The Monday communication from the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection describes in detail the objections to marketing activities on the Instagram profiles of Filip Chajzer, Dorota Rabczewska and Małgorzata Rozenek-Majdan. It also indicated which major advertisers they work with.
All of them were accused of inappropriately labeling advertising content or not doing it at all. Filip Chajzer (over 822,000 Internet users follow him on Instagram), according to the findings of UOKiK, “is limited to indicating the brand of the products – neither uses the platform’s functionality, nor does it add appropriate annotations in the description or directly on the photo or video”, and only sometimes “uses #cooperation at the end of entries, which does not clearly show the commercial nature of the activity”.
UOKiK accuses Filip Chajzer, Doda and Rozenkowa of not marking ads or editing entries after some time, when the range is smaller (and the marking itself is hardly visible).
Here are some sample posts from the first one. Judge for yourself whether it’s an ad or not. pic.twitter.com/x4WqLjDqz7
— Wojtek Kardys 🇵🇱🇪🇺🇺🇦 (@WojtekKardys) February 13, 2023
Dorota Rabczewska (she has 1.5 million followers on her Instagram profile) “does not always sufficiently disclose their sponsored nature in her publications, nor does she use the social platform functionality dedicated to it.” UOKiK has established how the singer tries to mask these shortcomings: sometimes, a few days after publication, she adds the #advertisement tag to the entries.
On the other hand Małgorzata Rozenek-Majdan (her Instagram profile is also followed by 1.5 million users) “however, she does not use the Instagram functionality, thanks to which she could mark them as sponsored, she does not mark them as advertisements in the description or on the material”. It was noticed that the celebrity sometimes added the tag #cooperation but so that it was very little invisible to Internet users, for example in the Instastory publication hidden under the profile name in the upper left corner.
Małgorzata Rozenek-Majdan wants to cooperate with UOKiK
We asked the managers of three influencers to comment on the allegations of UOKiK. None answered.
Whereas Rozenek-Majdan on his instagram profile She stated that she had not yet received an official letter from the Office. – Transparency of the advertising market is important both for creators and for their recipients, which is why I tried to follow the recommendations of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection in their online activities and inform their recipients about cooperation. I run my social media in a transparent, honest and transparent way – she assured.
– I declare my willingness to cooperate with UOKiK, although I must admit that I was surprised to publish the statement before officially informing me about the initiation of the proceedings. I hope that in cooperation with UOKiK we will be able to clarify this matter quickly – added the celebrity.
Doda, however, stated that the UOKiK’s proceedings “Perhaps end with a financial penalty for influencers who accept new paid cooperation every now and then.”
– I have been working with three brands for two years (which my followers know very well) and I do not get paid for the others. The fact that I forget to mark one story during the image campaign, which lasts a year, does not change the fact that it is not hidden – the singer assured.
This is Rozenek pic.twitter.com/7SbsXc65gF
— Wojtek Kardys 🇵🇱🇪🇺🇺🇦 (@WojtekKardys) February 13, 2023
UOKiK targets top influencers
Objections to advertising entries from the profiles of Doda, Chajzera and Rozenek-Majdan are not a surprise for the influencer marketing industry. Wojciech Kardyś, specializing in social media marketing, quicklyhe condemned examples of their posts promoting various brands where there were no designations.
This is Doda. pic.twitter.com/ocf6ZmCWGy
— Wojtek Kardys 🇵🇱🇪🇺🇺🇦 (@WojtekKardys) February 13, 2023
It may be surprising, however, that for the first time the President of UOKiK targeted influencers with millions of followers and who are also popular outside the Internet. – I think that the choice of widely recognizable – also outside the Internet – characters is not accidental. Of course, this does not mean that UOKiK targets only the greatest creators – but probably no one has any illusions that the message reaches much wider. Therefore, there is a growing chance that the current “skeptics” will understand the importance of transparency for the entire market faster – says Łukasz Walczak, commercial director and member of the board of the GetHero agency, to the Wirtualnemedia.pl portal.
Anna Ryczkowska, senior PR & communications manager at LTTM, thinks similarly. – Bringing charges against such popular personalities as Doda, Małgorzata Rozenek-Majdan or Filip Chajzer is a deliberate action aimed at increasing the reach of the message of the President of UOKiK. By verifying the activities of the most popular influencers, the Office understands the power of online creators and wants to use them to boost the reach of its messages, he tells us.
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Dorota Woźniczka, senior growth specialist at Tigers, is not convinced that the allegations against top influencers will have a disciplinary effect on the others. – In my opinion, bringing allegations against such popular creators may contribute to bringing the topic up again – but without proper education, substantive materials and rules that are easy to implement, this will be a short-term effect – he believes.
It indicates that the rules for publishing advertising content are not solely decided by creators. – I also feel that the disciplinary effect should not apply to influencers themselves, but also to their managers and creator agencies – because they are often responsible for the final look of the publication in social media. There is still the other side, i.e. brands that commission such cooperation – they are also responsible for properly instructing the influencer on the labeling of cooperation – he describes.
– Let’s also remember that the creator, creators are not equal – looking at the entire industry, I have to say that micro-influencers much more often and better comply with the changing rules than big names – he points out.
