Updated Guidance For Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has become mainstream practice and social media influencers are regularly approached by brands to post on their social media accounts and promote the brands’ products or services.

The Committee of Advertising Practice has updated its guide for influencers to help them stick to the rules by making clear when their content is advertising. The guide is not only a useful tool for influencers but helpful for brands and agencies.

The ‘Influencers’ guide to making clear that ads are ads’ is a best-practice guide on how to ensure that advertising content posted by influencers is clear about what it is.

Under the CAP Code ads ‘must be obviously identifiable as such’. This means that consumers should be able to recognise that something is an ad, without having to click or otherwise interact with it.

The guide explains laws and rules that apply to influencers and how they should follow these rules for the benefit of their audience and the wider influencer marketing industry. It also includes a handy flowchart to help users quickly work out whether a post needs to make clear that it’s an ad.

This ‘Influencers’ guide’ sets out:

What the rules are.

When content should be disclosed.

Advice around affiliate marketing.

How to make clear ads are ads.

Visual examples of best practice.

What happens if content isn’t disclosed

SMB advises its clients, which include social media influencers, online publishers and brands on compliance with the various advertising laws in place.

If you require any further information please contact Annika Chauhan at annika.chauhan@smb.london.

CAP’s press release is available by following the below link

https://www.asa.org.uk/news/updated-guidance-for-influencer-marketing.html?dm_i=4PDW%2cSZ32%2c7Y30Q%2c3M59C%2c1