Guidelines around influencer advertising are to be streamlined into 'two or three options.'
ASAI Chief Executive Orla Twomey was speaking as a new survey found 64% of 16 to 24 year olds have bought goods based on a recommendation, content or ads from an influencer or celebrity they follow on social media.
The An Post survey found the same age group is also spending the most online, with 21% spending over €100 per online order which is above the average recorded for all adults.
Those aged 25 to 34 are not immune, with 43% stating they have made purchases on the basis of influencer recommendations.
The survey also found that 94% of those surveyed have shopped online in the past three months.
Ms Twomey told Moncrieff influencers have to be clear in their adverts, even if it is for their own brands.
"The code requires that advertising should be clear that it's advertising," she said.
"On a radio station [when] you go into an ad break, you tell people we're going into an ad break - it's clearly identified.
"But with influencer marketing [and] influencer content, because it can reflect their natural content, then they have to disclose when it is advertising.
"Consumers shouldn't have to be like Sherlock Holmes and getting the magnifying glass out to try and determine themselves whether it's advertising.
"So there has to be disclosure, unless it's absolutely crystal clear".
Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok apps on an iPhone in January 2021. Picture by: Koshiro K / Alamy Stock PhotoCCPC research from last year found that 48.4% of commercial content was not labelled as advertising in any way.
Ms Twomey said changes are coming.
"We're working with the CCPC on joint guidance to streamline the requirements," she said.
"So instead of a lot of different types of disclosure, there might be only two or three that will be acceptable.
"That way we think it will raise the awareness amongst consumers that they're seeing advertising, and raise the awareness amongst influencers [and] make it simpler for them".
Ms Twomey said there is also an onus on advertisers.
"Under our code advertisers have primary responsibility for ensuring the advertising that they cause to be created is compliant with the code," she said.
"Advertisers have to make sure that if they do cause an influencer, engage with an influencer, to create content they actually check to make sure that it's correct.
"That it is actually disclosing properly, that the disclosure is visible and legible and easily understood.
"A lot of the time when we talk about influencer marketing it's as if it's all on the influencer - they're the one publishing the content, so they have a responsibility - but so do the companies that cause that material to be created," she added.
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