Rules for social media’s ‘wild west’
Rugby stars and other social media ‘‘influencers’’ have been reminded of their obligations to their followers under consumer law.
The Advertising Standards Authority has released a new guidance note on ‘‘identification of advertisements’’, designed in part to set out the responsibilities of those who are offered payment or free samples to promote products to their followers.
The note says that where it is not obvious or well understood by the audience that content is an advertisement, all parties to it are responsible for ensuring the audience is aware.
The move follows the discovery that two prominent bloggers accepted payment to talk about Kmart in a television news story. Mary Foy and Melissa Jack were paid $500 each, half of which was in vouchers, to appear in the segment but did not disclose that to the journalists interviewing them.
University of Auckland marketing lecturer Rebecca Dolan said even a recent Instagram post by All Black Beauden Barrett, in which he posed with a magnum of Champagne at his engagement party, was close to breaking the rules if he was paid for the promo. There was no indication on the post that it was sponsored, except for the comment that it was a ‘‘limited edition gold bottle of Moet & Chandon’’.
She said influencers could also face problems under the Fair Trading Act if it was not made clear that content was paid for. AUT senior lecturer in marketing Sommer Kapitan said social media was a ‘‘wild west’’. ‘‘The landscape has changed so much, brands are trying to keep up.’’
Impact PR director Fleur RevellDevlin said brands could suffer if they were associated with a campaign that was not disclosed properly.
‘‘Across the ditch transparency has been required for some time, so it is great to see that it’s been formalised now with the ASA releasing influencer marketing guidelines. In NZ consumers may often see #sp on an Instagram post which shows it’s ‘sponsored content’’, but for even greater clarity #ad can be used.’’
In New Zealand, influencers get anything from $50 to $50,000 per post.