What is Influencer Marketing for age-restricted products?
Influencer marketing for age-restricted products involves collaborating with social media personalities & creators to promote products that have legal age restrictions for sale/purchase or usage. These typically include alcohol, tobacco, vaping products, knives/weapons, and gambling services. The normal goal is to leverage the influencer's reach and credibility to engage the appropriate audience while adhering to legal requirements.
Why is compliance important in Influencer Marketing for age-restricted products?
Compliance ensures that marketing efforts do not target underage individuals, protecting both the brand and the influencer from legal repercussions. Non-compliance can lead to fines, legal action, and damage to brand reputation. For example, alcohol advertising is often restricted from being shown to audiences under the legal drinking age. Similarly, tobacco and vaping products usually have strict guidelines to avoid targeting minors, and gambling ads must not appeal to those under the legal gambling age.
The above talks about targeting your end-audience correctly. However, a commonly overlooked area is about the Creator themselves!
What are the legal ramifications of non-compliance in Influencer Marketing?
Non-compliance can result in significant legal consequences. These include fines and penalties from regulatory bodies, legal action from affected parties, and loss of consumer trust and brand credibility.
Regulators have often called out and fined brands and/or their agencies for their targeting. Sometimes not utilizing native advertising platforms targeting criteria correctly. But again, there is currently no formal solution for creator verification!
Train your Influencers on compliance requirements?
Training influencers is crucial for maintaining compliance. Key steps include providing clear guidelines on legal requirements, offering examples of compliant and non-compliant content, and conducting regular training sessions and updates to ensure that influencers are well-informed and up-to-date with any changes in regulations.
How can you identify suitable Influencers?
Identifying suitable influencers involves ensuring their audience demographics align with the legal age requirements. It is equally important to review their previous content for compliance and check their engagement metrics to ensure they have an authentic and mature following.
That is their output. The elephant in the room is to ask, “Is my Creator old enough?”
What are the key elements of the KYC process for Influencers?
Know Your Customer (KYC) processes for influencers should include verifying the influencer's age and identity. Simple as that!
An ongoing challenge is knowing who a channel/handle is owned and operated by. Using platforms that involved OAuth’ing in, at minimum shows that they have the admin rights to operate the channel.
The next level is to use industry standard processes developed for banking to validate identity, age, address etc. Done by a third party makes it easy and cost effective for brands and agencies to do the right thing.
What are the best practices for Influencer Marketing with age-restricted products & industries?
Best practices include:
- Implementing a strict age verification method,
- Systematic & regularly monitoring influencers' content,
- Clearly communicating legal guidelines to influencers,
- Utilizing through contractual checking that they are using disclaimers and warnings where legally required.
How to monitor and alert for non-compliance issues?
You have two choices:
- Do this manually, or,
- Use automated tools to review content, setting up alerts for potential non-compliant posts, and conducting periodic audits of influencer activities to ensure ongoing compliance.
But how?
How will RippleXn's Creator Sign-Up feature enhance compliance?
RippleXn's creator sign-up feature will streamline the KYC process.
So, if you invoke this option when using CreatorCRM and Digital Product Distribution you can make better decisions.
