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Business News/ Opinion / Views/  Our influencers should disclose their sponsors
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Our influencers should disclose their sponsors

Those who convert their social media sway into earnings by endorsing products and services need to be upfront about such commercial deals. It will eventually work in their own favour

Photo: iStockPremium
Photo: iStock

The audiences of advertisers had been fragmenting well before the internet lured them, and were going digital well before the pandemic began pushing swarms online. Where eyeballs go, ad spends follow. A report by Media Partners Asia, a research and consultancy firm, projects digital media’s slice of India’s advertising pie to grow bigger than TV’s share by 2024. Already, the web gets more than every third rupee in an all-media market estimated at $8.7 billion this year. On current trends, it will grab over 40% of our ad spend in 2025, projected at $13.3 billion. As some of this money will be earmarked for endorsements, among those who can rub palms in anticipation of a bonanza are social media influencers. Many have struck small fortunes by converting their online influence into earnings. Before they get back onto their preferred platforms, though, be it YouTube, Instagram, Twitter or any other, they should scan the guidelines put out by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) that came into effect on Monday.

Our ad industry’s self-regulatory body has asked all influencers and advertisers who pay them for promotional messages to be upfront about any such deal. ASCI’s norms require a disclaimer—in the form of a label, for example—to accompany every post with any commercial content that has been paid for. Such disclosures are meant for the benefit of their followers, who, as the ethics of commerce would demand, ought to be kept informed of such arrangements. While traditional media has kept advertisements apart from the editorial engagement of consumers, this division has got blurred on internet platforms. For the digital eco-system to thrive without trust gaps posing hurdles, however, clarity would need to prevail. ASCI’s effort to do this doesn’t come a day too soon. Our swelling cohort of influencers may react just as any industry does when placed under regulation, with a mix of indignation and exasperation, but ASCI’s advisory notes could help convince them why they must comply.

ASCI wants influencers to review products and services carefully before hawking them to their followers and to check if clients are trying to foist fake or exaggerated claims upon them. The influential must always bear responsibility towards the people they influence. Regardless of their popularity, failure to abide by this principle could weaken their sway. Placing an audience’s interests first does not preclude endorsing stuff for a fee. What matters is the conviction with which it is done. Earnest advice is not diminished by the fact of its sponsorship, just as what is true is true no matter who says it. Those who feel awkward about labelling their online posts should draw inspiration from the advertising legend David Ogilvy, one of whose “confessions" as an adman was that he’d never sell a brand that he himself would not buy. Whether or not his career actually upheld this approach, let alone the ad agency he started, is not as relevant as the idea in itself. One way or another, this is precisely what influencers need to convey to audiences if they fear an adverse response to payment revelations. Celebrity commercials in mass media often seem to fail the Ogilvy test, a deficiency that has generated plenty of scepticism, especially among the discerning, and stoked a debate within the ad industry over the value of famous faces beyond attracting attention. Social media influencers still have a relatively clean slate. In their own interest, they must use it wisely.

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Published: 15 Jun 2021, 09:05 PM IST
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