensure that their ads are compliant. Other resources include:
- Self-help tool: The ASA has a self-help tool which can be used by influencers to help identify when their social media content is advertising.
- Infographics: a flow-chart that influencers can use to decide whether their posts need an ad disclosure. Questions such as “have you received or are you receiving money for promoting a third-party product / service / brand…” can be asked to influencers to determine whether their content is an ad which needs to be disclosed.
- Cheat Sheet: some handy tips for influencers for declaring ads on social media and some of the key things to keep in mind, including guidance on discount codes, gifts and the use of hashtags.
- CAP insights and webinars: news-style and short-form articles and webinars produced by ASA experts.
Why this matters:
Although the Influencers’ Guide and other resources have been written with the influencer in mind, the ASA’s guidance is also important reading for brands and marketing agencies. Influencers should be aware that the ASA can take action to ban ads that are not properly labelled and impose further sanctions where an influencer still fails with comply with the rules.
Where a brand also has “editorial control” over the relevant content, the ASA can take action under the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing. Advertisers should always ensure that consumers are made aware of when they are being advertised to. Brands and influencers are responsible for ensuring the content makes this very clear. A failure to disclose the commercial relationship between the influencer and the brand could leave both parties at risk of action from the regulator.
