Bloggers and brands

[homebythesea]

I love blogs, YouTube, Instagram etc but sometimes do wonder what's in it for the brands especially regarding blogger events.

Straight up reviews of things they get sent I totally get- they try things on/ use a face cream, wax lyrical about how great the thing is, people click through and buy said item. Straightforward advertising. No problem with that at all.

But when a blogger is invited to a dinner, or night away at a hotel, or a movie premiere by a brand I just don't get what is worth the expense? From the blogger perspective they get a night out and a goodie bag and maybe even paid to attend. But what does the brand get in return? A brief tag on an Instagram pic, some photos of beautiful place settings at dinner......but not necessarily sales?? These events must cost thousands to put on.

Hopefully someone with some knowledge about these things will enlighten us!

Have any of you noticed erica davies has just put a post on Instagram stating she'll put a (g) beside anything she's gifted. I believe most of the bloggers are reading threads like these and are changing how they do things.

Of course bloggers are allowed to be gifted stuff, no one has said that they aren't. When someone politely asked whether her holiday was paid for though she did a ranty post about how awful people are and how of course she didn't get a free holiday because she would have said so if she did - perhaps its for those reasons that people don't question on IG? Discounts and gifts are forms of payment though and its disingenuous to suggest otherwise (I'm sure HMRC would agree ). Look at the Frugality and DMBL40 and there is a huge different in the levels of transparency about what is sponsored or paid for - and they often feature the same brands. Its really not that hard to get right.

The items I have from Hush were quite poor quality and did not wash well. I had that M&S cone up on my IG feed !
I really don't like Hill and friends bags and think they look like Mulberry copies but bizarrely more expensive.

Kat Farmer first and foremost is a mum. The blog was set up as a hobby. She’s done very well. She tags the sponsored post. She mentions gifts in her fine print. She is being offered some fab opportunities now, are we not happy for her? I think she makes it clear when she has been invited somewhere i.e. it’s a free.
Now the name calling is starting on me calling me a 'fan-girl.’
I am not.
However I like to support women.

I think the focus on DMBL40 is unnecessary as a previous poster said all the bloggers get free gifts.
Anyone with influence gets free gifts. Companies want to sell. When you see a pictures of Victoria Beckham/Kim Kardashian/Beyonce in a magazine (like vogue/grazia) it doesn’t say anything about it whether they payed for the clothes. Do you complain about that?

This sort of post really annoys me - clearly collaborative, but the only indication of that is midway through where she says something about “...received from White Stuff...”. If I hadn’t seen a gazillion other WS blogs/IG posts around the same time I might not have realised.

www.rachelthehat.com/2017/11/spots-and-dots-and-beauty-of-autumn.html

it would be very easy for bloggers to say exactly what has been gifted (or reduced). I wonder why there is a reluctance to do this.
I certainly have no beef if someone gets a discounted holiday but they should certainly say they have, so readers know in part, the post is advertising.

‘However I like to support women.’

🙄

PLEASE.

Clemmie Telford has just posted a story re her scarf. Tagged the company who made it, and stated #gifted.

See, it’s not hard, is it?

out out Can you please stop quoting me. It’s true I do support women. Yet I don’t need your eye roles- I get enough of them from my 13 year old.

Penny, I also like to support women who are making a success of their own businesses, but just tagging a bag isn't enough - it doesn't tell you whether you loved a product enough to hand over £1.8k of your own hard earned cash to buy it or whether it simply arrived in the post one day as a freebie in exchange for you posting a pretty picture of it to your 000s of followers. Influencers who don't reveal they are being paid to promote stuff simply makes me feel mugged off, and that's not supporting other women IMHO.

She divulged the holiday discount, because she was tipped off that others were talking about it elsewhere. Otherwise I think we’d have been none the wiser, well the tags gave it away, let’s be honest.

I’m a new member, but I’m not one that’s here to defend. I do like her blog, I don’t much like her on Instagram.

‘out out Can you please stop quoting me.’

Stop spouting bollocks about supporting women then.

Haha it’s not rubbish but hey, if you want to behave like a child go for it!

With the holiday the tags and some of the activities (cooking lesson) were a giveaway. However I suspect her husband is a total workaholic and she struggles with her son and seemed to have such a lovely time I didn’t begrudge it!

On a totally separate note Mother Pukka posted about a recent job interview where she brought the baby and breastfed it during the interview!!

@WipsGlitter I’ve really warmed to Mother Pukka. She gets the #gifted thing. Her post re that interview was interesting; I wonder which company it was?

I really like this blogger who does LOADS of brand work and paid posts, discloses every single one, yet still has believable content. On IG she is constantly #ad, but it doesn’t detract from her feed.

This is a recent paid-for holiday post which I think is done really nicely:

www.tigerlillyquinn.com/2017/10/martinhal-cascais.html#more

I completely agree WipsGlitter.
I think she deserves everything she gets. 6 years she has been writing and only recently has it taken off and she has benefited from her hard work. Just like a normal job, and you don’t have to disclose your earnings to the public.

Penny no one is hating or name calling here so I'm not sure what you're going on about. It's a discussion. Supporting women doesn't mean blindly fan girling over whatever women do, you know. You are still allowed to engage your brain and question things you don't think are right.

Mother Pukka is bloody brilliant.

Too many bloggers are opaquely vague about their relationships with brands. If I get paid for some stuff by (for example) Hush and then write a very detailed post about several items from their current collection then it’s a bit disingenuous to claim the post isn’t paid for, no?

Actually adverts are quite closely regulated. The ASA needs to grow some teeth and step up regarding these newer forms of advertising. And bloggers maybe need to think about their core audience and be careful not to alienate them.

Penny can you really not see that bloggers should disclose affiliations? Even just for authenticity, surely this would attract more people to your posts?

Its not about disclosing your earnings, its about disclosing that you have been paid to tell me how fabulous something is, and to try to encourage me to buy it. I don't give a toss about how much they get paid. Its about honesty.

Judydreamsofhorses that’s a good example - nice disclosure. I certainly don’t expect bloggers to work for free but there needs to be some transparency.

itsbeenalongtime you hit the nail on the head

Aw come on. I thought we were way beyond ‘women supporting women’.

Penny I think you’re personalizing this thread. It not just about Kat. But if you’ve a public Instagram account of >60,000 followers, you’re surely going to get negative press days.

It has been acknowledged here that bloggers work hard for every penny they make. Most here have said they have no issue with bloggers earning a living through their blog but be as transparent as everyone else who earns a living. Ffs, it’s not difficult.

Blogging is a business. Nowt wrong with that. Stop pretending it isn’t a business and cripes please don’t pretend you’re ‘just a mum’ . It’s a business and be professional about it.

like the problem with the ASA is that they don’t police advertising per se, they set out codes of conduct and guidelines, and they follow up on complaints - so the onus is on the public to flag up issues. Nike were one of the first advertisers to be done on this a few years back for a Twitter campaign with Wayne Rooney with no #ad. I think people will be quicker to notice that than some blogger extolling the virtues of Ted Baker.