Influencer marketing is increasingly present in our lives. The phenomenon raises many questions. In this research project, we look at the advertising generated by this phenomenon. We approach this question from the point of view of transparency, asking whether current advertising regulations meet the challenges that influencer marketing may raise. Our analysis is built around the principle of advertising identification, which aims to make clear the advertising nature of a message or piece of information.

In fact, our research has taken some of the techniques used in influence marketing as a starting point, in order to verify their impact on users. This led us to carry out qualitative field research with a population made up of adults and children, in order to verify their reception of the influence marketing phenomenon. This was followed by a study of legislation, standards, social network policies, doctrine and jurisprudence, enabling us to analyze the data collected in the light of this corpus.

The research found that influence marketing techniques were well received by participants, in contrast to traditional advertising, and that they had an impact on young people's purchases. However, the research also revealed that some of the techniques used in influence marketing create confusion among study participants, particularly those aged under 13, about their advertising nature, as the very notion of advertising is abstract for these young people.
With regard to the advertising identification techniques used (e.g. #pub and #commandité or in English: #ad, #sponsored), this research revealed that among adults, the nuances between the words clicks used online are not very well understood by all. Among children, few recognized the symbols #ad or #pub, especially among young French speakers.

As for the appearance of advertising on publications, while many participants were just as put off by this as traditional advertising, others considered it to be the most transparent method. Finally, this research revealed a lack of uniformity between the symbols proposed by the Advertising Standards and those proposed by certain networks, which could lead to further confusion about advertising identification.

Although the laws in force in Canada apply to influence marketing, and certain provisions relating to misleading advertising may, by their terms, apply to various forms of advertising, these laws do not determine how to disclose the advertising character of a message.

Our analysis of practices in other jurisdictions revealed a number of inspiring examples, including the UK's agreement with Facebook Ireland to implement technology to identify non-compliant Instagram posts. Another example is Germany, which has intervened to require influencers to use the full German terms #werbung or #anzeige, rather than the #ad sign, in order to make it easier for its population to understand.