Some influencers have admitted to having signed, without reading it, a column published in the “Sunday Journal”. YouTuber Squeezie, for example, said he did it out of “trust” in his agent, who submitted the text to him. What are the relationships between influencers and agents and how are responsibilities shared?
How can you end up signing a column that you haven’t read? The question has been agitating social networks for several days, after the publication, in the Sunday newspaper, a forum on the regulation of the world of influence, from which many signatories then dissociated themselves. The reasons given are various. Some say they never gave their consent for their name to appear on it and others, like Squeezie, admit that they gave their consent without having read it.
France’s first YouTuber explained in a TikTok published on Tuesday what happened to him: “How could I associate myself with this thing without even opening it, or consulting it? Well, because my agent sent it to me and I trust him”.
He explains that his agent is part of Umicc, a federation of agencies and influencers at the initiative of the text published in the JDD. The Umicc has participated in recent months in the consultations carried out by the Ministry of the Economy and deputies on the supervision of the influence sector.
“You’re right, as number 1, I should never have associated with something without reading it,” adds Squeezie. “I shouldn’t have just trusted, I should have inquired, got involved, in short, I should have been responsible”
Contact and advice
This trust is at the heart of the relationship between influencers and their agents. The first agencies dedicated to commercial influence emerged in the mid to late 2010s.
The influencer agent is notably responsible for connecting brands with creators and drawing the outlines of partnerships. He can also have an advisory role with the creator on the commercial strategy to adopt.
Agents take, as is the case in the cinema for example, a commission on contracts signed by influencers. It is therefore necessary to have a minimum of success for it to be profitable to call on an agent. Agencies can also collaborate occasionally with creators to connect them with brands. Today, “only a minority” of creators is “accompanied by agencies”, underlines the Umicc in a press release on Friday.
An agent to “extract” from certain constraints
As part of the Paye ton influence collective, Amélie Deloche raises awareness on Instagram of influencers on issues relating to global warming and “responsible” influence, which in her view includes both legal and ecological issues.
She points out to BFMTV.com that “having an agent normally allows influencers to be able to get out of these constraints and delegate the legal aspect, for example”. With her company Post influence, she supports agencies in the development of ethical and ecological practices.
She finds that “the majority” of influencer agencies “don’t do enough research on the brand briefs that are sent” in order to form a paid partnership with a creator.
Amélie Deloche also believes that influencers “do not learn enough” on their side about ecological and consumer protection aspects, especially before accepting a partnership. She cites the recent example of an influencer who made sponsored stories for the Bayer company at the agricultural show in early March. questioned by Vakita mediashe said she regretted this partnership and did not find out beforehand who Bayer, the agrochemical giant and pesticide manufacturer, was.
In terms of their legal obligations, the sociologist specializing in the “putting to work” of influencers Joseph Godefroy also notes a “significant ignorance” on their part of the legal framework which applies to them.
A profession presented as a passion
How to explain that people who can reach at least thousands of people inquire so little before making an advertisement or, in the most recent case, to sign a platform in a weekly very scrutinized by the politico-media universe? For Joseph Godefroy, the answer lies in the way they represent their activity.
He observed during his work that often, when influencers mention their achievements on social networks, they evoke “the hobbies, the passion”. This is a widespread discourse in the influence sector, which does not depend on the number of subscribers and which does not help the professionalization of the sector, according to the researcher from the University of Nantes.
“If some earn a particularly good living, it is above all an additional income for many of us. For all of us, it is a passion”, insisted for example the tribune published in the JDD March 25.
A bill to professionalize the sector
Amélie Deloche thus explains that “the lack of global supervision means that there have been no clear practices to professionalize the sector” and that “self-regulation is not enough”. According to this observer of the world of influence, the bill examined this week in the National Assembly, which aims to regulate the sector more strictly, should change things.
For creators who are not represented by an agent, “it is difficult to seize this legal knowledge that is unevenly distributed socially”, notes Joseph Godefroy to BFMTV.com: “not everyone has a lawyer in his entourage”.
In order to guide them, the Ministry of the Economy has also posted an online “good conduct guide” aimed at “influencers and content creators”. He also wants to define, via the bill examined this week, a “co-responsibility” of the agencies when they “lead the influencer to harm a third party in the execution of the contract they have offered him”, according the press kit posted on Friday.
