Social media influencers are to be monitored by Artificial Intelligence tools to ensure they're complying with the advertising code.
It comes as new research by the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) revealed 63% of consumers are concerned by influencers who do not come across as authentic.
Almost 60% said they trust brand advertisements more than social posts by an influencer.
Orla Twomey, Chief Executive of the ASAI, told Breakfast Briefing how the new approach will work.
"We're living in a world of social media and of tech, so it's about using tech tools to capture information, to assess it and then to send results to the human users to determine whether or not there are breaches of the code," she said.
Logos of Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp apps in a social media folder. Picture by: Andre M. Chang/ZUMA Wire"We're going to be working with the CCPC to develop additional guidance about what is required for disclosure.
"I think we'll end up with just a very few, clear simple words that can be used.
"Then we will do a monitoring to see - once we've gone out and informed people - whether or not people are actually adhering to that".
'A snapshot in time'
Ms Twomey said this is all about trust.
"The tools will be able to provide us with a snapshot in time, and we'll be able to identify whether or not influencers and brands that they work with are disclosing correctly," she said.
"If they're not, we'll engage with them to try and bring them into compliance with the code.
"If that doesn't work, then we will do formal investigation where they will be named and shamed as not disclosing properly and abusing - I suppose - the trust that their followers have in them, and the trust that the brand's audience have.
"It is all about trust".
Hashtag confusion
Ms Twomey said consumers are confused about the various hashtags used to label commercial content.
"There are some many different types of relationships that brands and influencers can have," she said.
"We know that there's some confusion about what hashtags mean.
"For example, only 55% of consumers recognised #ad, and 59% didn't recognise #sp.
"For us it's about taking this information [and] deciding what is the clearest way to identify.
"I think from the perspective of what we understand outside social media, we know what an ad is - so that is one of the words probably we'll promote to be used.
"I think once we get that level of consumer awareness, and influencers [are] always using the same type of words, then I think that will go a lot of the way to fix the problem," she added.
