Bloggers and Brands 3

[CookingUpAStormTonight]

New thread I hope.

They are probably already registered as business accounts. I would be surprised if they weren't. Instagram could easily make changes to make things more transparent but appears to only to do so when pushed (eg by the FTC in the US).

Every blogger you mention already has a business account, they have access to functionality and analytics personal users don’t. Which enables them to fine tune their —advertising— content to their audience before we even see it. Content is very specifically designed and timed accordingly to the demographic they are marketing to. Selling. The blue tick next to their name is one giveaway for example.

All the blue tick means is that it is a verified account. Looking through the people I follow, at a glance I'd have no idea that a lot of them are using their accounts to make money.

And that's the core point on these threads: IG is flooded with stealth advertising. It is a really poor way to run a business and it's the reason the ASA has to have guidelines because not all business people behave in an ethical manner. Followers have a right not to be treated like idiots. (For that matter, more vulnerable followers have a right to disclosure.)

Be transparent and the customers who care are happy and it has no impact on the customers who don't care one way or the other.

I note CLTS has a Matalan #ad this morning, is she coming round to the idea?

@Katay. I think CLTS does declare #ads but not #gifts. Though I don’t think she’s had many advert assignments, mostly seems to be gifts which she’s frabftom transparent about.

It will be interesting to see if she ever wears those Matalan jeans or dungarees again. Not a shop you can see her buying clothes in herself and the black jeans with the lace tie-ups definitely wouldn’t be something she’d buy herself. Not her style at all!

Previous post should read ‘far from transparent about’.

Ah I see. Yes I hadn't pictured her in those lace-up jeans either!

I laughed when I saw that ad on CLTS this morning. As if she would touch matalan with a barge pole if she wasn’t being paid for it! Glad she is showing it’s an #ad at least.

The responses to sunnydays in the attached screenshots sum up my feelings on this. Not sure if Lisa Dawson's comments re the ASA guidelines are correct but if they are then it is obviously up to the blogger whether they use #gift.

Re the Matalan ad, who cares whether Chloe actually wears Matalan clothes or not? (I agree she probably doesn't). I don't wear much if anything from Primark but if they wanted to pay me to wear a few things and link it on Instagram I'd be happy to, as long as it was the sort of style I'd usually wear.

That’s the benefit of using #gift or #ad. Knowing it’s only an advert.

Doesn’t bother me if something is an ad as long as it’s clearly noted as one.

When we know it’s an #ad we can raise our eyebrows at the ‘I’d only feature what I’d buy myself’ comments that have been rolled out before - clearly not the case for CLTS and those black lace Matalan jeans!!

@sofia lemon. Are you a blogger ? And I don’t think you should be copying clips from Instagram here.

No I'm not a blogger, I've followed quite a few of those mentioned on here for years and find many of the comments on these threads quite bitchy. I also think there's a lot of slating of specific bloggers but then when said blogger appears on here there's a complete turnaround.

I'll not comment anymore, my view is if you don't like an instagrammers content then unfollow. Quite a few posters on here seem to be following certain bloggers just to pick them apart and check they are using #ad #gift etc. It's quite pathetic really.

Just to add I've no idea re the rules on screenshots but assume Mumsnet will delete if necessary.

There may have been a turnaround towards specific bloggers when they’ve posted here but that is because they’ve debated in a rational and calm way and listened to feedback. All good and positive.

This has been covered so many times on this thread before. The gifting rules are murky which is why bloggers and brands exploit them. ASA rules don't explicitly cover them because the content isn't controlled by the brand. But as that blogger said herself, there is no such thing as a gift, its a business collaboration - an ad. At the end of the day it also comes down to business ethics. Do you want to be honest with your followers/customers? Yes, then disclose the relationship. If you don't, don't disclose a gift but don't be surprised if some people don't like that and don't like your ethics.

I really don't see what the problem is. When I see bloggers talk about a gift from a brand openly, they tend to talk about the story behind the brand and the quality of the stuff they have been sent and the message is so much more powerful (and valuable) to the brand than just tagging it and being like "oh, this old thing? I got it from X" when asked by a follower where its from. Bloggers talk about supporting small brands but they do it better (from my perspective as a consumer) when they are open about the relationship.

