On 16 February, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) informed that it has processed 2,767 complaints since they implemented the influencer guidelines in May 2021.
Influencer Guidelines In Action
The ASCI body has found more than half of the violations on the Meta-owned Instagram platform.
At the same time, Alphabet’s Youtube contributed a third of them, as informed by the self-regulatory organization for the advertising industry.
Interestingly, over 90% of the cases required modifications, the body said.
The body’s CEO and Secretary General, Manisha Kapoor said, “…the Central Consumer Protection Authorities also now require disclosure of material connection between brands and influencers. Hence, non-disclosures are potential violations of the law,”.
The total number of violations stood at 1,592 during FY22 with virtual digital assets like bitcoins topping with nearly 24%, followed closely by the personal care category, which accounted for 23%.
There were 1,175 complaints received during the first nine months of FY23 (April-December 2022) with the personal care category topping by contributing a third of them, followed by food and beverage at 16%.
Earlier, Instagram accounted for 53% of the violations in FY22.
Now, it has increased to 65% in the first nine months of FY23(April-December 2022).
Interestingly, the same has declined from 37.8% to 27% in the case of Youtube.
Influencers Affecting Purchases
Basically, ASCI conducted an online dipstick with 820 respondents above the age of 18 about their trust in social media influencers who promote brands online.
ASCII released a short report titled ‘Influencer Trust Report’ preceding its Brand Influencer Summit 2023 to be held at the end of Feb 2023.
This report reveals how much consumers trust influencer advertising, what builds trust and what depletes it.
In this survey, 79% of the respondents said that they trust influencers and 90% said that they have made purchases based on influencer endorsements.
According to this survey, transparency and honesty about brand associations is the number one reason for influencer trust, followed by relatable lifestyle and content.
