If you thought you were an “influencer” for having just over a thousand followers and spending a summer like a headless chicken looking for the best photo by the sea or delicately holding an aperol spritz with a stunning sunset in the most remote cove on the planet, forget it. You are only an “influencer” or content creator with rights (and obligations) if you earn money for your “work” an annual gross income of more than 300,000 euros, if you have more than one million followers on a social network or two million in your overall activity or if you publish 24 videos or more in a year. The rest are mere apprentices who like to show off for no reason.
Well, this categorization of what a content creator/”talent”/”influencer” is or whatever each one wants to refer to these hordes of people who seek a glimmer of fame on social networks responds to the new Influencers Law that the Government approved on April 30 through Royal Decree 444/2024, which regulates the requirements for being considered particularly relevant user of video sharing services through platforms and which has been in force since May 2.
A revolution for these “advertising men” who this summer are trying to do their best to comply with the law. In fact, the initial deadline to comply with one of the requirements (registering in the “official register of influencers”) has already expired and it seems that most of them have not done their homework. Be careful because they face fines ranging from 10,000 to 1.5 million euros if they do not comply with the law that protects them.
235,000 Spanish “influs”
But let’s go step by step to understand this new regulatory order and its corresponding controversy. According to the study “Influencer Economy: market data without filters” it is estimated that In Spain there are about 235,000 content creators, although Laps4 clarifies that only 12,000 have more than 100,000 followers and 1,100 more than a million. In short, of the thousands of active “influencers” only about 600 would be affected. due to this new legislation, according to the law firm Pinto&Salgado.
However, of those 600, only fifty have taken the first step to legalise their situation: registering in the State Register of Audiovisual Providers. The deadline was two months from 2 May and three months have already passed.
Among those who have complied are the “mother” of the “influencers” Dulceida, as well as Belén Esteban, Cristini, Laura Escanes, Rocío Osorno, María Pombo and Mery Turiel, among others. “I’m already signed up. With respect to all those people who haven’t done so, I think that perhaps they have not realized how important it is, many people will not have paid attention to it. But I hope that more and more people will sign up, after all, it is your duty to comply with the law,” Pablo G Show, an influencer with 2.2 million followers on Instagram, explains to this newspaper.
The purpose of this new RD is to regulate a market that, although it already had certain guidelines, also presents important gaps. The objective, it says, “is transparency”, which is why they must clearly explain when the content they display is advertising. They cannot advertise tobacco, including electronic cigarettes and the companies that produce them. Nor can they advertise medicines or games of chance and betting, in this case, in spaces that are aimed at minors. Drinks with more than 20 degrees of alcohol are limited to a certain time, between 1:00 and 5:00 in the morning. Meanwhile, the promotion of drinks with less than 20 degrees is allowed from 8:30 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.
Ignorance or disinterest?
«I see well the new standard although I think it is not yet adapted correctlyI am sure that they will have to update it soon. In favor I could say that it gives us more legal security, recognition of the profession by the Spanish legislator and by society in general. Against, the lack of adaptation to the reality of the industry, lack of specificity in certain guidelines that open the door to the generation of doubts and problems of interpretation,” adds Pablo G Show.
Although he sees it in a positive light, there will be many of his “colleagues” who will have their stomachs turned at having to modulate and reset their business strategy. Pablo tells not onlyor with the legal help of his father who is a lawyer, but with an agency that is responsible not only for advising him on an image level but also for complying with the law, something that does not happen with all representatives.
We meet with the SO Media Group team, which offers Talent management and brand service services and has a good “crop” of “influencers” in its portfolio. For them, “the main novelty of the reform of the Audiovisual Communication Law has been the consideration of certain content creators as providers of audiovisual communication services, equating them in a certain sense with other traditional media. This represents a change in the industry, as content creators are mentioned for the first time in a regulatory text,” says Eduardo García Alier, COO & Co-founder.
He also adds that they, as an agency, have not had to implement major changes after the reform of the law: “We have been preparing for this moment for a long time and it has been very well received. At SOMediaGroup we have always been very aware of the need to have a specialized legal team that provides support to both our clients and the brands. The experience in the industry during almost ten years of experience, as well as continuous training, gives us peace of mind that we are on the right track. When it comes to making and/or adjusting collaboration contracts, we have always had very good experience in the field of legal matters.” present the different regulations in the advertising field to ensure that the content complied with all relevant guidelines.”
Regarding the first failure of the “talents” in terms of registering in the proper registry, Marta Cobo, director of the legal department of this agency, confesses that “the real reason why more have not registered is difficult to know, since we cannot affirm with certainty that there are many more users of Special Relevance in the Spanish territory as we do not have access to the annual billing of each content creator. We believe that it is possible that some have not registered due to ignorance or lack of compliance, but we also think that, as the legislative text has been proposed, there will not be a mass registration in 2024.
This registry is managed by the National Commission for the Market and Competition (CNMC) and although the deadline expired on July 2, it is possible that some procedures are still in progress and the final names will be published in the next report. Even so, it does not seem that the more than five hundred who should have done so, do so.
94 million euros of annual investment
According to Daniela Rodríguez, general manager and co-founder of SO Media Group, investment in influencer marketing has grown exponentially, especially in the last four years, reaching 94 million euros in 2023.which represents a growth of more than 23% compared to the previous year. So brands are fighting for them, but, in many cases, the “influencers” are not up to par. “For this reason, due to the rapid evolution of new disciplines, it is very difficult for laws to advance synchronously. We believe that the law will be subject to a new reform sooner rather than later, since there are many doubts about the interpretation of some precepts, as well as a lack of regulation on key points. What is most lacking are specific guidelines that help talents understand and apply the law in their daily activity,” emphasizes Javier García-Gallo, CEO and co-founder of this agency.
“I am sure that the law will be subject to further debate. reform to better adapt it to the reality of the industry, “It’s a matter of time,” adds content creator Pablo G Show, who rules out leaving Spain in search of more flexible legislation.
In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, a list is published annually naming the “influencers” who do not comply with the rules. Could the same thing happen in Spain? “Any sanctions that may be imposed will surely be disseminated to serve as an educational resource,” Cobo said.