No ‘likes’ for MIB self-declaration mandate? Influencer industry flummoxed
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting’s mandate about submitting self-declaration certificates for all new advertisements from June 18 has left the marketing and advertising fraternity—especially the digital advertising ecosystem—a tad concerned and confused. Digital experts note that with the massive number of assets that go into performance marketing on digital platforms, it would be a draining task to put out a paper trail or self declaration for each of them.
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In this digital ecosystem, one cannot overlook the massive role that influencer-led digital ads play.
The influencer marketing community has already been subjected to a number of regulations from bodies like ASCI that mandate them to compulsorily use hashtags mentioning "ad" or a "paid partnership" label with the sponsored content. With the Ministry’s mandate on top of this, the process has become even more cumbersome for the industry.
For instance, a beauty influencer told exchange4media on the condition of anonymity that while these aspects are handled by the respective influencer management agencies, the pressure builds up on the influencer.
Kalyan Kumar, Co-founder and CEO of influencer marketing platform Klug Klug feels that this mandate by the Ministry is probably a result of the public outcry about the credibility of what is being promoted online by influencers. “In the case of ASCI, they only required disclosure, in form of either a hashtag saying ad or collaboration or in case of Instagram using the partnership label.
This was a relatively easier thing. This mandate on the other hand is a very different thing, it is asking you to upload a paper trail or an online form on a site.”
Kumar pointed out that brands are working with several influencers, a lot of whom are even micro and nano influencers and to get them on to do this, just calls for revisitation of the efforts. “The enablers on the other side, like influencer marketing agencies will have to go through many more man hours to make sure it's done,” he said.
Ayush Guha, Business Head of HYPP agrees that it indeed is going to become a very cumbersome process for the agencies, considering the sheer volume of influencers out there.
“There are more than a million influencers out there; how many can you control and monitor? It is much easier to have oversight on brands and regulate their claims rather than putting the due diligence on creators and their agencies whose job is not to do research and give a stamp of approval on a product. We are not lawyers, we are not research agents, we are not authoritative bodies,” he said.
Guha added that a lot of manpower will have to be hired for this, and there will be a lot of legal requirements. “The thought is in the right direction but the mandate is probably not,” he mentioned.
Viraj Sheth, Co-founder and CEO, Monk Entertainment also said that this would be a tedious process going forward. “Considering that everyday there are so many branded pieces that go live, especially with regards to influencer marketing, getting this done for each and every branded content piece may not be the best way forward,” he said. Sheth too says that the requirement of manpower is going to go up. “I don’t see influencers filling these up by themselves,” he mentioned.
For the uninitiated, the MIB recently said in a statement, “The self- declaration certificate is required to be obtained by all advertisers and advertising agencies for all new advertisements that will be issued/telecast/aired/published on or after 18th June, 2024. A buffer period of two weeks has been kept for providing sufficient time to all stakeholders to familiarise themselves with the process of self- certification.” For print and digital ads, agencies will have to submit the declaration, signed by an authorised representative of the advertiser, on the Press Council of India’s portal.
In this declaration, advertisers have to certify that the ads in question do not contain “misleading claims” and comply with all relevant regulatory guidelines. The new rules mandate that agencies have to submit “proof of uploading” the certificate to the relevant publisher for record-keeping purposes.
Tags : Self Certified Ad Asci Influencers Self Certification In Ads Mib