Ethics, honesty and transparency are vital components of any business philosophy. The Federal Trade Commission has, over the course of the last few years, established rules and general guidelines for advertising and endorsement disclosure. You can look them up here:

16 CFR Part 255

FTC’s Revised Endorsement Guidelines

The short version:

If a person receives money, product, discounts, services or favors to promote or post about a product, event or brand, that person must disclose that material connection. When the person does not disclose that relationship, the FTC has the power to take both that person and the organization to court.

Furthermore, endorsements must be truthful and not misleading, and if there is a connection between the endorser and the marketer of the product that would affect how people evaluate the endorsement, it should be disclosed.

I want to be transparent on this blog and through its extensions (including but not limited to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube)  about all relationships (past and present) with every company, organization and product with which I have either had or currently have a material connection that falls within the scope of 16 CFR Part 255. This encompasses a breadth of material connections ranging from some of these entities being employers and or paying clients, to these entities having sent me a free product (whether to review or as a gift) or just bought me coffee.

I will, whenever possible, disclose any and all pertinent material connections with such entities, their subsidiaries and possible affiliates alongside any mention that could be construed as an endorsement and/or a promotion. However, as some platforms and certain circumstances may render such thorough disclosure impractical and/or repetitive, this page will serve as a default disclosure document in regards to material connections between me, this blog, and the aforementioned entities. In addition, I will consider that a) having clearly and repeatedly established a material connection between myself and any entity and b) having posted a list of these entities here, said material connections will be implied in any and all subsequent mentions of that entity by me.

For the sake of transparency and disclosure, to my best recollection, below is a list of every organization, company, event and/or individual product with which I either at some time had – or currently have – a material connection that falls within the scope of 16 CFR Part 255 and is not exclusively covered by a third-party non-disclosure agreement*:

52 Limited

ADAC

ADMA Summit (Sydney)

Agency Roundtable (Carmel)

Alterian

Americas Mart

Anthill Marketing

Audi

Axe

Bacardi

Belgacom

Black Irish Books

Brains on Fire

BMW

Carolina Triathlon

CEGN (Montreal)

Chess Media Group

Cliff Bar & Company

Clemson University

CNAC

Corante

Cox Photography

Design Centers International

EasyInstall™

F360

Fast Company

Fleet Feet

FuelID

Furman University

FusionMEx (Brussels, Antwerp)

GasPedal

General Mills

Go Magazine

GSATC

Harvard Business Review

Hincapie Sportswear

Home Cable Concepts

Human Scale

i.a.b. (Brussels, London)

Innoventure

Jive

IIRME

Intefy

Intercontinental Hotels Group

K2

KWD

Krem

Kennesaw State University

LexisNexis

LikeMinds (Exeter)

Liquid Highway

Loyola University

Marketing Profs

Mass Passion

McGraw-Hill Publishing

Michelin North America

Microsoft

MIMA

Nokia

Oettinger & Associates

Orange

Orange Coat

Paris Cafe

Pearson Publishing

PRSA

Que Publishing

Rudy Project

Salesforce-Radian6

Setup, Inc.

SmartBrief

SocialFish

Social Media Club

South Carolina Hospital Association

SPRF

Specialized

StemTech

Subway

SwagClub

Symantec

Synnex

T&S Brass

Tech After Five

The Centers for Disease Control/CDC

The City of Fountain Inn

The De Gaspe Beaubien Foundation

The Federal Reserve Banks

The James C. White Company

The Jive World Conference (Las Vegas)

The Social Conference (Amsterdam)

The Social Media Integration Conference (Atlanta)

The Think Digital Conference (Brussels)

The Total Marketing Conference (Dubai)

The US Chamber of Commerce

The Word of Mouth Supergenius Conference (New York)

Tickr

TNT

Tri Your Best

Tubetrack

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Upstate Triathlon Club

Verizon

VPS.net

Webtrends

Wiley Publishing

Williams-Sonoma

Wolff Industries

WOMMA

Worthwhile

*Regarding conflicts of disclosure (NDA vs. 16 CFR Part 255): If I have been hired by a third party (like an agency or a marketing firm) to work on a project for a client and have signed an agreement not to disclose the nature or details of that project with the general public (and in some instances the client) the entities involved may not appear on this list. However, in no instance whatsoever will I ever promote or recommend the agency or the client without disclosing in the same statement that a material connection exists between them and me. (Which is to say that I most likely won’t be able to recommend them a whole lot, if at all.)

Note: I have no material connection to Nutella or Nespresso. Both addictions are entirely genuine and strings-free.