Consumers watch out for paid content label when influencers promote a brand

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If you’re a social media influencer or planning to become one, there is news for you. The latest guidelines from the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), which will come into effect today, have brought in some significant changes to influencer business.

Influencers who upload multimedia content across platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram must add a visible disclosure label to clarify if a post includes promotional content. These labels must be put at a place where no average consumer can miss them.

“If the sponsored content is a video, the disclosure label must stay in the video for a minimum of 3 seconds. For those longer than 2 minutes, the disclosure label must stay for the entire duration of the section where a product is being promoted. For audio posts, the disclosure must be clearly announced both at the beginning and the end,” the new guidelines state.

These guidelines, meant to bring greater transparency in the influencer market, will be applicable to all commercial messages and ads published from June 14, 2021.

It was difficult to distinguish between actual programs/content and paid advertisements unlike TV or newspaper, reasoned ASCI chairman Subhash Kamath behind the enforcement of new guidelines with respect to digital media platforms. Even the experts who were presented with the initial draft of these guidelines in February said it was rather ‘critical’ to be able to differentiate content from paid gigs.

The regulatory body also advised the influencer community to not make any false claims while promoting a product on social media. The creators should ideally review the products and services personally before promoting them online. This is important considering the insane following that influencers have, most of which are young adults. The viewer, under no circumstances whatsoever, must not be fooled with fake claims.

“We received an overwhelming positive engagement and feedback from influencers and others for the draft guidelines, as well as suggestions to finetune and clarify some points. After extensive discussions, we are now launching the final guidelines that balance the interests of consumers, influencers, agencies, advertisers, and all other stakeholders,” Kamath was quoted as saying.

He urges everyone to follow the ASCI Code and the guidelines and “be part of this change promising transparency and responsibility.”

A digital domain (asci.social) has also been launched by ASCI to display information related to the guidelines and engage with the community of influencers, marketers, agencies, and consumers.