A ruling against the practice of “gifting” influencers gives the sector a clear way to move forward when seeking to work with content creators.
Influencer Rozalia Russian earlier this year posted an image to her Instagram of a bottle of Tom Ford perfume she was gifted by the brand with the capiton “Summer in a bottle @tomfordbeauty”.
Under new rules from the Australian Association of National Advertisers’s (AANA) Code of Ethics, sponsored Instagram posts must be identified with appropriate tags. Ad Standards found that Russian’s post breached the code for not distinguishing it as an ad, even though the influencer was not asked, or required to, by Tom Ford.
The practice of gifting is prevalent throughout the industry, particularly from premium brands who can gain exposure through organic posts for the value of their products, as well as upcoming brands looking to boost their reach with a small budget.
Experts have welcomed the ruling, saying it brings clarity on an issue that’s been a “grey area”.
“I believe the ruling gives us absolute clarity to work with as an industry to build confidence in a path forward,” says Social Soup CEO and founder Sharyn Smith.
“Gaining exposure for products through gifting is a very prevalent measure for brands and in particular the PR industry as they have often worked with media in this way. As the media needs to clearly disclose any gifting in their editorial, so must influencers.
“Influencers are the new media in the industry and must abide by the same rules to clearly distinguish from organic content.”
The ruling won’t slow down the practice of “gifting” across the industry but it does mean brands, particularly smaller businesses, have to be aware of their requirements.
“The act of gifting products to influencers with no terms and conditions is definitely over, brands need to take responsibility for how the influencer will post,” Smith says.
“No gifting should happen without terms and conditions for the influencer that if they are going to post about the gifted product they need to have clear disclosure it is an ad and the product has been provided to them for free to trial.”
Smith says the ruling provides a chance to educate the market, with Australian Influencer Marketing Council (AiMCO) to release new guidelines on gifting.
“This is all about building best practice and more trust in the influencer marketing industry,” Smith says.
“It also shows why brands should be working with experts and expert agencies to help guide them through this process to ensure their brand doesn’t end up in an ad standards case.
“I’m not surprised as lots of brands don’t engage in paid influencer work particularly if they are a premium brand and their product has high status, market appeal and value.
“Brands need to be aware that the value of the product is considered a payment so money doesn’t need to change hands for it to be a paid promotion. The Tom Ford case is a perfect example that even though they didn’t attempt to control the post through a brief to the influencer or require them to post the act of gifting should have come with terms and conditions for ad disclosure.”
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