As the popularity of social media, blogging and online review platforms continue to grow, so too has the prevalence of cash for comment incidents. To help buck the trend, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has released new guidelines on best practice for online reviews to ensure all commercially sponsored activities are transparent. The aim of the guidelines is to prevent commercial relationships between review platforms, reviewed businesses and/or reviewers leading to an unfair competitive advantage between competing reviewed businesses”.
To help remove the blurred lines when it comes to paid product spruiking, beautydirectory takes a close look at the new ACCC principles and talks to some of Australia’s top beauty bloggers and online editors about their disclosure policies.
Principle 1 - Be transparent about commercial relationships
The ACCC recommends industry players be open and transparent to consumers about any commercial relationships which could impact reviews. This sentiment is supported by The Plastic Diaries editor Kimberly Nissen, who stresses the importance of bloggers being transparent about their commercial relationships. Our readers hold bloggers to higher standards than traditional journalists – it’s one of the reasons they trust our judgement so much, and with that trust comes responsibility. The only way to not lose that trust is to remain transparent about how you operate,” says Nissen.
Nissen’s not the only editor that believes it is imperative for media to disclose all paid content out of respect to their readers. If a space has been sold, it’s the title’s duty of care to inform the reader so they can make their own choice to read or not read,” reports POPSUGAR Beauty editor Alison Rice (nee Larsen). Hair Romance editor Christina Butcher makes sure she always states when there is a paid commercial relationship, revealing that without the reader’s trust, you don’t really have anything”.
Having recently moved from magazines to blogging, GRITTYpretty editor Eleanor Pendleton applies the same level of disclosure across both mediums. Chequebook journalism is a practice that is frowned upon within the media industry and as a beauty journalist, I apply the same principles to my own blogs. Just like a magazine marks an advertorial in the SLUG, I treat my sponsored posts with the same kind of transparency. My readers are intelligent women who can pick up on cash for comment from a mile away,” says Pendleton.
There are different ways online media can alert readers to paid content. At beautyheaven, content that has been paid for has a sponsored by…” image and the sponsoring brand's logo at the bottom of the article to ensure members know that the content has been paid for, according to editor Debbie Black (nee Selikman).
The Plastic Diaries also has a system of labelling within blog posts and hashtagging on social media to ensure full transparency. In my blog posts, I use cmp.ly to ensure my disclosures are thorough and easy to read without it interfering with the style and flow of my content. In the case of sponsored editorial, I also include a statement in the first line of the post so there is absolutely no room for misunderstanding. For social media, I have a series of hashtags (i.e. #gifted for items I received for free) that I use, and I address our disclosure policies on our FAQ page,” reveals Nissen. Butcher is also a champion of having a site-wide disclosure.
Principle 2 - Do not post or publish misleading reviews
Consumers generally expect review results on apparently independent (consumer or expert) review platforms are not affected by commercial relationships between the review platform and reviewed businesses,” says the ACCC. Online media and bloggers must be careful to write reviews that reflect a genuinely held opinion even when offered financial or non-financial benefits.
When it comes to sponsored content, I will only ever write about a brand and/or product that I have trialled and truly believe in. In a world where digital is booming and brands are taking note, yes, there is a lot of money to be spent. However, I can admit I have turned down clients/jobs because they simply aren’t the right fit – not just for the GRITTYpretty brand but for the GRITTYpretty reader as well. I believe integrity is everything, so I choose to compile all of my content very carefully,” says Pendleton.
At POPSUGAR Beauty, advertorials and sponsored posts are clearly marked and do not reflect other content on the site. It’s a similar story at Hair Romance and The Plastic Diaries. Just because a review is sponsored does not mean there is any change to my review. If I don't believe in the product, I won't accept a paid feature on my blog,” says Butcher. Nissen adds, Paid content and advertising has absolutely no effect on content that’s unpaid. Even the paid content is restricted to not putting words in my mouth – I won’t say I like something unless I really do.”
Principle 3 - The omission or editing of reviews may be misleading
In the new guidelines, the ACCC warns businesses against the selective removal or editing of reviews, particularly negative reviews, for commercial or promotional reasons. At beautyheaven, members always have a right to their opinion, whether the reviewed product is part of a commercial relationship or not. We never dictate what they [members] can/can't say and all reviews are published on site – positive or negative,” explains Black. If a negative comment for a brand is published, beautyheaven will offer the brand the opportunity to open up a line of communication with the consumer.
POPSUGAR Beauty have a similar practice. POPSUGAR has never altered a review due to commercial agreements and never will. Our product reviews are 100 per cent editorial and the opinion and direction of the editor, while paid-for review programs are undertaken under the agreement that both positive and negative reviews will be published. We do not ‘improve’ reader reviews,” says Rice.
Another recommendation from the ACCC is for consumer review platforms to remove reviews which they know to be fake. The failure of an online platform to remove fake consumer reviews may risk in breaching the Competition and Consumer Act. beautyheaven have a number of steps to ensure there are no fake reviews published on the site.
We manually approve each and every review that gets submitted to the site, so you get quite used to the tone/writing styles of legitimate reviews. If something doesn't sound quite right or ring true, or is overly negative, we can check the email address of the member (you'd be surprised, but brands have been caught out in the past submitting negative reviews about their competitors because they submit them from their work email address!) If someone is submitting reviews too quickly (ie - they're coming through too fast in succession) we would then run the reviews through Google search to see if they're just copying and pasting from something online,” reveals Black.
Click here to view the full ACCC guidelines: What you need to know about: Online reviews - a guide for business and review platforms.