EA has introduced new rules for its influencer marketing campaigns which require influencers to be more upfront about the nature of their content.
The publisher uses two different types of influencer marketing; Supported by EA, which is used for influencers given products or access to events by the company; and Advertisements, where EA directly pays an influencer to promote a game.
The new rules stipulate that influencers must tag all tweets with either #supportedbyEA or #advertisement dependent on EA's involvement in the marketing.
Get it on tape
Any video content must feature a watermark with a similar message at the start of the video that is clearly visible. Influencers can also choose to state at the beginning of the video their involvement with EA.
The rules are being put in place due to recent crackdowns on influencer campaigns that do not reveal the true nature of the campaign. Such campaigns are considered misleading and could result in costly lawsuits against the developer or publisher.
As pointed out by Georg Broxtermann in his tips on using influencer marketing, the FTC has stated that declarations made in video descriptions are "not enough" to avoid prosecution.