More and more brands are choosing influencer marketing to promote their products. The costs increase every year. But if this communication channel has its advantages, it sometimes causes public In error. In 2021, for example, Nabilla Benattia-Vergara made headlines when she was fined €20,000 for fraudulent business activities. As explained direction Common Law on Competition, Consumption and Anti-Fraud (DGCCRF), the influencer is followed by millions Internet users contributed to learning trading on Snapchat, not to mention it was an ad. However, this constituted “misleading commercial practice against its followers, who may mistakenly believe that the influencer’s promotion is the result of a disinterested positive personal experience,” the DGCCRF wrote.
As a rule, those with more than a million followers are more transparent.
However, as a general rule, such flops are less common with celebrity influencers compared to those with fewer followers. Mohamed Mansouri, Deputy Director of the Professional Advertising Regulation Authority (ARPP), spoke about this in an interview with Le Monde. Paid posts not identified as ads will be more frequent among smaller influencers with fewer than 10,000 subscribers, he said. ARPP found that 31% of ads from these small influencers were not identified as ads. However, among influencers who already have more than a million followers, this figure will be only 9%. For Mohamed Mansouri, the more followers they have, the more legitimate they are. And that may be because the influencers have the best support. The managing director also points out that hiding a business partnership may be a brand requirement. But in some cases, it may also be the will of the influencer when he is afraid of the reaction of his followers. he also possible that the influencer just doesn’t know the rules.
Positive development in terms of transparency
The good news is that influencers are generally more transparent than they were a year ago. Indeed, according to a report recently published by ARPP, 83% of advertisements placed by influencers in 2021 were identified (or had “beginning of identification”) as advertisements. A clear improvement from 73% in 2020. Among the solutions, ARPP offers training for content creators as well as a Certificate of Responsible Influence. And, according to this, certified influencers are progressing faster in terms of transparency.
