The growth in influencer marketing & why transparency is important for brand authenticity

Sanjiv Kakkar, ABG Chairman & EVP – Unilever North Africa Middle East, Turkey, Russia Ukraine and Belarus reflects on the growth in influencer marketing and why transparency is important for brand authenticity.

Influencer marketing is today a key component of every marketing strategy. The “colossal increase” in TikTok influencer marketing in 2020 has illustrated the commercial power of social media platforms. This increased influence of ‘influencers’ has however led to concerns and debates over trust and transparency.

The Influencer Marketing industry is only set to grow further to $13.8 billion in 2021, according to The State of Influencer Marketing 2021: Benchmark Report. The hold of influencers in the GCC is equally strong with about 85 percent of millennials in Saudi Arabia and the UAE follow at least one social media influencer as per a BPG Group and YouGuv Survey: Middle East weighs costs versus benefits of social media influencers (arabnews.com)

Consumers are also demanding increased transparency, authenticity, and genuine value from the influencers they follow and trust.

The U.A.E’s National Medica Council (NMC) via their Board Resolution No. (26) of 2017 on Media Content, requires influencers to disclose sponsored content via a tag of “Paid partnership” to “more clearly communicate when a commercial relationship exists between a creator and a business’’.

For all these reasons, influencer marketing transparency has become a key focus for the Advertising Business Group (ABG). As the region’s leading self-regulatory advertising and marketing group we are dedicated to uniting the industry around higher standards.

Additionally, we have a wide range of influence with ABG members accounting for over 70% of the region’s advertising spend. We are therefore committed to supporting the disclosure of paid partnerships between brands and influencers.

To that end, we have launched the Influencer Marketing Transparency Charter at the recent MENA Effie Thought Leadership program – the charter supports and builds on the NMC regulation to raise transparency, build awareness and promote best practice among influencers and the ad industry.

We encourage all stakeholders to support the charter which will help drive standards and create a focal point in these dynamic, digital-oriented times.