It’s been a morning of mixed results for JD Sports – an Instagram post by YouTuber KSI promoting the Bolton firm has been banned after he failed to clearly mark it as an ad, while the company simultaneously posted record results as revenues surged past $10bn.
KSI, real name Olajide “JJ” Olatunji, whose Instagram account has 12.7 million followers, posted the slick social media video of himself and friends at a bowling alley in November. It included close-ups of trainers, shots of the influencer as well as a shot of KSI drawing attention to his shoes, while the others in the ad were all also wearing branded sportswear, and ended with a shot of the JD Sports logo under text stating: “King of the Game.”
The caption underneath the video stated: “Head over to the @jdofficial YouTube channel to watch the full length film #kingofthegame”, and tagged “jdofficial” and “@adidasoriginals”.
JD argued viewers would have known the post was an ad, and understood it therefore did not need to be labelled as such. The retailer confirmed that KSI had been contracted to post ads on their behalf, and the ad in question had been produced with their approval.
KSI told the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that he believed the references to JD Sports made it clear to consumers that the video was an excerpt from a TV ad in which he had featured. However, upon notification of the complaint, he included ‘#ad’ in the post’s caption in order to “mitigate any risk of consumers being misled”.
The ASA said: “We welcomed Mr Olatunji’s assurances that the post had been amended to include ‘#ad’.
The belated notification did not go far enough for the authority, however: “At the time the ad was originally seen, the commercial intent behind the post was not made clear upfront and the ad was not obviously identifiable as such,” it said in its ruling. “We told JD Sports and KSI to ensure that in future their ads were obviously identifiable as marketing communications and made their commercial intent clear upfront, for example, by including a clear and prominent identifier such as ‘#ad’.” The ASA further ruled that the ad must not appear again.
A JD spokeswoman said: “We note the ASA’s decision and acknowledge our responsibility around content paid for by JD and those of influencer partners under the advertising code.”
In better news for the sportswear giant, the business posted profits of £991.4m, before tax and adjusted items, for its latest financial year to January 28, 2023, up from £947.2m.
That came despite racking up £550.5m in costs associated with acquisitions, the divestment of Footaslyum and its withdrawn from South Korea as well as the restructuring of Spodis SA. Revenue also increased from £8.56bn to £10.12bn over the same period.
Chairman Andrew Higginson said: “In July 2022 I had the great privilege of being appointed the chair of the JD Group.
“The business was in tune with its customers, respected by its branded suppliers, was trading strongly and had a significant number of opportunities for growth ahead of it.
“This has been another period of excellent progress for the group with a profit before tax and adjusted items for the 52 week period ended 28 January 2023 of £991.4m (52 week period ended 29 January 2022: £947.2m).
“This is a record result for the group and I must pay tribute to the skills, resilience and positive attitude of the colleagues in our businesses who have not let the leadership changes distract from their focus on the consumer and our offer.”
The company forecast that pre-tax profits would pass £1bn for the forthcoming year, predicting a £1.03bn return for the 12 months to February 3, 2024.
