Ethics, honesty and transparency are vital components of any business philosophy. The Federal Trade Commission has, over the course of the last few years, established rules and general guidelines for advertising and endorsement disclosure. You can look them up here:
FTC’s Revised Endorsement Guidelines
The short version:
If a person receives money, product, discounts, services or favors to promote or post about a product, event or brand, that person must disclose that material connection. When the person does not disclose that relationship, the FTC has the power to take both that person and the organization to court.
Furthermore, endorsements must be truthful and not misleading, and if there is a connection between the endorser and the marketer of the product that would affect how people evaluate the endorsement, it should be disclosed.
I want to be transparent on this blog and through its extensions (including but not limited to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube) about all relationships (past and present) with every company, organization and product with which I have either had or currently have a material connection that falls within the scope of 16 CFR Part 255. This encompasses a breadth of material connections ranging from some of these entities being employers and or paying clients, to these entities having sent me a free product (whether to review or as a gift) or just bought me coffee.
I will, whenever possible, disclose any and all pertinent material connections with such entities, their subsidiaries and possible affiliates alongside any mention that could be construed as an endorsement and/or a promotion. However, as some platforms and certain circumstances may render such thorough disclosure impractical and/or repetitive, this page will serve as a default disclosure document in regards to material connections between me, this blog, and the aforementioned entities. In addition, I will consider that a) having clearly and repeatedly established a material connection between myself and any entity and b) having posted a list of these entities here, said material connections will be implied in any and all subsequent mentions of that entity by me.
For the sake of transparency and disclosure, to my best recollection, below is a list of every organization, company, event and/or individual product with which I either at some time had – or currently have – a material connection that falls within the scope of 16 CFR Part 255 and is not exclusively covered by a third-party non-disclosure agreement*:
52 Limited
ADAC
ADMA Summit (Sydney)
Agency Roundtable (Carmel)
Alterian
Americas Mart
Anthill Marketing
Audi
Axe
Bacardi
Belgacom
Black Irish Books
Brains on Fire
BMW
Carolina Triathlon
CEGN (Montreal)
Chess Media Group
Cliff Bar & Company
Clemson University
CNAC
Corante
Cox Photography
Design Centers International
EasyInstall™
F360
Fast Company
Fleet Feet
FuelID
Furman University
FusionMEx (Brussels, Antwerp)
GasPedal
General Mills
Go Magazine
GSATC
Harvard Business Review
Hincapie Sportswear
Home Cable Concepts
Human Scale
i.a.b. (Brussels, London)
Innoventure
Jive
IIRME
Intefy
Intercontinental Hotels Group
K2
KWD
Krem
Kennesaw State University
LexisNexis
LikeMinds (Exeter)
Liquid Highway
Loyola University
Marketing Profs
Mass Passion
McGraw-Hill Publishing
Michelin North America
Microsoft
MIMA
Nokia
Oettinger & Associates
Orange
Orange Coat
Paris Cafe
Pearson Publishing
PRSA
Que Publishing
Rudy Project
Salesforce-Radian6
Setup, Inc.
SmartBrief
SocialFish
Social Media Club
South Carolina Hospital Association
SPRF
Specialized
StemTech
Subway
SwagClub
Symantec
Synnex
T&S Brass
Tech After Five
The Centers for Disease Control/CDC
The City of Fountain Inn
The De Gaspe Beaubien Foundation
The Federal Reserve Banks
The James C. White Company
The Jive World Conference (Las Vegas)
The Social Conference (Amsterdam)
The Social Media Integration Conference (Atlanta)
The Think Digital Conference (Brussels)
The Total Marketing Conference (Dubai)
The US Chamber of Commerce
The Word of Mouth Supergenius Conference (New York)
Tickr
TNT
Tri Your Best
Tubetrack
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Upstate Triathlon Club
Verizon
VPS.net
Webtrends
Wiley Publishing
Williams-Sonoma
Wolff Industries
WOMMA
Worthwhile
*Regarding conflicts of disclosure (NDA vs. 16 CFR Part 255): If I have been hired by a third party (like an agency or a marketing firm) to work on a project for a client and have signed an agreement not to disclose the nature or details of that project with the general public (and in some instances the client) the entities involved may not appear on this list. However, in no instance whatsoever will I ever promote or recommend the agency or the client without disclosing in the same statement that a material connection exists between them and me. (Which is to say that I most likely won’t be able to recommend them a whole lot, if at all.)
Note: I have no material connection to Nutella or Nespresso. Both addictions are entirely genuine and strings-free.
