The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) have issued guidelines for video bloggers – or vloggers – posting paid-for content on YouTube channels or elsewhere.

“There is nothing wrong with vloggers (or others creating editorial content), marketers or agencies entering into commercial relationships: what’s wrong is if consumers are misled,” reads the CAPs note.

The guidelines distinguish between eight different types of branded video content, which require varying levels of disclosure by the video creator.

Videos produced in the vloggers usual style but with the message controlled by a brand – which CAP defines as advertorial – must be flagged as advertising upfront, in the videos title.

The guidelines specify that some variant on ad must be used, as opposed to terms like sponsored. They also advise against relying on the video description for this information, noting that “description boxes are not immediately visible when viewing the site through a tablet, mobile browser or app”

CAP identify a number of scenarios where the video creator neednt announce any brand relationship before the viewer watches the video – such as product placement or commercial breaks within a video – but these must be labelled as ad content in the video itself, whether through text or speech.

You can read the full guidelines here.