Influencing Responsibly: An influencer training event

Tuesday 1 October | 09.30 - 14.00

After a rapid rise, influencer marketing is now an established way to advertise – but some, including the ASA, have warned of the problems of unlabelled advertising.  

Whether brands are looking to partner with subject experts, covering topics from beauty and fashion to exercise and travel, or are capitalising on the exposure that can be found from certain TV shows (our ABC cheat sheet for Love Islanders can be found here), collaborating with creators and influencers can be a great way for brands to reach new audiences, powered by the innovative technology in social media.

But what’s the right way to tell your followers about your brand relationship, while maintaining your authenticity?

Our influencer training event will set out the rules for when a post counts as an ad and how they should be labelled, helping you make sure followers are kept informed and aren’t misled. Along with covering the Advertising Code rules, which are enforced by the ASA, attendees will also hear from a guest speaker from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) about your responsibilities under relevant consumer protection law. This one-off event will give you the chance to learn about the rules directly from the people who write them and enforce the law.

We’ll also be talking to key figures from within the influencer marketing industry to hear about their experiences and how their relationship with consumers continues to develop.

You’ll also have the chance to put your questions to the experts. As well as Q&A sessions with the speakers, the ASA Digital Specialists will be on hand to take questions specific to your campaign.

This event will be relevant to anyone who is involved in the influencer marketing industry, be that brands, agencies or influencers themselves.

The cost per delegate is £144 (£120 +VAT).
If you need to pay by invoice, please indicate this when you register.

Registration will close on Friday 27th September.

Individual creators, influencers and bloggers are offered a discount of 50% (£72: £60 +VAT). In order to access this discount, please email [email protected] with a link to your social media pages or blog. Once verified that you are registering as an individual, you will then be supplied with a discount code to be entered when registering online.

Please note that this discount code cannot be used in conjunction with any other discount.

The event may be filmed and/or photographed. If you have any concerns about being included in this, please inform us before the event.

Training

Jason Freeman - Legal Director, Competition and Markets Authority

Jason Freeman is a Legal Director at the UK Competition and Markets Authority, having previously been a Legal Director at the OFT. He has particular experience of litigating consumer enforcement, online technology and investigations, cross border enforcement and analysis of markets. Currently he has been working on enforcement which secured £2.3m of redress for consumers in the care homes sector, development of guidance for care homes, celebrity endorsements on social media and a Supercomplaint on loyalty penalties. He is a contributor to Kirk and Lewin’s Consumer and Trading Standards: Law and Practice on unfair terms, unfair commercial practices and civil litigation.

Sumandeep Sohi - Investigations Executive, Advertising Standards Authority

Sumandeep has worked at the ASA as an Investigations Executive for since 2016. Prior to that, she worked in Dispute Resolution at the Renewable Consumer Code. Sumandeep, along with Sam, is a Digital Specialist for the ASA, helping to shape the guidance that is given to influencers and handling a number of investigations into social media posts.

Sam Wilson - Copy Advice Executive, Committee of Advertising Practice

Sam recently joined the Copy Advice team at the Committee of Advertising Practice, providing pre-publication advice and guidance to marketers. He previously worked in the CAP Compliance team, ensuring advertising complied with the rules and in the ASA Complaints team assessing complaints from industry and members of the public. Along with Sumandeep, he is part of a group with an expertise on advertising on social media and in the wider digital sphere. He also specialises in gambling, motoring and e-cigarette advertising, and environmental claims.

Industry Insiders Panel

John Adams - Creator, Dadbloguk

Having had careers in both journalism and PR, John Adams gave it all up in 2011 to become the main carer for his two children while his wife works full time and supports the family financially. In 2012 he started blogging about his experiences at Dadbloguk.com and in so doing, accidentally launched a new career as a blogger. John's seen many changes in the online world over the past seven years and his blog, which he now runs as a business, is one of the best recognised fatherhood and parenting blogs in the UK. 

Jonathan Saccone Joly - Creator, SacconeJolys

Jonathan Saccone Joly is creator and producer of the SacconeJolys YouTube channel. He and his wife Anna have been sharing their family life since 2009, and have amassed 1.9 million subscribers on YouTube. 

Lauren Spearman - Head of Brand Advocacy, Made.com

Lauren has been working in digital advertising and marketing for eleven years. Starting her career in Manchester at Sky Media selling TV sponsorship, the lure of London soon pulled Lauren down to the big smoke where she transitioned to the world of digital advertising. After a small stint working for an influencer agency start up, she moved to parenting website Netmums focusing on creative brand partnerships, before making the switch client side to join Benefit Cosmetics overseeing advertising & implementing an influencer marketing strategy. Today Lauren leads a newly formed Europe-wide team at MADE.COM generating brand love, advocacy & building relationships amongst content creators, customers & employees.

Nik Speller - Head of Campaigns, Influencer

Nik has over 10 years' experience in the marketing industry and, having previously worked as Influencer Manager at Socialyse and as Account Manager at fashion e-commerce platform ShopStyle, he is somewhat of an influencer marketing expert. Now, as Head of Campaigns at Influencer, the UK’s leading influencer marketing platform, Nik is responsible for the running of many of Influencer's biggest campaigns, for clients such as Apple Music, Alibaba and McDonalds.

Exhibiting

BCMA

The BCMA is the leading global member association promoting the value of branded content. It is designed for anyone involved in branded content. Through best practice it leads the debate on what makes great branded content and how brands, producers, agencies, platforms, media owners, publishers and influencers can engage audiences for maximum benefit and payback. Through its referral programme the BCMA helps members attract new revenue opportunities.