The world of social media was first brought into consciousness in 1997 before the likes of Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg created their industry titans. A lot has changed since SixDegrees.com! The power of social media marketing has been embraced by every facet of advertising and public relations. Social media can generate revenue across all industries, from the small sole trader to the global conglomerate. Our client specialises in promoting brands through influencers (individuals with a large following). Paying for content on influencers’ pages in pictorial-based social media can yield bountiful returns courtesy of their millions of followers. Acting as a talent agency, our client matches influencers to brands.
#Ad
A PR agency approached our client with an influencer in mind to endorse their customer’s domestic appliances. It would be an understatement to say the agency is well-established. To give you an idea, they were founded in the same year Leeds United won the Football League First Division for the first time! With the influencer on board and the price agreed upon, our client set about incorporating the product endorsements into the timeline and raised an invoice upon completion. The appliances received an upturn in consumer interest, and the debtor received praise from the manufacturer for a job well delegated! In line with the Advertising Standards Agency, the influencer made clear the posts were paid adverts. It’s common to use #ad, but the most valuable advertising comes from influencers taking it upon themselves to endorse a product through personal experience rather than because of financial incentives.
Viral Success
After pursuing the debtor for several weeks without payment, our client was suddenly told that a purchase order should have been obtained before production. Our client engaged in the endurance sport of telephone ping-pong to finally get a PO raised. Once retrospectively applied to the invoice, our client was met with hostility to the point of implying elitism to delay payment – perhaps related to our talented client being in their first year of trading. Punching above their weight from the outset, our clients can already choose who to work with instead of banking on success through association.
Pursuing Payment
When the invoice reached a month overdue, the debtor went silent, and Advocate Commercial Debt Recovery was instructed. By this point, the influencer’s cut had been paid eight weeks ago, and the £2k invoice was still outstanding. Our client makes a point of paying influencers before receiving payment themselves. Trading for over five decades with a seven-figure balance sheet, the debtor was hardly at risk of insolvency. Naturally, they were protective of their scratch scorecard for County Court Judgments, which formed the basis of our action. The debtor had the ability to pay but lacked the motivation to pay until Advocate made contact. Payment swiftly followed for the overdue principal sum and statutory late payment charges. Our client knows that no matter how good a business is, there will always be circumstances which cannot be foreseen. That is why Advocate remains their first port of all for debt recovery needs.