On 1 October, the new Code of Conduct for advertising through influencers developed by the Spanish Advertisers Association, AUTOCONTROL (Spanish SRO) and IAB Spain came into force.
This new code of conduct updates the previous one from 2020 to bring it into line with new regulations on the matter, and has almost 1,000 member organisations, including advertisers, agencies, platforms and influencers.
One its most important updates is the possibility that the advertising nature of content may be determined by evidence extracted from the communication itself or from the characteristics of its dissemination, giving some examples of this, such as the brand having previously collaborated with the influencer, the mention of specific prices or discount codes, the repetition of messages about the brand, the presence of affiliate links, etc.
However, what has caused the most controversy on social media are the new guidelines for identifying content as advertising. Although this is not new given the transparency requirements of advertising regulations, it has been updated to include new guidelines on how to identify advertising on each social media based on the format in which the advertising content is presented.
The aim is to avoid content that appears to be the personal opinions or recommendations of influencers, when in fact it is paid collaboration.
Rubén Canales
Lawyer
