Influencer marketing trade associations from the UK, France, and Germany have united to form The European Influencer Marketing Alliance (EIMA). This alliance aims to promote responsible influencer marketing practices across Europe, ensuring consumer trust and brand reputation by collaborating with regulators.
The founding members of EIMA are the UK’s Influencer Marketing Trade Body (IMTB), France’s Union des Métiers de l’Influence et des Créateurs de Contenus (UMICC), and Germany’s Bundesverband Influencer Marketing e.V. (BVIM). These organizations plan to share their expertise to enhance the influencer marketing industry. They also aim to give creators and influencers a unified voice to engage with regulators, legislators, media, academics, and other key stakeholders, especially amid increasing legislative and regulatory scrutiny.
EIMA has already initiated discussions to recruit other influencer trade associations from across Europe. Scott Guthrie, director-general of the UK’s Influencer Marketing Trade Body (IMTB), highlighted the rapid growth of the influencer marketing sector, valued at $21.1 billion in 2023 and projected to reach $24 billion this year. One analyst even forecasts the industry could be worth close to $200 billion by 2032. Guthrie emphasized that maintaining the trust the sector enjoys requires brands, agencies, platforms, and creators to act responsibly and fulfill their obligations to each other and consumers. He noted that EIMA combines the expertise of three trade bodies to advocate for responsible influencer marketing across Europe.
EIMA has also been voted in as the newest member of the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA). EASA operates a network of 28 advertising self-regulatory organizations and broader advertising agencies and media organizations, setting operational standards for advertising self-regulatory systems. EASA’s mission is to enable the advertising sector to collaborate at European and international levels to address common challenges around advertising standards.
Upon accepting EIMA as an associate industry member, Lucas Boudet, director-general of EASA, remarked, “We see this milestone as a first step towards full integration in our ad self-regulatory network. EASA brings together all the entities of the advertising value chain which promote responsible advertising; having EIMA join this ecosystem is absolutely key considering the increasing prominence of influencer marketing practices.”
The UK’s Influencer Marketing Trade Body (IMTB), a UK-based not-for-profit professional membership organization for the influencer marketing industry, launched in October 2021 with six founding members. It now counts around 30 ‘creator economy companies’ as members. This alliance signifies a significant step towards unified and responsible influencer marketing practices across Europe.
