Legal Considerations That’ll Protect You During an Influencer Marketing Campaign

Bryan Karas

October 16, 2018

Alright! You’ve been working on this new influencer marketing campaign for months. You finally landed some solid influencers that match up perfectly with your target audience. You and the influencer collaborated on a couple of videos, a blog post and multiple Instagram pics…

Then the unthinkable happens, the influencer goes off the rails – one too many nights out in West Hollywood – and brings negative PR to your brand…

What are your legal rights? Well, thanks to the expensive legal team at Procter & Gamble, a company heavily invested in influencer marketing, we have a solution.

$1M Endorsement Deals

Some people might say “But it’s not Roger Federer selling razors or Aaron Rodgers selling insurance – and those guys are on TV…not on some small screen posting a pic on Instagram!”

Guess who doesn’t care – the FTC…

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission defines an endorsement as “any advertising message that consumers are likely to believe reflects the opinions, beliefs, findings or experience of a party other than the sponsoring advertiser.”

So pretty much that means any “material” – pic, video or live stream – between an influencer and an advertiser that MIGHT impact the credibility or weight of the message in the minds of consumers. Click here for the FTC guidelines on endorsements…you’d be surprised at what you could get away with…

Full Disclosure

Consumers are getting smarter and they hate it when they feel duped so if you’re looking to maintain good relationships with both the consumer and the influencer make sure you disclose any paid partnerships and sponsored posts (Instagram, blogs etc).

The FTC doesn’t like using hashtags like #sponsored, #sp or #partner and some influencers try to bury links and hashtag disclosures below the “read more” line but that’s not good. The FTC specifically addressed that issue and now requires influencers to add the disclosures above the read more line.

I’ve also noticed some influencers on Instagram using the “Paid Partnership” tag – which will probably save a lot of behinds…

In terms of content ownership…just let the influencer own the content. But make sure you have specific legal terms like licensing content back to brands, removal rights and usage agreements for once the contract ends.

And before someone like Logan Paul goes rogue, issue a “continuity of persona” clause in the contract to clearly communicate your expectation of said influencers’ behavior, appearance, stance or tone, and make influencers accountable for any sudden changes not previously agreed upon.

Here’s a link to an influencer marketing contract – download the template and protect yourself this holiday season.

How to Crush it this Holiday Season with Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is going to be huge for this upcoming holiday season. By having a combination of influencer content alongside your branded content there’s a better chance of breaking through the clutter. H&M, Wal-mart and J Crew will all be using influencers so you should too.