Price match The Strøm influencer believes he is still objective, despite the fact that he earns NOK 100 per new customer he recruits to the electricity company Elekt.
In step with rising electricity prices, the advice from Mathias Nilsson has become more and more sought after. From May 2021 to January 2022, his Facebook group Prismatch Power grew from 7,500 members to nearly 60,000 members.
Through the group, consumers can get help to decipher their own electricity bill and get rid of unnecessary costs with the help of free, independent advice and public information.
This autumn, Prismatch Strøm entered into a collaboration with the electricity company Elekt, and stated on its own pages that they would earn NOK 100 for each new customer they acquired from the electricity company. The founders however, assures customers that Prismatch Power will continue to be objective.
Robin Hood’s Power Market
Last year, the former electricity salesman was profiled as Norway’s first electricity influencer in the media: In E24, Mathias Nilsson is the influencer who drains Fjordkraft and Norgesenergi for millions and in the Class Struggle he is “Power Market Robin Hood”.
The online newspaper’s columnist Sløseriombudsmannen praises Nilsson for doing the job Norwegian bureaucrats and politicians should have done a long time ago.
The experts believe that electricity influences Nilsson’s credibility as an independent consultant are at stake when he enters into a collaboration with an electricity company.
– As soon as someone has the impression that he points out his partner Elekt and should rather point out someone else, he will have problems. It will require an enormous amount of his integrity, and Nilsson must be very aware of what he is doing, says Astrid Valen-Utvik, MSc in Economics and Strategic Advisor in Social Media.
– Nilsson may well think that the collaboration is unproblematic, but I would think that it undermines his own credibility when he can not say that he is completely independent and free of links to the industry. The consumers he addresses are completely dependent on knowing if he is objective or if he is looking to sell a product, says Gunnar Bodahl-Johansen, ethics expert with a long career in the media industry.
Nilsson may seem like someone who wants to clean up too much fake marketing in an area where consumers are now being robbed of money. But he even steps over some boundaries if his own role is not always clear, he says Thor Øivind Jensen, political scientist from the University of Bergen and consumer expert.
– People have to choose for themselves
Nilsson himself emphasizes that he does not tell people what to do.
– Do you think that you are objective as a consultant?
– Yes, of course I am. An agreement is an agreement, and we are completely open that we get one hundred kroner per customer. It would have been worse if we had not told it, says Nilsson and continues:
– People have to choose for themselves. We have saved the members over 400 million kroner. Elekt has an agreement that does not give them anything in profit, and you are guaranteed “Correct Power Trading” for 24 months.
Correct Strømhandel is a certification scheme and a kind of quality stamp that Prismatch Strøm and Nilsson have designed themselves. So far, the partner Elekt is the only member of what Nilsson hopes can become a new industry standard for ethical electricity trading.
– Why is only Elekt certified?
– This is because we have not had the capacity to contact other electricity companies yet. We welcome others, but who do you think dares to participate in Rigtig Strømhandel?
Nilsson believes that electricity giants such as Norgesenergi and Fjordkraft would probably not agree to the conditions required to obtain the company’s certification.
Price match The Strøm founder states that he does not know how many he has recruited to his partner Elekt. Nilsson says that he is fully responsible for the product Elekt sells.
– If I recommend something that is bad, it is “game over”. There are so many “haters” who hope it would go to hell with me. But it does not, because I have a unique competence. I have met over 100,000 people and have read over 100,000 electricity invoices, says the electricity influencer.
– It is impossible
Advisor Astrid Valen-Utvik registers that Nilsson has quickly managed to build up a large following on social media, so that he actually has an influence on what consumers and the electricity companies do.
– He has certainly experienced how much such a group demands of him, and it is perfectly fine to try to make money from all the work he puts in. But when he has chosen this model in collaboration with one of the players in the electricity industry, he must be extremely careful that not all his advice in the future is about Elekt, says Valen-Utvik.
– Is it possible to combine the role of objective advisor and paid partner?
– Yes, I firmly believe that it is possible. But it requires even more of him now that he gets a kickback from one player. He will have to be very precise so that his integrity is not at stake, says Valen-Utvik.
Ethics expert Gunnar Bodahl-Johansen believes the combination is impossible.
– It starts with everything we know about credibility and independence. Nilsson can not appear as an independent influencer and at the same time receive payment from an electricity company. It is impossible, he says.
Thor Øivind Jensen, associate professor emeritus at UiB, believes Nilsson must be extremely clear about the collaboration with Elekt. If he becomes unclear, there may be a violation of the Marketing Act.
Nilsson tells Nettavisen that he always notices advertising, both in the comments field and in posts on Prismatch Strøm.
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