I think Lisa Dawson is wrong.

From the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) blog:

"What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a technique that has evolved alongside the rise of social media and modern technology.

It involves brands engaging with figures popular on social networks such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to discuss, photograph, recommend and sometimes just insert themselves into conversations about a product.

Sometimes these engagements are authentic in nature and the “influencer” may just be posting a genuine opinion. In such cases, these posts are not considered ads.

However when the brand has control over the content of the post and rewards the influencer with a payment, free gift, or other perk, the post becomes an ad. If the commercial intent isn't clear from the overall context of the communication, it should be labelled as an ad so as not to break the ASA’s rules and mislead the influencer's audience.

Consumers should always be aware when they are being advertised to. Failure to disclose the commercial relationship an influencer may leave a brand at risk of a complaint to the ASA."

www.asa.org.uk/news/online-influencers-is-it-an-ad.html

And the actual guidelines:

www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/affiliate-marketing.html

And a really clear, simplified summary - NB. disclosure should be at the TOP of a post and gifts should be disclosed as gifts:

www.4psmarketing.com/blog/new-asa-guidelines-simplified/

Yeah but I think what she is saying is that if she gets sent a candle and they say "hope you like it!" and there is no obligation to say anything then its not covered by the ASA rules, whereas if she was sent a candle and asked to mention about how its made from organic soy and smells of the essence of the Cornish countryside, and she does, then its an ad, because the brand controlled the content of the post.

The thing is, nobody sends me candles with a note to say "hope you like it!" because I don't have 30k followers and post about interiors, so I am of no use to them. They only get sent the 'gifts' because of the potential commercial value they can offer the brand. So its not a gift in the sense that you and I receive gifts.

Nobody would just randomly send something though, would they? They all want something out of it. I think the rules are still quite murky.

I've been asked if I would like products because of my IG account. They range from: 'we'd like to send you 'x' product, and if you like them, we'd love it if you did a post mentioning it' to 'we'd like to send you 'y' product and in return we expect two instagram stories and a post about it'. None of the companies have mentioned that I'd have to state it was an advert because, I assume, they wouldn't be paying actual money.

The last link I posted advises:

"The level at which brand input into influencer content becomes ‘editorial control’ is still a little ambiguous. Our recommendation is that if the gift is provided as part of straightforward PR activity to gain coverage, without stipulating to the influencer that certain terms and keywords be mentioned, any content would not need to be labelled as an advertisement. It will still need to be disclosed that the brand gifted the item."

And -

"The ASA has always recommended that you signal advertorial content as soon as possible. However, platforms that are available as a visual feed, like Instagram, now need to include the word ‘ad’ on the image itself for any paid-for posts. This is to ensure that viewers know which posts are advertorial before they click through to the description.

In social posts such as this, we’d recommend including the word ‘ad’ in one corner of the image, so as to comply with the guidelines while impacting the subject and quality of the image as little as possible. We would also recommend using ‘#ad’ in all social post captions."

Imagine that!

I still can't understand why any blogger wouldn't disclose. You look more professional, more ethical and can offer better value to the brands so are more likely to be the kind of blogger they would want to work with. As a consumer, I would look forward to reading about posts about new brands and the story behind them and I would be more inclined to buy as a result.
This article is a good read and gives more background to be regulators stance on gifts (although I'm surprised at the statistics at the end of the article). Undisclosed gifting is described as 'bad journalism'. I think bloggers really need to decide what type of writer they want to be.
www.vuelio.com/uk/blog/regulators-on-influencers/

SofiaLemon if you don't like the opinions here don't follow the thread... oh wait....

Who is CLTS??

sanpelligrino I find many of the opinions on here (calling Esther Coren a pisshead for example) unnecessary. There's a lot of very bitchy comments which are not relevant in any way.

The threads have made me more aware just how much stuff is gifted, but personally it doesn't bother me if the bloggers disclose this or not.