The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently issued an updated set of endorsement guides for 2023. The updated FTC Endorsement Guidelines help to ensure brands are crystal clear on disclosure of endorsements resulting from paid or gifted partners (such as an influencer post), to ensure content is truthful and not misleading. What do the FTC’s Revised Endorsement Guides mean for brands when it comes to influencer marketing?
Defining Endorsements
According to the FTC, the updated guides “reflect the basic truth-in-advertising principle that endorsements must be honest and not misleading.” And, “an endorsement must reflect the honest opinion of the endorser and can’t be used to make a claim the marketer of the product couldn’t legally make.”
One of the key changes in the new guidelines is the expansion of the definition of ‘endorsement.’ This is meant to clarify to what extent to which it includes fake reviews, virtual influencers, and tags in social media. The previous definition only included endorsements that were made explicitly. For example, someone saying “I love this product” or “This product is sponsored by X brand.” The new definition also includes endorsements that are made implicitly, like when an influencer posts a video using a product without explicitly stating that they have been compensated for the post.
Other Key Changes
In addition to the definition of endorsement, there are other key changes in the updated FTC guidelines. These include:
- Articulating a new principle regarding procuring, suppressing, boosting, organizing, publishing, upvoting, downvoting, or editing consumer reviews so as to distort what consumers think of a product.
- Addressing incentivized reviews, reviews by employees, and fake negative reviews of a competitor.
- Adding a definition of “clear and conspicuous” and saying that a platform’s built-in disclosure tool might not be an adequate disclosure.
- Better explaining the potential liability of advertisers, endorsers, and intermediaries.
- Highlighting that child-directed advertising is of special concern.
FTC Endorsement Guidelines: Tips for Brands
Working with influencers is a huge part of marketing today. It’s essential to have a process in place every time you work with an influencer, even if it’s just one piece of content. Here are some best practices for brands when working with influencers, to stay compliant with the revised version of the FTC Endorsement Guidelines.
- Ensure a structured vetting process is in place in every campaign: Vetting is an integral part of any influencer campaign. Doing a deep dive of their social channels – including what type of content they post, the engagement they receive and past brands they’ve worked with – is important to know if they are a good fit. Not only that but ensure the influencer you select has the know-how of working within FTC guidelines and disclosing past campaigns. This is especially important on campaigns for brands that are more highly regulated, such as pharma and finance where deeper vetting comes into play.
- Clear and conspicuous disclosures should be non-negotiables: The updated guidelines aren’t clear if something like the Instagram “Paid Partnership” tag is enough, so it’s best also to have influencers continue to disclose the partnership with #Ad or #SponsoredPost prominently in every piece of content. This means for social media captions, have this at the beginning or very top, and on each story frame. It should be very apparent to those reading or watching the content. Even if the campaign is non-financial such as being gifted free products or services, that should be made abundantly clear.
- Determine guidelines when working with children: If influencers use children in their content, review The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) before developing a campaign agreement with any influencer. The COPPA FAQs can help keep you compliant.
- Be aware of the FTC’s rules on fake reviews. As a no-brainer, do not post fake reviews, and do not ask others to post fake reviews for you.
- Have influencers test and use products before creating content: If an influencer is using your product for the first time, testing is key. This gives them the opportunity to see if it’s something they want to endorse. If for some reason they do not have success with your product, release them and move on to another influencer who has, to ensure every influencer on your campaign is a true brand ambassador. That’s why it’s helpful to select more influencers than you need at the beginning, in case you need a backup or two.
- Take a look at the FTC’s “What People Are Asking” Page: There are a lot of scenarios when it comes to posting on social media. This page goes into a lot of great detail that you may have run into before. Questions such as, “If I upload a video to TikTok and that video requires a disclosure, can I put the disclosure in the text description of the video?” and “If a brand (for example, a tourism organization) is sponsoring a trip for an influencer, does every single post the influencer posts while in that destination need to include a disclosure like #ad?” Staying up to date on these questions and any new guidelines released will keep you well-versed in this ever-evolving space.
What do the FTC’s Revised Endorsement Guides mean for brands? It’s instrumental to be highly aware of every step of the process when it comes to influencer marketing. The Guides are an important step for any credible brand to ensure any influencer content is truthful and not misleading. By following these tips, you can help to protect your brand integrity, and build trust with your audience.
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