Love Ad First Sight

Last month, Geordie reality TV star Marnie Simpson found herself in hot water with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for uploading images of products she was apparently ‘in love’ with to Snapchat.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with using social media as a platform to brag – that’s the reason many of us use it – however, the fundamental error here was Marnie failed to clearly indicate that they were adverts featuring products from two companies she has paid business relationships with. This is certainly not news for Instagram, but it was a first for Snapchat. The ephemeral nature of the platform meant Marnie was not forced to remove any posts, but this is an area the ASA will be watching like a hawk from now on, despite how tricky it will be to police.

Influencer marketing rules were clarified in April, when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hailed a crackdown on branded content from social media influencers whose posts aren’t clearly identifiable as advertising. The FTC said anyone with a material connection to an advertiser needed to make the existence of that connection clear. That could mean adding ‘#sponsored’, ‘#spon’ and ‘#ad’ to a post’s caption.

Nowadays, it’s very difficult to escape the #spon (not even your Ad Blocker Google Chrome extension will get rid of this) so it’s time to get used to this rule. Though this will be challenging, consumers usually have very visceral reactions to these hashtags – they can often be a turnoff for consumer engagement and a repellent for the ‘double tap’ on Instagram. They can remove the sense of being spoken to by someone the user really trusts. If an influencer hasn’t used their own hard-earned cash to invest in the product, an endorsement can come across as disingenuous.

The dream for a brand would be to achieve free product placements from celebrities and influencers organically, but this can be very tough in today’s pay-to-play world. Marketing budgets are expanding as influencer activity becomes more of a must-have for brands, so the only way to be successful is to stick to the rules. Ultimately, it falls to brands and agencies to make sure the influencers they pay to promote their products are abiding by social advertising guidelines, so make sure you aren’t deceiving consumers with vague endorsements.

The rules are simple here for us PR pros – be transparent with your consumers with identifiable ads and pick your influencers very carefully. The key is to always be upfront about any paid endorsements, even if this might impact levels of engagements. In the end, the reputation of your brand is of upmost importance to foster brand loyalty, build brand advocates and grow an online community that truly loves your product. Tarnishing this by failing to comply with simple advertising standards – and deceiving consumers in the process – will have a bigger impact on your brand in the long term.