According to Adam Bąk, the owner of the PR Public Management agency and Spotlight Agency spokesman, UOKiK’s intervention will not convince the unconvinced so far. – With regard to those who do not mark advertising content, I would not expect any spectacular disciplinary effect after accusing such large influencers as Doda or Chajzer, and possibly the opposite when it comes to small creators – since UOKiK is hunting for “big fish”, it probably does not apply to me – predicts Bąk.
A showpiece for others?
Wojciech Kardyś believes that accusations alone are not enough. – The publicity they have gained will certainly discipline the influencers in some way. However, show penalties are needed. No one is unpunished, if Chajzer or Rozenek gets a ticket (and a big one), everyone has to be careful – underlines.
– This is a show for a good cause. Personally, I think that there should be as many such penalties and fines as possible so that influencers can finally get to grips with something as obvious as marking product placements – he adds.
– The mere fact how many media take up this topic shows that this move was noticeable for the market. Of course, this is a popular topic, because it is clickable due to famous names – but thanks to this, the rules have once again been reminded to a wide audience. It should be emphasized that some of these people are an inspiration for other creators – and “exemplary punishment” of recognizable characters will certainly remind everyone else about the rules of the market. Because they apply to everyone, regardless of the level of popularity – says Lukasz Walczak.
The President of UOKiK has already fined influencers, but so far for the lack of cooperation in analyzing their advertising cooperation. In the middle of last year has imposed a total of 139,000 PLN fines for Marek “Kruszwila” Kruszel, Marcin Dubiel, Julia “Maffashion” Kuczyńska, Paweł Malinowski, Marcin Malczyński and Marlena “Marley” Soyka.
In addition, the President of the Office brought charges against three influencers: Katarzyna Dziurska, Katarzyna Oleśkiewicz-Szuba and Piotr Lisek, and the company Olimp Laboratories promoting on their profiles.
Guidelines improve standards
UOKiK not only makes allegations, but also indicated how to avoid them. In September last year has published detailed guidelines for marking advertising content on social profiles. He developed them together with the Internet industry organization IAB Polska.
President of UOKIK Tomasz Chróstny on the influencer marketing market ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/o3wyrxqyle
— UOKiK (@UOKiKgovPL) February 13, 2023
– When issuing recommendations, the Office clearly indicated the consequences of not adjusting its activities to the applicable law. He also granted the creators a kind of vacatio legis to familiarize themselves with the regulations. Only after some time – initially warning and drawing attention to the mistakes made – he began to use the tools provided for by law. And in fact, while initially a large part of online creators treated the matter with neglect, reflection after the first punishments came very quickly – analyzes Łukasz Walczak.
Adam Bąk points out that recommendations from a few months ago are so common and detailed that they should be known to every online creator cooperating with advertisers. – Failure to comply with these rules, especially by the most influential people on the market, is a clear disregard for the attempt to regulate the rapidly growing industry of influencer marketing, in which the activity is still not formalized in legal terms – assesses the manager from Spotlight Agency.
– However, there is definitely an improvement – when following social media, I rarely come across cooperation that is not marked according to the UOKiK’s indications. What’s more – you can see a number of different markings, which in practice proves that influencers know perfectly well how to adapt the type of promotion to its correct marking – he adds.
Dorota Woźniczka also notices an improvement in standards. – Changes regarding the regulation of marking paid collaborations caused a lot of confusion in the advertising industry a few months ago. From the perspective of a marketer, I have to say that a group of influencers have actually started to follow the new guidelines. However, we must remember that this mainly applies to creators associated in influencer agencies that care about the safety of both parties – both creators and cooperating brands – he describes.
– Unfortunately, despite the great publicity, information about the changes did not reach everyone or was treated too trivially, which is why we still encounter the lack of appropriate marking of advertising activities. In this regard, it is worth establishing cooperation with the agency. Thanks to this, we gain space for both the substantive, creative implementation of communication, as well as the possibility of consulting an expert on the agency’s side (in the area of influencer marketing and legal aspects) – he points out.
– The difference in the approach to marking advertising content is huge. At first, we saw almost over-tagging of content across the influencer industry. However, now that everyone knows what and how to mean, web creators are definitely betting on acting according to the rulesboth platforms and offices such as UOKiK – adds Anna Ryczkowska.
It’s not just web developers who have to do this. – I quite often notice that celebrities often forget about the appropriate markings – says Łukasz Walczak.
– In this case, the role of the educator should be performed by principals and intermediaries, i.e. influencer marketing agencies. At GetHero, we try to strongly remind Creators of their obligations and regulations to avoid similar situations. This is regulated by the relevant provisions in our cooperation agreements – he adds.
Filip Chajzer, Małgorzata Rozenek-Majdan and Dorota Rabczewska contracts regarding instagram profiles are signed by legal entities and the President of UOKiK treats them in this way. Penalties of up to 10% may be imposed for violations of the regulations. annual turnover.
Instagram is the second most popular social platform in Poland, visited by over half of Internet users. In December last year attracted 17.24 million users, each for an average of 4 hours and 1.5 minutes (data from Mediapanel).
