Influencer Programme Director: strategy and compliance

01

The director's job: strategy, governance and accountability

In simple words

A football team has players and a coach on the field, and a club director who decides the plan for the whole season, sets the rules and makes sure everyone plays fair. The programme director is that person for working with creators.

Before this course: Influencer Programmes: contracts, reporting and scale (course 3.9.3). You already run a programme. Now you lead it: you set the direction, answer for the risks and make others able to do the work well.

Key facts

A programme manager (course 3.9.3) runs creators day to day. A programme director owns the strategy, the budget, the risk and the results, and is the person leadership asks when something goes wrong.
A director's work has four parts (our teaching model): strategy (why and where), governance (who decides and who checks), compliance (staying honest and inside the rules) and people (training and support).
Accountability does not move just because work moves. Regulator guidance (for example the US Federal Trade Commission's endorsement FAQ, see Sources) says that handing part of a promotional programme to an outside company does not remove the advertiser's responsibility, and that advertisers need reasonable programmes to train and monitor the people who promote them. Treat this as a design rule for any programme.
A simple decision table (often called RACI) stops confusion. For each task, write who is Responsible (does it), Accountable (signs off, only one person), Consulted (gives input) and Informed (is told).

Task	Responsible	Accountable	Consulted	Informed
Choose creators	Programme manager	Director	Brand team	Finance
Approve claims	Programme manager	Director	Legal or product expert	Creators
Post checks and audits	Compliance checker	Director	Programme manager	Leadership
Pay creators	Finance	Director	Programme manager	Creators

A director writes a short influencer policy (1 to 2 pages) that leadership signs: purpose, disclosure standard (Lesson 3), banned claims and topics, who approves what, how audits work (Lesson 4), and what happens when rules are broken.
Strategy questions to answer in writing: Which business goal does the programme serve? Which audiences and countries? Which platforms? What will we never do (for example fake engagement, hidden ads, income promises)?
This course gives no income or results promises. A good programme can still fail to reach its goal; a director plans for that honestly.

Step by step

Write the programme's purpose in one sentence: the business goal it serves and for whom.
List the countries and platforms where your creators post. You will need this list in Lesson 3.
Build a RACI table for at least six tasks: choose creators, approve claims, check posts, run audits, pay creators, handle a crisis.
Make sure each task has exactly one Accountable person.
Draft a one-page influencer policy with the headings above.
List three things the programme will never do.
Check: someone new to the team can read the policy and the RACI table and say who signs off on a risky claim.

Watch on YouTube

Influencer marketing grows upAdExchanger · YouTube · youtube.com

Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.

LESSON 01The director's job: strategy, governance and accountability

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00

Voice

Read the video script

[Host] "Running creators is a job. Directing a programme is a different job."
[Text on screen: Strategy, governance, compliance, people] "A director owns four things: the plan, who decides, staying inside the rules and the people doing the work."
[Screen: RACI table] "For every task, write who does it, who signs off, who gives input and who is told. Only one person signs off."
[Host] "And remember: if you hand work to an agency, you do not hand away the responsibility."

Try it now

Write your one-page influencer policy and a RACI table for six tasks. Ask a colleague or friend to find the one person accountable for each task.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Influencer Programme Director: strategy and compliance" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "The director's job: strategy, governance and accountability".

What the lesson teaches:
- A programme manager (course 3.9.3) runs creators day to day. A programme director owns the strategy, the budget, the risk and the results, and is the person leadership asks when something goes wrong.
- A director's work has four parts (our teaching model): strategy (why and where), governance (who decides and who checks), compliance (staying honest and inside the rules) and people (training and support).
- Accountability does not move just because work moves. Regulator guidance (for example the US Federal Trade Commission's endorsement FAQ, see Sources) says that handing part of a promotional programme to an outside company does not remove the advertiser's responsibility, and that advertisers need reasonable programmes to train and monitor the people who promote them. Treat this as a design rule for any programme.
- A simple decision table (often called RACI) stops confusion. For each task, write who is Responsible (does it), Accountable (signs off, only one person), Consulted (gives input) and Informed (is told).
- Task - Responsible - Accountable - Consulted - Informed
- Choose creators - Programme manager - Director - Brand team - Finance
- Approve claims - Programme manager - Director - Legal or product expert - Creators

The exercise I'm working on:
Write your one-page influencer policy and a RACI table for six tasks. Ask a colleague or friend to find the one person accountable for each task.

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "The director's job: strategy, governance and accountability" from the course "Influencer Programme Director: strategy and compliance".

Here's what the lesson says:
A football team has players and a coach on the field, and a club director who decides the plan for the whole season, sets the rules and makes sure everyone plays fair. The programme director is that person for working with creators.

The activity:
Write your one-page influencer policy and a RACI table for six tasks. Ask a colleague or friend to find the one person accountable for each task.

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

Sources

FTC, The FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking (reasonable programmes to train and monitor; delegating does not remove responsibility): www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-p
RACI is a widely used project-management model; the table above is a teaching example.

My notes

I learned this

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