Accor rapped by watchdog over influencer’s TikTok post at the Savoy

Hotel giant Accor has received a warning from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after an influencer shared a TikTok post during a stay at the Savoy without making it clear it was an advert.

Influencer Lydia Elise Millen shared an image of herself in a room at the London hotel on 24 November 2022 with the caption “we’ve just checked into the Savoy in London for our annual Christmas shopping trip. This evening we’re going to the theatre here at the Savoy and I need you to help me pick my outfit”.

The ASA received three complaints, challenging whether the post was obviously identifiable as marketing for the Savoy, which sits under Accor’s Fairmont brand.

Accor said its ongoing commercial relationship with Millen only related to advertising on Instagram in the form of ‘Fairmont Ambassadorship’.

It said that while her stay at the hotel had formed part of their agreement, they had not commissioned TikTok posts and therefore they were not adverts for Fairmont or the hotel.

Millen’s representative said the post had not shown the Savoy and was not paid-for content signed off by them. Adverts posted to Instagram under the agreement had been labelled as such.

However, the ASA upheld the complaint. It said that despite the post being outside of the scope of Accor’s commercial agreement with Millen, the TikTok post had contained ‘similar content’ to the adverts and the post was likely to benefit the brand.

The post must not appear again and the ASA has told both Accor and Millen to ensure adverts were obviously identifiable in the future.