LONDON, UK — Klarna, the leading global payments and shopping service, and its industry-wide Influencer Council, have released their Influencer Marketing Whitepaper to serve as a guide for influencers and brands to advertise online responsibly.
The Influencer Council, formed in March, was established to provide greater clarity on influencer marketing guidelines following research which revealed that only one quarter (27%) of UK consumers understood the use of advertising hashtags on influencers’ posts. The Council, chaired by Christian Howes, brought together brands, influencers, psychotherapists, policy members, and the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) to provide a well-rounded perspective from across the industry.
Over the course of several months, the Council discussed what best practices should look like for influencers posting advertisements across social media platforms and how to ensure greater understanding amongst consumers regarding owned and paid-for content. Covering a range of angles, including responsibility, geography and age range, transparency, emotive language, and terminology, the Council created a dedicated set of guidelines for influencers and brands to follow when posting. These guidelines go further than any materials and guidance available today – for better protection of brands, consumers, and influencers.
Accompanying the Whitepaper, Klarna has also released a toolkit that will include branded stickers, Instagram story templates, and badges to clearly illustrate the nature of the post, whether it’s an advert, part of an affiliate agreement, or gifted. This will be available for brands, influencers, consumers, and agencies working with Klarna.
AJ Coyne, Head of UK Marketing at Klarna said: “By launching the Influencer Council, we set out to learn more about how brands, influencers, and consumers interact with posts on social media and to create more clarity amongst online advertising guidelines. Each session has sparked fascinating discussions on responsibility, terminology, and transparency and I believe that we’ve created guidance that is clear, easy to adopt, and, most importantly, drives change for the better. These guidelines go further than any have done previously and set a precedent for brands across all industries to follow suit.
We would like to thank all our Council members for their involvement and hope that our Whitepaper will encourage brands and influencers alike to work together to create a transparent community.”
Influencer Council Chair, Christian Howes, said: “It’s been an honour to chair the Influencer Council and I am proud to have helped deliver a set of guidelines which will deliver greater understanding amongst consumers and influencers. The industry is constantly evolving and so we will continue our meetings bi-annually to ensure that our guidelines keep up with the latest trends and are applicable across all platforms.”
The Council was held under Chatham House rules to ensure that discussion was open but all information was anonymously contributed. The Council will aim to meet twice a year, with the first follow-up meeting to be scheduled for November 2021.
