At social media level, it is very easy to see how brands increasingly rely on and collaborate with influential personalities for their advertising campaigns, choosing in fact the strategy of influencer marketing. As we have already explained, Influencer marketing is a marketing technique that exploits the involvement and reputation of influencers to communicate and spread promotional messages on behalf of companies and brands that want to increase brand awareness, broaden the audience by generating new leads, and increase profits.
The success of this marketing strategy? The choice of the Influencer: in fact, the right Influencer can help the brand to reach a wider audience than traditional strategies and in fact achieve the objectives set.
What are the legal aspects of influencer marketing?
The relations between the Influencer, or the agency that represents it, and the brand require specific attention from a legal point of view, with particular attention to the contract's essential contents that regulate such relationships must provide. The more detailed the elements will be in the contract, the less risk of possible misunderstandings, defaults and, above all, dispute.
Among the legal aspects necessary to conclude the contract it is important to specify:
Activities included in the editorial plan
A first essential and mandatory aspect is to describe exactly the object of the performance of the Influencer. What services will be provided, so: how many and what content will have to produce, what products to advertise, how many and what posts, videos, articles to publish and within what time frame. Equally important for the influencer is to clearly agree on which social channels will operate on behalf of the brand, preferably specifying the publication methods that will be adopted.
Guidelines of the brand
In entering a contract with the brand, the Influencer is a spokesperson for the values that represent the reality and the brand it is sponsoring. For this reason, the Influencer must maintain a behaviour in line with what are the guidelines of the brand and will be obliged not to make statements that poorly reflect the brand itself.
Remuneration
The Influencer is a professional figure framed in the category of the workers of the show, and like every professional who performs a task needs a fee. Even in the case of Influencer marketing must be expressly indicated in the contract the fee that the same Influencer will receive, with an indication of the timing and methods of payment and the rights included in the aforementioned fee (for example, exclusivity, the assignment of image rights and post rights even after the campaign has ceased).
Transparency clause
According to the Digital Chart of the Institute of Advertising Self-Regulation, advertising must always be clearly identifiable, even on social media, because the consumer has the right to know that the influencer has a collaborative relationship with the brand. All content generated by the influencer must always display dedicated hashtags such as #adv, #adveritising.
In some social media it is planned to adopt specific tools that allow you to insert, in a clearly distinguishable way, in the initial part of the post, a statement to identify the commercial character. Even in this case, however, it is necessary to evaluate the possible need to insert the hashtags prescribed by the Competition and Market Authority (AGCM), especially in function of any subsequent sharing of the content.
Clausola di esclusività
Tra gli aspetti legali che regolano il rapporto tra Brand e Influencer, è molto importante stabilire i termini di esclusività e non concorrenza, al fine di assicurarsi che l’Influencer non accetti altri progetti con brand concorrenti durante o immediatamente dopo la collaborazione.
Image rights
The contract must expressly provide the Influencer's transfer of the rights of economic exploitation of its image and its name/nickname to the brand, for commercial and promotional purposes. Specifically, the duration, place, purpose, forms and channels of exploitation of the image and the name/nickname of the Influencer must be specified. The possibility to keep advertising posts on the brand page after the end of the contract with the Influencer is also a clause that must be specified.
Privacy
The standard privacy policy is not enough in the case of Influencer Marketing contracts, but an ad hoc policy is required. The figure, the face, the name and surname and also the address of the Influencer are personal data that require specific clauses of confidentiality and privacy.
E-Business Consulting, a digital marketing agency active since 2003, structures the best strategies to implement customized Influencer Marketing plans. Contact us now for a free quote.
