ASCI disclosure: what counts as a collaboration

If a brand gave you money, free product, a discount, a reimbursement or anything else of value in connection with content, that’s a material connection, and ASCI requires you to disclose it. Whether you liked the product, or would have shared it anyway, doesn’t change that.

When ASCI checked posts by the top 100 digital stars from 1 March to 15 July 2025, 76% failed its disclosure norms. Of those failures, 65.8% had no disclosure at all, 19.7% buried it and 14.5% got it wrong. This guide is about the last two: placing the label so it counts, for creators who place it and for brands who commission the content.

It’s general information, not legal advice. The source is ASCI’s Guidelines for Influencer Advertising in Digital Media. Where we state a requirement, we quote it, because a lot of confident nonsense about ASCI’s video rules is going around.

What a material connection covers

ASCI is clear that it isn’t only money:

“Material connection is not limited to monetary compensation. Disclosure is required if there is anything of value given to mention or talk about the advertiser’s product or service.”

Its own list includes “monetary or other compensation, free products with or without any conditions attached including those received unsolicited, discounts, gifts, contest and sweepstakes entries, trips or hotel stays, media barters, coverage, awards, or any family or employment relationship”.

And it doesn’t matter how honest you were being:

“Disclosures are required even if the evaluations are unbiased or fully originated by the influencer, so long as there is a material connection between the advertiser and influencer.”

Two cases trip people up.

A free product counts. “They didn’t pay me, they just sent it” is the definition of a material connection, not an exemption from it. The PR box you shared a story about needs a label, even if you never asked for it.

A reimbursed purchase counts. If you bought something with your own money and the brand is paying you back, with or without a bonus, the purchase being yours doesn’t remove the connection. You’re being compensated in relation to the content, so you disclose it like any paid partnership. This is exactly how cashback campaigns work, ours included.

Where the label goes

ASCI’s words:

“Disclosure must be upfront and prominent so that it is not missed by an average consumer.”

“Disclosures are likely to be missed if they appear only on an ABOUT ME or profile page, or bios, at the end of posts or videos, or anywhere that requires a person to click MORE.”

“Disclosure should not be buried in a group of hashtags or links.”

So: not behind the “more” fold, not at the end, not at the bottom of a pile of thirty hashtags.

Video

This is the one rule with numbers in it, and the one most campaigns get wrong. It’s about how long the label stays on screen:

“I. For videos that last 15 seconds or lesser, the disclosure label must stay for a minimum of 3 seconds.

II. For videos longer than 15 seconds, but less than 2 minutes, the disclosure label should stay for 1/3rd the length of the video.

III. For videos which are 2 minutes or longer, the disclosure label must stay for the entire duration of the section in which the promoted brand or its features, benefits etc., are mentioned.”

Clause 1.2.e. A 12-second reel needs the label up for at least 3 seconds. A 90-second video needs it for 30. A 10-minute video with a two-minute sponsored segment needs it for that whole segment. Work it out before the edit.

What ASCI does not say, despite what you may have read: there’s no rule that you must say it out loud early in a video, and no ten-second benchmark. Saying it as well is a good habit, since plenty of people listen rather than watch, but that’s our advice, not ASCI’s rule.

Live streams and audio

Here a spoken announcement is required:

“In live streams, the disclosure label should be announced at the beginning and the end of the broadcast.”

“In the case of audio media, the disclosure must be clearly announced at the beginning and at the end of the audio, and before and after every break that is taken in between.”

Text content

No ASCI clause names a line number or word count, so ignore anyone who quotes you one. The standard is the general one above. In practice that means the top of the caption, because that’s where it isn’t missed.

Stories and carousels

Our advice: put the label on every frame that promotes the product. Someone who only sees frame four has still seen an ad.

Which words

ASCI’s list of labels: Advertisement, Ad, Sponsored, Collaboration, Partnership, Employee, Free gift, the “Paid Partnership” tag on Instagram, Affiliate, and the “Includes Paid Promotion” tag on YouTube.

Abbreviations, in-jokes and emojis aren’t on that list. If a viewer needs to already know the convention to realise it’s an ad, it isn’t doing the job.

Use the platform’s paid-partnership tag where you can, alongside a clear label in the content itself, especially on video, where the tag is easy to miss.

Who carries the risk

Both sides.

Creators place the label, so the obligation is theirs. They should also check what they’re asked to say. Under section 21(5) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, an endorser isn’t liable to a penalty if they “exercised due diligence to verify the veracity of the claims made in the advertisement”. Repeat a brand’s claim you never checked, and it becomes your problem too.

Brands share the exposure, because a section 21 penalty can fall on a manufacturer or an endorser: up to ten lakh rupees, and up to fifty lakh for each subsequent contravention. The practical fix is to write the disclosure requirement into the brief before anyone shoots. Finding out after publishing means editing or reshooting content that is already live. How these rules stack with marketplace policies is in Amazon’s review rules for Indian sellers.

Checklist before content goes live

1. Did anything of value pass between you and the brand? If yes, disclose.
2. Is the label one from ASCI’s list?
3. Can it be seen without tapping “more”, and outside the hashtag block?
4. On video, does it stay on screen long enough for the video’s length?
5. On stories and carousels, is it on every promotional frame?
6. Can the brand back up any specific claim the brief asks you to make?

How this applies on Hypedrive

On Hypedrive, a creator buys the product with their own money, creates content for their own channel, and gets the money back plus a bonus when the brand approves. The purchase being real doesn’t make disclosure optional. The reimbursement is the material connection, and the creator discloses it.

A brand should spell out the disclosure in the brief, but the creator places it, so no tool can make content compliant on its own. And the brand approves whether the brief was met, not whether the opinion was flattering.

Brands can see how a campaign runs, and creators can see how it works for them.

Not legal advice. ASCI updates its guidelines from time to time, so read the current version at the source and take professional advice on your own campaign.