Influencer marketing is regulated in Australia through various laws and self-regulatory codes. The Australian Influencer Marketing Council has also created and published several industry information sheets to assist the industry in understanding best practice when undertaking influencer marketing campaigns.
Implementing best practice into your own business operations can be time consuming and complex, and it can often be difficult to know where to start.
Set out below are some of the steps and actions which can be taken to streamline the process.
REVIEW
The review stage is important to understand how you are currently operating as a business and where your risks and gaps may currently exist.
As part of this stage:
1. review existing influencer marketing business practices, processes, procedures and policies including standard operations and escalation points to identify gaps, risks and bottlenecks;
2. review existing template standard contracts relevant to influencer marketing campaigns to identify current risks; and
3. train your team on influencer marketing legal issues and compliance with best practice. This should include training on ad disclosure, platform limitations, relevant consumer law issues, relevant regulated products and services, taxation and superannuation issues, self-regulatory system and best practice industry information sheets.
IDENTIFY WHERE IMPROVEMENTS CAN BE MADE
Once you have undertaken a full review of your influencer marketing operations, you can start to create a list of where you can make improvements to ensure you are meeting your legal obligations and working to best practice.
As part of this stage:
1. create a report setting out where your current risks and gaps exist, and any changes you may need to make to any existing practices, processes, procedures, policies or template standard contracts to improve on any gaps, risks or bottlenecks;
2. liaise with your key stakeholders to agree any changes to be made; and
3. create a change framework report setting out what you will change, who will undertake each of the changes and a timeframe for making the changes.
IMPLEMENTATION
Now that you know where your gaps exist, where you need to make changes, and you have obtained buy-in from key stakeholders in relation to those changes, you can start of make the changes.
As part of this stage:
1. work with your key stakeholders to vary existing practices, process, policies and standard contracts where necessary to make the required changes;
2. draft the variations to existing policies and template standard contracts;
3. draft new contract templates where necessary to meet legal or best practice requirements; and
4. train your team on the variations to existing policies, procedures and template standard contracts.
ADVICE
As part of the process, you should consider obtaining legal, tax and insurance advice on the relevant issues.
We regularly assist clients with reviewing and drafting contracts for influencer marketing campaigns, and training employees on the legal and self-regulatory framework as well as use of their standard contracts.
We also provide a service on a retainer basis to lead the full process set out above within your business so that you can continue to focus on growing your business.
Contact us for a free initial discovery consultation to see how we can assist.
Information contained within this blog post is intended to be general information only and is not in any way intended to constitute legal advice. You should not act or rely on any information found in this blog post without obtaining prior advice specific to your circumstances.
