In a recent decision, the
advertising industry self-regulatory body NAD recommended that
influencer marketing firm Ahalogy tone down some of its claims
about the capabilities of its new product, the Tri-Verified
influencer marketing platform.
The decision comes at a time when influencer marketing is
becoming an increasingly popular— and
challenging—field. Influencer marketing is what the NAD
describes as "a form of marketing where a seller leverages the
popularity and credibility of specific individuals to market a
product in a testimonial manner." For example, a Snapchat
"celebrity" might get paid to endorse a product in hopes
that some of his or her followers might be "influenced"
to buy such product. However, advertisers often have difficulty
measuring influencers' effectiveness in engaging audiences.
Companies have developed ways to inflate subscriber numbers,
distorting the accuracy of the data advertisers rely on to
determine how many people view the posts
