FTC challenges influencer campaign for Warner Bros.’ Shadow of Mordor game
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Friday, December 16, 2022
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In the FTCs lawsuit against Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, truth in advertising had a nemesis: paid pitches for Shadow of Mordor that Warner Bros. deceptively claimed were independent reviews.
Key Points:
- In the FTCs lawsuit against Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, truth in advertising had a nemesis: paid pitches for Shadow of Mordor that Warner Bros. deceptively claimed were independent reviews.
- To help launch
Shadow of Mordor, Warner Bros. brought a social media company on board to coordinate a YouTube influencer campaign. - One strategy was to hire influential gamers to post videos promoting Shadow of Mordor videos that ultimately yielded more than 5.5 million YouTube views.
- In addition to free game access, Warner Bros. paid the influencers cash ranging from hundreds of dollars to five figures.
- Influencers videos were subject to pre-approval and, according to the terms of the agreement, Warner Bros. will be deemed the author and exclusive owner.
- Warner Bros. was quite exacting in what else it required of influencers:
- Video will feature gameplay of the
Shadow of Mordorgame. - - Video will not communicate negative sentiment about Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, its affiliates or the game.
- Warner Bros. also required One Facebook post or one Tweet by Influencer in support of Video.
- And for FTC watchers, thats where the story gets almost as interesting as
Shadow of Mordor. - The complaint charges that Warner Bros. falsely represented that the
Shadow of Mordor gameplay videos reflected the independent opinions or experiences of impartial gamers. - The FTC also alleges that, in many cases, Warner Bros. failed to disclose or failed to adequately disclose influencers material connection to the company.
- For future influencer campaigns, the proposed settlement outlines steps Warner Bros. must take to monitor influencers conduct.