Love Island & influencer marketing: 5 things brands must do to ensure celebrity endorsements are a success!
2.8 million people tuned in last night to see Liam and Millie crowned the winners of Love Island 2021, guaranteeing the contestants glittering futures as social media influencers. But before brands rush to secure new celebrity endorsements for their products it’s worth putting in place our failsafe recommendations.
Back in 2019, season 5 star Molly-Mae Hague went into the villa with only 25k Instagram followers and surfaced from the island with over 2.3m. Since then her followers have increased to almost 6 million on instagram alone, bagging her lucrative contracts with Pretty Little Thing and a range of beauty brands – but even this hasn’t stopped Molly-Mae making mistake after mistake with her posts and generating pages of bad press. Her disregard of the strict rules for influencer marketing might eventually lead to mistrust of her and the brands she represents from her followers.
Remember that the Competition and Markets Authority, the government department responsible for protecting consumers from being misled by influencers, has a clear set of rules for brand endorsements. The Advertising Standards Authority, the UK’s advertising watchdog, have also embedded these rules into the CAP Code and recently created a ‘Wall of Shame’ on their website to highlight the most dishonest influencers to brands and the public.
If you are a brand considering entering into an arrangement with a relatively new influencer like the Love Island contestants it’s worth taking into consideration our top five suggestions for ensuring risk free influencer campaigns:
- Training – get some expert training and guidance on what the key rules to follow are and how to select the right Influencer.
- Due Diligence – do thorough background checks on potential influencer talent before any embarrassing stories come out of the woodwork.
- Guidelines – create a clear framework for both the brand and the influencer to work within that is clear about what the rules are and how to follow them.
- Contracts – don’t ignore this vital element. It controls the dialogue and determines the responsibilities of both parties. It needs to be drafted by someone with relevant experience, not just a rehash of an old media contract.
- Check – always review copy for a post ahead of publication to ensure it doesn’t breach the rules and carry out spot checks to ensure the influencer is sticking to them.