Legal Benefits of Using Influencer Marketing

As a business owner, getting your product in front of potential consumers is critical. One of the most common ways of doing this is through advertising. Nowadays, many UK companies are engaging in influencer marketing through social media. This article will explore influencer marketing and how it can benefit your company by improving your product’s visibility to potential customers.

What Does Influencer Marketing Mean?

Some people erroneously believe that influencer marketing is another way of describing advertising through social media. Influencer marketing involves asking an individual (known as the influencer) to make social media posts concerning your products or services. So, rather than simply posting an advertisement on Facebook, you would ask an individual to post positive comments about your product or services on their social media platforms.  

An Example

Let us suppose your business specialises in the production of video game consoles. In this case, you would benefit from finding a video game influencer with a sizable following across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Given a majority of their followers will subscribe to their video game content, any positive social posts an influencer makes about your product will hit your target audience.

Let us consider some specific advantages of influencer marketing in the UK below.

1. Lawful Targeted Advertising

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is responsible for print and online marketing rules in the UK. However, in relation to influencer marketing, their rules are relatively straightforward and sensible and include the following:

• the social media post must be accurate concerning the product or service (for example, an influencer cannot drive a car and give a false top speed); 
• any written, visual or audio social media post must explicitly state that it is an advertisement if the influencer receives monies to mention the product or service; and
• the influencer must actually try the product or service before making any claims about using it.

The most common issue arises when the influencer does not expressly state that the post is an advertisement. However, this risk lies with the influencer, not the business involved. Furthermore, given the recent headlines, many influencers are now very careful to make this clear and avoid ASA fines.

2. Low Cost

Traditional advertising can be costly, whether through electronic billboards or adverts within print publications. However, subject to the popularity of the influencer, marketing by influencer content creators can be much cheaper. This can especially be the case when mindful of the targeted nature of influencer marketing.

So, for example, it is better to get your new car in front of 10 million viewers of a popular automotive review Youtube star rather than 12 million viewers of a newspaper (where only a fraction may be interested in new cars).

3. Recorded Within an Influencer Agreement

An influencer agreement is a specific legal agreement that sets the terms for an influencer marketing campaign. This document allows your company to have good control over the social media marketing strategy (and comments about your service and product) and set payment terms.

Whilst influencer agreements differ according to the exact advertising deal struck between parties, most will address some of the following points:

• which social networks the influencer will post on;
• whether the social media posts will be in written, visual or audio format;
• how many social media postings the business wishes to pay for;
• whether the instructing company will pay per post or per view (for example, some deals pay a fixed rate and then an additional fee per 100,000 viewers); 
• any exclusivity terms (for instance, that the influencer agrees not to engage in the marketing of similar or rival products for three months); and
• confirmation that the influencer can only use the company’s intellectual property (usually images of the product or service) for influencer marketing and nothing further.

These restrictions help protect the instructing business whilst also giving the influencer certainty about payment terms and what the company wishes them to do.

Key Takeaways

Influencer marketing is a vital part of modern marketing in the UK. Social media usage in the UK is ever-increasing, particularly with the rise of affordable smartphones. In this way, digital marketing through social media platforms is an increasingly effective way of getting your product or service into the eye line of millions of people.

However, it is vital to understand the obligations placed on your business by the ASA and the benefits of legal certainty under an influencer agreement. Given the need to tailor these types of agreements, many business owners will obtain legal support to ensure the marketing arrangement is airtight.

If you need help using influencer marketing and Influencer Agreements, our experienced ecommerce and online business lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page. 

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