Guide · Marketing
Influencer Marketing: How to Pick and Brief Creators
Influencer marketing is paying or gifting creators to talk about your product to their own followers. This guide gives you a checklist to choose creators, write a brief they can use, and mark paid posts so they follow Singapore's advertising rules.
The short answer
Pick creators whose audience fits your buyer, give them a short written brief, and make every paid post say it is paid. That is the whole job. The rest of this guide turns it into a checklist you can run before a campaign goes live.
Singapore has a rulebook for this. The Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (ASAS) runs the Singapore Code of Advertising Practice (SCAP). Its basic premise is that all advertisements should be legal, decent, honest and truthful. In August 2016 ASAS added guidelines for social media, and they cover creators and the brands that hire them.
Sources: ASAS, Singapore Code of Advertising Practice; ASAS, Social Media page
How to pick creators
Follower count is the easiest number to see, and the least useful on its own. Use it last, not first. This table gives five checks to run on each creator before you send a message.
Check What to look for Audience fit The creator's followers look like your buyers: same country, same age range, same needs Past topics Posts on your subject already exist, and they read as honest, not as constant ads Real engagement Comments are from real people and refer to the post. Ask for screenshots of the creator's own analytics Past paid posts Earlier sponsored posts were clearly labelled as paid Brand safety Nothing in the creator's feed would embarrass your brand if shown next to your name Watch for fake reach. The ASAS guidelines say marketers must not boost engagement by fraud. Buying bulk likes, creating fake accounts and using programmes that generate page views are the named examples. A creator with inflated numbers is a risk to you, not only to them.
Sources: ASAS, Guidelines for Interactive Marketing Communication & Social Media
What goes in a creator brief
A good brief fits on one page. A creator who gets a clear brief makes better content, and you get fewer rounds of edits. Include these items:
- The goal: one sentence, such as "get new sign-ups for the spring workshop".
- The audience: who the post is for and what they care about.
- Three key points the post must make, and any claims you can prove.
- Things to avoid: claims you cannot support, rival brands, and sensitive topics.
- Format and dates: platform, length, draft date and post date.
- The disclosure: say in the brief that the post will be marked as paid, and how.
- Payment and what you receive: fee, free product, usage rights and how long you may reuse the post.
Leave room for the creator's own voice. Their followers trust their voice.
One point matters under the rules. ASAS counts sponsored content as posts paid for in cash or in kind, where the sponsor has a role in guiding the content. A brief is exactly that kind of guidance, so treat every briefed post as sponsored.
Sources: ASAS, Guidelines for Interactive Marketing Communication & Social Media
What the ASAS guidelines say about disclosure
The foremost principle is that all marketing communication must be identified as such and told apart from personal opinion. The guidelines apply to marketers, and they define marketers broadly. The list includes a brand's own staff, endorsers, blog owners and advertising agencies. So both the brand and the creator carry duties.
Here are the points that matter most for a creator campaign:
- If a creator has a commercial relationship with the brand, that relationship should be indicated in the content. A commercial relationship means the creator is given an incentive or has an obligation to create content for a client.
- Connections that could change how much people trust the post must be fully disclosed. The guidelines name complimentary samples, friendly favours and special invitations as examples, not only cash.
- Marketers should take appropriate steps to make sure the commercial nature of content under their control or influence is clearly shown.
This means a free product sent in exchange for a post still needs a label. Do not treat "gifted" as a loophole.
Sources: ASAS, Guidelines for Interactive Marketing Communication & Social Media
How to make the label clear
The guidelines set out what a good disclosure looks like. It should be clear and prominent on any platform. In plain words:
- Show it early, so people see it with little scrolling or clicking.
- Say clearly that the content has been paid for.
- Use a colour that contrasts with the background.
- Make it readable on phones and other devices.
- Keep it in the post itself. Do not hide it behind a link.
- Use simple words, with no legal or technical jargon.
For audio-only content, the disclosure should be spoken. For written content, it should be written. For video, the label should stay on screen long enough to read.
TikTok adds a built-in step. Its help page says a creator promoting a brand, product or service must turn on the content disclosure setting. A post for another business is labelled Paid partnership, and a post for the creator's own business is labelled Promotional content. TikTok says the setting does not affect how widely a video is shown, and that it may remove or restrict a video without the proper disclosure. Use the platform setting and a clear label in the caption or on screen. The setting does not replace the ASAS standard.
Sources: ASAS, Guidelines for Interactive Marketing Communication & Social Media; TikTok Support, Promoting a brand, product, or service
A final check before the post goes live
Run this list on every post. If any answer is no, fix it before publishing.
Question Pass if Does the audience match our buyers? You saw the creator's own audience data Is the brief in writing? Goal, audience, key points, dates and fee are on one page Is the post marked as paid? The label is early, clear and in the post itself Did a gift count as payment? Free products and trips are labelled the same way Is the platform setting on? On TikTok, the content disclosure setting is turned on Are the numbers real? No bought likes, fake accounts or page-view tools This guide is a starting point, not legal advice. Read the full ASAS guidelines, and ask a lawyer if a campaign is complex.
Sources: ASAS, Guidelines for Interactive Marketing Communication & Social Media; TikTok Support, Promoting a brand, product, or service
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