EACA Creates European Council to Enhance Influencer Reputation

​The European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) has launched a three-pronged programme to improve standards in influencer marketing as the channel attracts an increasing share of marketing budgets.

The drive will seek to improve best practice among agencies and brands, share knowledge more widely about the rapidly changing regulatory requirements and encourage more creators to take training on #ad declaration rules.

It will be led by a new Influencer Marketing Council with a brief to create common standards and identify challenges that run across the channel. The council will be chaired by Thomas Angerer, co-founder and chief creative officer of BeInfluence Europe, and other members of the committee will include:

• John Harding Easson, global influence growth and client lead of Influential (Publicis)
• Ainoa Brenes, global head of influencer marketing of Samy
• Emma Odendaal, EMEA head of influence of Dentsu
• Miguel Vara, head of content studios of McCann
• Iulia Boncan, global social media manager of MCI Group
• Steffen Pferr, business director social media and digital of Innocean

"Creator marketing has grown up faster than the frameworks around it, and this Council is our chance to close that gap together. But beyond regulation and training, what excites me most is the perspective we're building: for the first time, practitioners from across Europe's leading agencies will share a truly pan-European view of our industry. We'll use that collective expertise to conduct research, publish recommendations and keep educating brands, creators and agencies as the craft evolves. Our ambition is simple: to make Europe the global reference for how creator marketing should be done," said Thomas Angerer.

Beyond setting standards, the Council will draw on the collective expertise of its members to conduct pan-European research and industry surveys, publishing recommendations to help brands, agencies and creators navigate the evolution of the channel.

To aid improvements in best practice, EACA has published a guide for brands, agencies and creators. The ‘Influencer Marketing Rules Across Europe – A Practitioner’s Guide for EACA Members’ guidelines will allow anyone working in influencer marketing to stay on top of EU legislation, national requirements and best practice, bringing together the key legal requirements, practical guidance and country-specific developments in one easy-to-use resource.

“When a channel becomes bigger, it also needs to take on more responsibility. As influencer marketing is being trusted with greater budgets, more agencies and advertisers are leaning into the channel to deliver results for their clients and we want to assist them in ensuring they deliver not just great results but also the right behaviours and public declarations of partnership,” said Charley Stoney, CEO of EACA.

The final part of the mission will be a drive to encourage more creators to take training in ad rules, to ensure they know how to openly declare any relationships with brands.

EACA believes that agencies and advertisers should be insisting that all creator partners working with brands should have some form of training. Data from the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA), which includes 28 advertising standards bodies across the region, finds that 22% of all complaints against online ads are against influencer marketing content. At least half of these complaints relate to disclosure issues or the legality of the advertising.