Gifting
When you as an influencer receive a gift from woods_, special rules apply to your mention of the product on social media, as hidden advertisement is prohibited under the Marketing Act. It must thus be clearly stated when a mention is advertising. As an aid, we have gathered the Consumer Ombudsman's good advice for influencers:
Have you received a free product from woods_ without an agreement: Then you must follow the requirements for gifts, see point 1
Do you have an agreement with woods_ to mention one or more products: Then follow the requirements for advertising, see point 2
Have you previously received products from woods_ that you have mentioned several times: Then follow the requirements for advertising, see point 2
1. If you have received the products as a gift
Even if you do not have a direct agreement with woods_ to mention the product / products, your mention may still be covered by the ban on surreptitious advertising. When you receive a gift from woods_, the Consumer Ombudsman assumes that it is because woods_ hope that you will mention the product / products. woods_ will therefore have a commercial intention by giving you the gift / product. For this reason, it is important that you make it clear when mentioning the product / products on social media that you have received the product from woods_.
1.1 How should it appear from your mention that you have received a gift?
Examples of sentences that meet the legal requirements:
” I have received the product as a gift” or ” I got the product for free”
TEXT (E.G. BLOG POST): If you are referring to the product in a text, one of the sentences above should appear at the beginning of the text.
PICTURE: If you show the product in a picture, the sentence must be on the picture itself, above the picture or at the beginning of the text for the picture.
VIDEO: If you mention the product in a video, the sentence must appear either in the video or in some other way, so that the person watching the video knows that you have received the product as a gift.
1.2 When is it advertising instead of gifting?
If you have an agreement with woods_ to mention the product / products, or if you have previously received products that you have mentioned several times, it is not enough to use the above sentences for gifts. In these cases, the Consumer Ombudsman will consider your mention of the products as advertising, as you and woods_ have agreed that you must mention the product / products.
2. If you have an advertising agreement with Woods, your mention should be marked as advertising
It does not matter how you and woods_ enter into an agreement on publicity, as well as who took the initiative for the agreement. Subordinate is also whether woods_ has made demands on the design / content of the mention. An agreement can be in writing, orally or tacitly. An implied agreement will, for example, be where woods_ regularly sends you products, and you regularly mention the products positively, without otherwise having been in contact with woods_.Examples of advertising:
- woods_ pays you to mention us or our products
- You get a discount or other benefits to promote woods_, e.g. ambassador
- You organize competitions or arrange "give-aways" for woods_
- You mention woods_ or our product / products and links to woods_ webshop and receive payment for clicks on the link that leads to the purchase (advertising link)
- You get percentages when buying products in woods_ to mention our products
2.1 How should it appear from your mention that it is advertising?
It must be clear from the mention or context, that you are promoting woods_. It will suffice if it is clearly stated on the product that you are advertising that this is from woods_. If you are in doubt about whether it is clear enough, the Consumer Ombudsman recommends that you state this in direct continuation of the advertising marking.
You decide how you state in the review that it is advertising, as long as this is also clear to those who read and / or see the review. It shall not be necessary for the reader and / or the viewer to look through the mention to find out if it is advertisement.
PICTURES: You will comply with the rules if, for example, at the beginning of the text, on the image itself or at the beginning of the text for the image, you write either: ”Advertising” or ”Advertisement”.
You can also use other words. However, we recommend choosing one of the two words above, as the requirements for whether the advertising is clear enough are relatively high. With the words above, you are sure that they are clear enough. Be especially aware that tagging Woods on an image that is categorized as advertising, is not enough.
VIDEO: It will also be sufficient that you, for example, write in the title of each video: ”Advertising” or ”Advertisement”.
For videos, it is crucial that the viewer of the video know it includes advertising before watching it. This is because the ban on surreptitious advertising covers all parts of the marketing, including the presentation of the video (e.g. the headline).
Other words than "advertising" and "advertisement" can be used, but as with pictures, we recommend that these words be used, as the requirements for clarity are high also for videos.
If a series of videos are shown in continuation of each other, where it is not possible to state that the videos are advertising before the viewer chooses to watch them (e.g. Snapchat or Instagram Stories), it must appear as the first thing of each video that they include advertising.
ADVERTISING LINK: If you link to Woods' webshop in connection with a mention, and then receive payment for each time someone click on the link and it leads to a purchase, this is characterized as an advertising link. Such link must therefore also be clarified as advertising.
It will be sufficient if you write above or in direct extension of the link: ”Advertising” or ”Advertisement”.
As with video and pictures, you can again choose to use other similar words, but we still recommend not doing this, as the requirements for clarity are also high here. It will not be enough if it only appears at the end of the mention, or if the links in question are simply marked with the "affiliate agreement", "affiliate link" or it appears from the mention that "the advertisement may contain advertising links".
Crucial is whether readers become aware that a link is an advertising link before or at the same time as they see the link.
If you have written a mention that is advertising, where you have inserted an advertising link, it must be clear that both the mention and the advertising link are advertising, and that it is Woods you are advertising for. If it is clear that the mention is advertising, and does not give rise to doubt as to whether the associated links are advertising links, there is no need to write e.g. "advertising link" at the link. On the contrary, it will always be necessary where it gives rise to doubt as to whether the link is in connection with advertising.