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Published 15 October 2026 · Updated 15 October 2026 · By TMF — The Media Foundry
Influencer marketing works because audiences trust the person, not the logo. That trust is exactly why India now has clear rules on how paid or gifted content must be labelled. If you are a brand planning creator collaborations, or a creator taking your first brand deal, the rules come from two places: the self-regulatory guidelines of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), and guidance issued by the Government under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. This guide walks through both, in the order you will actually need them when planning a campaign.
A quick note before we start: this is a practical overview written by a marketing agency, not legal advice. Rules get updated, so always check the current text on the official pages linked throughout and in the sources list at the end.
1. The two layers of rules
The first layer is ASCI. ASCI introduced its Guidelines for Influencer Advertising in Digital Media in 2021, after consulting brands, creators and digital platforms. They sit inside the wider ASCI Code, which covers honesty and substantiation in all advertising. ASCI is a self-regulatory body: when content is flagged, it typically writes to the creator and the brand, and contested cases go to its complaints committee.
The second layer is the Government. The Department of Consumer Affairs published the Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements on 9 June 2022, and on 20 January 2023 it released a dedicated guide for celebrities, influencers and virtual influencers called “Endorsements Know-hows!”. The full guide (PDF) is short and worth reading in full. In practice the two layers point in the same direction: if there is a commercial relationship, say so clearly, in words people understand, where they cannot miss it.
2. What counts as a “material connection”
Both sets of rules are triggered by a material connection between the creator and the advertiser. This is broader than many people expect. It is not limited to a cash fee. According to the Government's guide and ASCI's guidelines, it can include:
- Payment of any kind, including commission on sales or affiliate links.
- Free products, whether or not the brand attached conditions to the gift.
- Discounts, trips, hotel stays, event invitations and other perks.
- Media barters, awards or coverage given in exchange for content.
- Family, personal or employment relationships with the brand.
Two points trip people up. First, an honest, unscripted review still needs a disclosure if a material connection exists — the rule is about the relationship, not the tone of the review. Second, the reverse is also true: a creator sharing something they bought with their own money, with no link to the brand, does not need a label.
3. Which labels to use
Use plain words that an average viewer will understand immediately. The Government's guide names terms such as “advertisement”, “sponsored” and “paid promotion”. ASCI's guidelines list permitted labels including Advertisement, Ad, Sponsored, Collaboration, Partnership, Employee, Free gift and Affiliate, and also recognise platform labels such as Instagram's paid partnership tag and YouTube's paid promotion notice.
What to avoid: home-made abbreviations, shortened tags such as “#sp” or “#spon”, vague words like “#thanks”, or any label hidden among twenty other hashtags, and relying on a platform's built-in tool alone. ASCI treats platform tools as a supplement to the creator's own disclosure, not a replacement for it. If the audience mostly watches content in Hindi or another regional language, the disclosure should be understandable to that audience too.
4. Where the disclosure has to appear
The core principle is simple: upfront and hard to miss. A label buried at the end of a long caption, behind a “see more” fold, only in the bio, or inside a cluster of hashtags does not do the job. ASCI also gives format-specific direction:
- Image posts and stories: the label should be superimposed on the image itself, not only written in the caption, because many people never open the caption.
- Videos and reels: the label should appear on screen and stay visible for a minimum duration that depends on the length of the video. Check the current ASCI text for the exact timings before you brief editors.
- Live streams: the creator should announce the partnership at the start and at the end of the broadcast. If the recording stays up afterwards, the caption needs a label too.
- Audio and podcasts: the disclosure should be spoken at the beginning, at the end, and after breaks.
For brands, the simplest way to stay safe is to write the exact label and placement into the creative brief, so nobody has to guess.
5. Due diligence is part of the job
Disclosure is only half the picture. The Government's guide expects endorsers to have actually used or experienced what they promote and to have done reasonable due diligence. ASCI asks creators to check that the advertiser can substantiate the claims in the content, and publishes guidance on endorser due diligence. For a brand, that means sharing evidence for any claim you want a creator to repeat — “clinically tested”, “India's fastest”, “100% natural” — before the content is made, not after a complaint arrives.
6. Extra rules for finance, health and virtual creators
ASCI has added stricter expectations for creators who give advice in banking, financial services and insurance, and in health and nutrition. In those categories, creators are expected to hold relevant qualifications or registrations — for example registration with SEBI, a licence from IRDAI, or a relevant medical or nutrition qualification — and to show those details prominently. If your brand works in these sectors, check the current addendum on the ASCI guidelines page before shortlisting creators.
Virtual influencers — computer-generated characters — must also disclose upfront that the audience is not interacting with a real human being, in addition to any advertising label.
7. A practical checklist for brands
When we plan influencer campaigns, these are the points we put in writing before a single post is drafted:
- The exact disclosure label, the language it will appear in, and where it goes for each format (caption, overlay, spoken).
- A list of approved product claims, each with the evidence behind it.
- Category checks: is this a finance or health brief that needs qualified creators?
- Who reviews the draft content and confirms the label before it goes live.
- A clause allowing either side to fix or remove a post if the disclosure is missing or unclear.
- Tracking — UTM links or codes — so you can measure results without asking the creator to hide the relationship.
Clear labelling does not have to hurt performance. Good creators already know their audience expects honesty, and a strong brief lets them keep their own voice. If you are also producing the creative yourself, our content production team can build the disclosure overlay into the edit template so it is never forgotten, and our social media team applies the same standards to your own brand handles.