Firstly, about time, in my opinion! The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed the widespread failure of influencers to disclose advertising. As someone who knows the legislation, it absolutely infuriates me when I can see products being promoted and the advert is not revealed. Or it is hidden or put in the wrong place.
The ASA reveals widespread failures in influencers
The ASA has published the findings of their proactive monitoring of influencer posts. It was to gauge whether influencers are sticking to the rules of clearly signposted adverts. However, it was not surprising to see that those adhering to the procedures were far below what is expected.
The review took place in September 2020 over three weeks. It looked at 122 UK based influencers. Assessing whether advertising content was being correctly disclosed. It meant looking at over 24,000 Instagram Stories, grid posts, IGTV and Reels. Instagram was the focus of the exercise, as this is where the majority of complaints to the ASA come from.
So, there is extensive advice, training and easy to understand resources provided to help the influencer marking community. It is also the responsibility of companies and brands to be aware of the advertising rules. Despite this, the report found that only 35% of Stories with advertising were clearly labelled. (What?!!!)
What did the report find?
In summary, the ASA reveals widespread failures:
- Inconsistent disclosure across Stories – when a piece of ad content spans several consecutive Stories unless it’s absolutely clear that this is part of the same posting, each Story must be disclosed as an ad
- Inconsistent disclosure across Stories, IGTV, Reels, posts – there were noted instances where a post would be accurately disclosed as an ad, but a corresponding Story was not
- Visibility of ad labels – where Stories were labelled as ads, noted labels were sometimes in a small font, obscured by the platform architecture or otherwise difficult to spot; mainly due to being in a very similar colour to the background of the Story where it was placed
- Affiliate content is still an ad – the use of #affiliate or #aff with no additional upfront disclosure; those labels are not likely to be enough on their own to disclose to users the advertising nature of the content
- Own-brand ads – influencers should not rely on bios or past posts to make it clear to consumers that they are connected to a product
Finally, the influencers who were monitored have all been contacted, plus a number of brands, and they have been put on notice. Moreover, if future spot checks on any platform reveal problems, enforcement action will take place.
Follow the rules
Using social media and Instagram is a great way to make money on Instagram. Above all, it is essential to appropriately disclose sponsorship or affiliate links. The ad rules are clear: it must be obvious to consumers before they read, ‘like’ or otherwise interact with the social media post. The most straightforward way of communicating the commercial nature is to use the below as the first word of the post. Alternatively, you can use the tools of the platform, such as Instagram’s Paid Partnership, to help distinguish advertising.
Ad
#Ad
Advert
Advertisement
Ad | Affiliate
This post contains affiliate links
#Ad #Affiliate
So, I fully support the review and am glad it took place. Well done, ASA, well done. However, the review has only targeted ‘big fish’. Those not in the limelight or with smaller follower numbers will continue to do this incorrectly – daily.
