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As the summer heats up even more, so are the stories about influencer marketing. Whether it’s discussion of compelling results from campaigns that include social media creators or the FTC stepping up their enforcement of disclosure rules, the ION roundup of influencer marketing stories will keep you informed.
Ensuring Your Influencer Marketing Plays By FTC Rules
ION’s Take: The FTC keeps making more noise about their crackdown on influencer marketing scofflaws. While the government has restated their rules and pointed out brands that have been fined, it is clear that best practices are on a moving target. Thankfully, smart brands, influencers and even the media networks are doing their best to conform to the rules even in the ever-developing world of social media.
The FTC is again increasing enforcement of disclosure rules for influencer marketing, per a report on Bloomberg. Last year, the government laid out and heavily promoted updated influencer marketing rules it is now using to judge whether social media creators who feature products are sufficiently clear about their relationship to the brand involved.
One in Four Influencers Asked Not to Disclose Paid Promotion
ION’s Take: What were we saying? Well, most people are trying to play by the rules. AdAge reports that 1 in 4 influencers report that brands have specifically asked them to NOT disclose that they were paid to endorse or recommend a product. Unsurprisingly, this is mostly from simple two-sided marketplaces where influencers and brands link up without much regard to long-term partnerships. This isn’t really influencer marketing, it’s just paid placement. We talked about this before and it’s worth a read if you missed it.
Survey Offers Inside Look at Brand Partnerships One out of four influencers have been asked not to disclose their commercial arrangements with a brand.
Snapchat Is Letting More Brands Run Ads Between Friends’ Stories
ION’s Take: Snapchat has spent 2016 (the Year of Influencer Marketing, as we’ve called it) building up its ad-tech options and brands are starting to really buy into a platform they are starting to understand. While early Ghost marketing was mostly done on faith, Snapchat’s set up the experience to truly make their app like watching television, including those critical commercial breaks that are more effectively targeted on a specific user’s phone.
When Snapchat unleashed its ad-tech program Snap Partners in June with plans to serve video ads between stories, observers wondered how users would respond to seeing ads alongside their friends’ videos and photos. Two months in, Snapchat is already expanding its initial pilot to include more advertisers eager to reach the app’s 150 million daily users.
Bloggers and digital influencers are reshaping the fashion and beauty landscape
ION’s Take: Beauty and fashion were among the first industries to embrace influencer marketing because images are a huge part of their regular advertising. We’ve previously noted that influencer content is key for their growth with younger audiences that don’t look at physical magazines or watch television. Even so, the effectiveness of these campaigns is startling at times, as the Los Angeles Times reports.
In early June, Arielle Charnas of Something Navy posted about the Peter Thomas Roth Rose Stem Cell Bio-Repair Gel Mask on her Snapchat story. Then the frenzy happened: Within 24 hours after her story went live, the post was responsible for the sale of 502 masks, or $17,565 worth of product.
How Influencers Transcend Ever-Changing Ad Rules
ION’s Take: Tired of jumping through hoops for SEO every time Google makes an adjustment? Worry about how Facebook and Instagram algorithm changes will punish your organic growth? Influencer marketing may be just what you need to help fight this endless battle.
The FTC has been stepping up enforcement on paid endorsements, SEO is Google’s special, ever-changing little mystery and Facebook is cracking down on ads that users deem annoying. Just when you figure out what works, someone announces an update and it’s back to deciphering the new rules like Indiana Jones in a tomb-or is it?