2 minute read
Breaking the Law?
Influencers: Breaking the Law Without Realising?
Influencers have changed the marketing game forever. Once, buying a slot of time on a TV channel to advertise your product or service was the most popular and effective method of advertising. But now, paying an influencer to promote your brand can reach your target audience – their engaged and interested followers. Influencer marketing is now one of the most effective ways to target most brand’s primary demographic, millennials. Adweek reported their legal rights in the booming multibil- from an influencers’ copyrighted images withthat businesses are spending 500 per cent lion-dollar social advertising industry. If, as out permission or a licence. When influencers more on an influencer, you use images that haven’t are paid to create a post promoting a brand, advertising directed at Posting unoriginal been created or commissioned by yourself or are not marked they can maximise their profit by protectmillennials content on social media is as free for public use, you than any other demographic. Today, young theft of a creator’s intellectual property... could be liable for wilful infringement. A copyright can be applied by creators to protect people spend their intellectual property, so an estimated reusing digital content in social nine hours a day on social apps, making so- media posts that generate revenue is classed as cial media advertising the best choice to reach breaking the law. ing the content they make. Influencers can these young consumers. If an influencer doesn’t hold the rights to license the photograph used to the brand for The rapid growth of the influencer market content but is interested in using it for their an endorsement, which can be used on the has attracted its own challenges, so brands own purposes, they need to seek a licensing brand’s website or other advertising mediums. and influencers must be aware and up-to-date agreement like in any other industry. The Copyright infringement of influencer content with rules and regulations. When it comes copyright holder can permit influencers to is quite common, with third-party sources to licensing, there are many ambiguous rules influencers Businesses are spending use images in ways specified taking content to drive their own revenue. Influencer marketing is evolving the commerneed to follow, otherwise 500 per cent more on in the licensing cial landscape, with licences needed for social they might not even realise that they’re breaking the law. Posting unoriginal content advertising directed at millennials agreement. In the same way, influencmedia posts due to the way this content can generate profit. on social media is theft of a ers can have creator’s intellectual property, their content and more and more creators are exercising stolen, with other sites seeking to monetise
Research undertaken by Tan Luxe www.tan-luxe.com
