Issue makers Lars Ykema, Marit van der Veldt and Emma Postma provided the press approach for DDMA's 'Certified by influencerrules.com' at the end of April. We are proud that their work has been nominated for the Dutch PR Awards!

The Dutch PR Awards will be presented on June 26. Below you can read more about the nominated case!

Briefing and objectives

Influencer marketing is growing: in budget, but also in responsibility. Advertising by influencers must be recognizable as advertising. Not every product may be advertised. That is why a lot of legislation has been developed for this in recent years. But who explains to you what is and is not allowed when you have just become an influencer and you get your first commercial jobs?

The sector would like to further professionalize and make the current rules more understandable. That is why DDMA, BVA and SRC developed the public influencer register certified by influencerrules.com. A certification process consisting of an e-learning module and an exam, with which influencers can prove that they are aware of the rules. An AI monitoring tool keeps an eye on things and helps influencers who unexpectedly break a rule. Major advertisers such as Coca-Cola, L'Oréal, Unilever and Heineken were involved in the start.

Role Issue makers

Issue makers have been asked to help DDMA create as much relevant attention as possible for the register. Target groups were advertisers, influencers and their management agencies, policy makers and citizens. This means that national media, social media and trade media were very important.

Issuemakers also took on a management role in the weeks leading up to the launch. In this way, we ensured that initiators and launching partners were aware of each other's activities, very important because of the many different interests involved during the launch.

The objectives were mainly focused on the project:

– 100 participating influencers in a year;

– 5 advertisers who have certified their influencers within a year.

In terms of media, we aimed for: at least 1x radio, 1x TV, an article in a quality newspaper, 3 influencers with a post about the register and an article placed on one of the major news sites.

Insights and strategy

The strategy focused on influential and major pioneers and the benefits of certification. The aim was to connect the largest possible names to the project as quickly as possible, which would create an attractive effect.

The register could only be launched successfully if major advertisers were enthusiastic and indicated that they only wanted to work with certified influencers from now on. The signal to influencers and agencies that there are consequences for not obtaining the certificate.

The initiative also had to be well known among talent management agencies. They were informed of the benefits of the influencer certification through various briefings. This way they could inform the first talents so that they could certify themselves before the launch. These influencers once again showed that they are pioneers who practice influencer marketing in a responsible manner.

The case

Influencer marketing has quickly become a mature and fully-fledged channel within the advertising and marketing world. In addition to the immense possibilities it offers for brands and influencers, it also comes with additional responsibilities.

Advertising must be recognizable as advertising, and an influencer must take into account special rules that have been drawn up for, for example, children's marketing. But who tells you that, as an influencer, you receive stuff from brands and you are suddenly monitored more closely if you post something about it?

That is why various organizations from the marketing sector – DDMA, bvA and SRC – developed certified by influencerrules.com. A certification that allows influencers, online creators and talents to demonstrate that they advertise correctly and responsibly. Since launch, more than 900 influencers have achieved the certificate.

Issuemakers was responsible for communication with the press and stakeholders. Because before the story could be shared with the media, it was very important that major advertisers and management agencies were aware of the initiative and could provide input on the certification process.

Curious where that led? Within a week, more than 900 influencers signed up for the e-learning and the initiative could be seen everywhere. From NOS to AD to the podcast 'Bankzitters', to proud posts on TikTok and Instagram from individual influencers.

View the nomination for the Dutch PR Awards from Marketing Report here

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