As brand marketers work to scale their content marketing programs and drive business growth, they tend to rely more on freelance creators and social media influencers to make impactful advertising for their products. When it comes to the price rate of the work, marketers must also set realistic budgets for content marketing work done by content creators and influencers.
It is certainly not adequate to provide the influencers with a small amount of payment, or in TikTok influencer Ceddy Lopez (@ceddyornot)’s case, with just a pizza.
US PIZZA you can have a few branches in Malaysia and can afford to hire an agency make them PAY your influencers, I cannot tell my landlord that I'm paying my rental with a slice of pizza. You are not a small biz don't be cheap. pic.twitter.com/k4fexSM8uP
— Ceddy | TikTok @CeddyOrNot (@CeddyOrNot) July 11, 2021
TikTok content creator, Ceddy has taken to Twitter and his Instagram to address the issue regarding big companies who offer cheap payment for influencers to market their product. Ceddy posted a screenshot of an email from a pizza company who offered him a few of the company’s pizza flavour for him to post a review.
Apparently, the email does not contain any remarks from the company that implied whether it was a paid collaboration. Ceddy then captioned the post asking the pizza brand to hire an agency to make payment for any collaboration with influencers.
“You are not a small biz, don’t be cheap,” he wrote. He also urged fellow Malaysian influencers to not be stupid, “There is absolutely no reason why you wanna do free promo for them. If they approach you, they should pay you for your work, period.”
LOL Update on US PIZZA, the agency told me that what I did was DEFAMATION and she quoted PDPA.
Sister, I am not just from legal background, I also worked in agencies. Those who want to pay will offer a rate OR ask for our rates.
You offered pizza. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/3aikbdgdmI
— Ceddy | TikTok @CeddyOrNot (@CeddyOrNot) July 12, 2021
Also just to be transparent. My rate is RM1000 per post (TikTok video + IG Reels semua I bagi), to be honest, with my following on TT, MANY people told me I should charge more, tapi tulah, if I charge more pun kesian small businesses kan? Kimak these big companies all. PIZZA? PUI
— Ceddy | TikTok @CeddyOrNot (@CeddyOrNot) July 12, 2021
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The post had garnered people’s attention on the pizza brand and the company’s agency representative Marilyn K responded with a follow-up email to the TikTok influencer. Ceddy then posted an update on the issue stating that the company had threatened him for potential defamation over the Twitter post and quoting the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (PDPA).
The influencer then refuted the agency’s statement by clarifying the matter as a fact that the company did not offer him any payment. With his own background in law, he refuted the agency’s statement regarding PDPA and stated that, “PDPA only came into force in Malaysia with objective of protecting the personal data of individuals with respect to commercial transactions.“
Ceddy concluded his post saying that he is more happy to work with small businesses as the working process is much easier. “This is why I am happy working with small businesses, we discuss, agree, then the payment is in. I shoot the product, edit it, upload and then boom! Everyone is *usually* happy,” he remarked in his Instagram story.
Hopefully this serves as a lesson for businesses to take the influencers or content creators seriously as they also work hard to provide amazing content to advertise the product. A quick look at Ceddy’s socials show us that he currently has 153k followers on TikTok, 24.5k Twitter followers, and 11k Instagram followers.
Following his conversation with Marilyn K, the admin from US Pizza Malaysia reached out to him on Instagram. It’s quite lengthy so feel free to scroll down to the video to see their exchange:
Part 2. 🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮 pic.twitter.com/TUFpIUsPmX
— Ceddy | TikTok @CeddyOrNot (@CeddyOrNot) July 12, 2021
LAST and final exchange with the agency sial, now they decided to use the official account to fight me. Whatever lah, enjoy my dramatique reading. It's 4 minutes long, macam short podcast ahahahaha! pic.twitter.com/eIo6laFlgn
— Ceddy | TikTok @CeddyOrNot (@CeddyOrNot) July 12, 2021
The fast food company has denied attempting to exploit Ceddy and insisted that they were merely wanting to engage with him.
Source: Ceddy’s Twitter.
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