FTC's first revision around endorsements & influencers for 14 years
The US Federal Trade Commission have issued new guidelines to mitigate some of the concerns surrounding influencer content and endorsements.
It has been 14 years since the guides have been revised, here are the top line pointers on the main revisions:
A new principle regarding procuring, suppressing, boosting, organising, publishing, upvoting, downvoting, or editing consumer reviews so as to distort what consumers think of a product;
Addressing incentivised reviews, reviews by employees, and fake negative reviews of a competitor;
Adding a definition of “clear and conspicuous” and saying that a platform’s built-in disclosure tool might not be an adequate disclosure;
Changing the definition of “endorsements” to clarify the extent to which it includes fake reviews, virtual influencers, and tags in social media;
Better explaining the potential liability of advertisers, endorsers, and intermediaries; and
Highlighting that child-directed advertising is of special concern.
Some key takeaways include:
Kids need to be protected differently to adults:
An important part of these revisions shone a light on the importance of establishing a difference in how marketing campaigns should differ and be more appropriate when the target audience is children. Disclosures that work with adults will not be as affective with children. However, The FTC has not provided any suggestions for this as of yet.
TikTok:
The FTC has indicated it considers that the text description on TikTok is in small print, doesn’t stand out, and it often doesn’t contrast against the background of the video. Also, TikTok videos often have many competing elements.
FTC position is that placing a disclosure in the text description is very unlikely to be clear and conspicuous. New guidelines suggest that if content creators want viewers to read something, they should superimpose much larger text over their videos.
Free stuff:
Creators often share their PR packages with their followers which interests a lot of viewers. However, using the word ‘’gifted’’ on it’s own with out a brand reference does not clearly provide transparency to consumers and is not sufficient .However, if an influencer states the product is ’’ gifted ‘’ by the brand the FTC has indicated this may denote when the creator receives a free product.
(Note: AiMCO does not support the use of “gifted” or “gift” in any form as this is not considered to be clear and transparent disclosure.)
Travel influencers:
Brand trips are becoming an increasingly popular marketing campaigns. When brands take creators on a paid trip, this must be disclosed on their social media, through hashtags and collaborative media. The only exception is if the creator posts an image of someone or something without tags or cues of the location that references the brand trip.
Two FTC documents provide all the info:
An 84-page tome titled: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising
and a FAQ webpage titled: FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking
This summary was sourced from Scott Guthrie, Director General, IMTB, (Influencer Marketing Trade Body UK).
For great updates on Northern Hemisphere and global news regarding influencer marketing, sign up to Scott’s newsletter here.