Brand Safety & Influencer Marketing: How to Prevent Reputation Risks

What is Brand Safety?

Brand safety in marketing refers to measures taken so that a brand's content and advertisements don't appear in any context that could potentially harm the brand's reputation.

The goal of brand safety? Safeguard your company's image by avoiding any association with inappropriate, offensive or controversial content.

We've found that brand safety is a big concern among brands and we totally understand why. That said, it's a piece of influencer campaign management that you can't afford to ignore. Literally.

Maintaining legal compliance and having safeguards for influencers without sacrificing creative freedom doesn't happen by accident.

This post explains how to balance brand safety with scaling influencer content and campaigns.

What are the Risks of Neglecting Brand Safety in Influencer Campaigns?

So, what's at stake?

Neglecting brand safety in your influencer marketing campaigns can lead to problems that not only impact your brand's reputation but also your campaign performance. The biggest concerns and headaches we hear about include:

Reputational Damage

• Influencers sharing content that clashes with your brand’s values or tone
• Misaligned messaging causing confusion or alienating your audience
• Partnering with influencers who have a history of controversy or poor behavior

FTC Non-Compliance

• Partnerships that lack proper disclosures, violating Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines
• Risk of fines or penalties for both brands and creators

Loss of Consumer Trust

• Campaigns perceived as inauthentic or unethical not only perform poorly but impact public perception of your brand
• Legal or compliance missteps may discourage future influencer collaborations, too

These put into perspective why influencer marketing brand safety standards matter and why they shouldn't be treated as an afterthought.

How to Build a Brand-Safe Influencer Marketing Strategy

Reducing risks related to your reputation reputation starts with a strategy that puts influencer marketing brand safety first. Here are some steps to help you lay the groundwork:

Create Clear Brand Guidelines in Your Creative Briefs

• Define what fits within your brand’s values and tone.
• Highlight off-limits topics (e.g., political content, profanity, sensitive issues)
• Include detailed visual and messaging standards

The good news? All of the above can be addressed with a detailed influencer creative brief that strikes a balance between compliance and authenticity.

Vet Influencers Before Moving Forward with Collabs

• Review past content for alignment with your brand
• Check audience demographics to ensure overlap with your target audience
• Use third-party tools to vet influencers efficiently and flag potential concerns

Also consider that the right influencer marketing platform can simplify the vetting and briefing process, saving time and guaranteeing consistency across campaigns.

For example, Statusphere's software matches brands with vetted creators for pre-negotiated collabs. Contrast this with most tools which simply provide access to an unvetted influencer database.

Educate Your Teammates and Creators

• Brief influencers on FTC requirements and your expectations
• Host sessions to answer questions and ensure alignment

Another smart move is to dedicate a team member to handling influencer relations and addressing these concerns before they have a chance to snowball.

3 Key Brand Safety Compliance Measures for Working with Influencers

Legal safeguards are essential for keeping your influencer campaigns secure and compliant. Especially when it comes to  FTC guidelines.  Here’s what to prioritize:

1. Draft Comprehensive Influencer Contracts

For example, consider how your brand's influencer agreement might contain:

• Content standards, outlining expectations for content creation.
• Usage rights, which define how your brand can reuse the content
• Termination terms, including clauses to end the partnership if guidelines are violated

2. Clear Disclosure Practices

• Require influencers to use transparent labels like #ad or #sponsored
• Make sure that your influencer disclosures are easily visible to avoid regulatory issues
• Use tools to verify that content meets both brand and FTC standards

Choosing the right influencer management platform can your brand can make the process of getting consistent disclosures much easier. For example, Statusphere's platform has built-in fields where brands can include disclosure instructions to creators clearly and concisely.

3. Get Your Legal Team Involved Early

• Standardize contracts to streamline the approval process
• Collaborate with legal teams during planning to mitigate compliance risks

The fewer surprises for your legal team, the better. Be upfront and get their input on campaigns but anticipate some potential pushback. 

Legal and compliance measures like these help maintain your brand's credibility and safeguard your campaigns against costly mistakes.

How to Give Influencers Freedom Without Compromising Your Brand's Reputation

Influencers excel when they’re free to be themselves. To maintain brand safety while giving them space to create, let's wrap up with some strategies for better brand alignment.

• Draft creative briefs, not scripts. Define key themes, goals, and non-negotiables but leave room for influencers to interpret the brief in an authentic way.
  
  
• Collaborate on content ideas. Make an effort to involve influencers in brainstorming sessions to co-create content. Provide constructive feedback that respects their creative process.
  
  
• Focus on alignment. Work with influencers who naturally align with your brand’s tone and values. Reduce the need for strict oversight by partnering with trusted creators over time.
  
  
• Establish your content expectations and criteria. Create a feedback loop for improving content without compromising authenticity.

Empowering influencers builds trust and produces authentic content that drives better results.

How to Make Brand-Safe Influencer Marketing a Reality

Brand safety isn’t something you can sweep under the rug. Especially if you have a fierce legal team.

One of the best ways to reduce brand safety concerns with influencer marketing is investing in software that can streamline the whole process.

With tools like Statusphere, you can develop a consistent, hands-off process that promotes brand safety without sacrificing the creative freedom of your influencers. That's because our platform:

Statusphere simplifies the complex process of running brand-safe influencer marketing campaigns. With an easy-to-use platform, you can:

• Vets and select influencers who align with your brand values
• Automates compliance checks to meet FTC guidelines
• Conducts quality checks across all influencer-generated content

Want to see how our platform works? Get in touch with our team to see how Statusphere scales influencer content while putting brand safety first.

Disclaimer: We're influencer marketing specialists, not lawyers ourselves! This content is not legal advice and you should definitely consult a legal professional based on your needs and questions. We do not make any guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of this information and take no liability or legal obligations for your use of this information.