7 Key Things Influencers Must Consider Before Signing Sponsorship Contracts

Have you reached the point in your influencer career where you are receiving sponsorship contracts from brands? These are the essentials you must know to protect yourself and your income.

Hitting that point in your creator journey where you are receiving brand deals is extremely exciting, but if you're anything like me, you want to ensure you understand the sponsorship contracts so you are fully protected and earn the income you deserve. As a lawyer myself who drafts and reviews sponsorship contracts for all kinds of brand deals, I am giving you the breakdown of the potential implications you must know so that you can avoid major issues that may occur when working with brands.

You will learn about major mistakes to avoid with sponsorship contracts, so you know the potential consequences of certain sponsorship agreement terms and conditions and what you need in your sponsorship agreement template. 

After learning about all these potential implications sponsorship contracts may have, you will be fully protected and earn MORE income.

This post is all about the key implications sponsorship contracts may have for you and the major issues you want to avoid. 

Essentials of Sponsorship Contracts

Sponsorship contracts examples

1. Not aligned with your personal brand

The first thing you must consider before signing sponsorship contracts is whether the products or services you promote and the brand align with your personal brand.

When the price is right, it can be very tempting to partner with a brand you do not align with or promote products or services you would actually never use yourself.

However, in order to maintain authenticity and authority with your audience in the long run, you should avoid working with brands and promoting products or services you do not truly love.

So, before you sign any sponsorship contracts, really consider whether you align with those specific brands and the products or services they want you to promote.

Sometimes, they will send you their products and the sponsorship contracts simultaneously, while you have never used their products before. In that case, you can let the brand know that you will first test out their products and will only consider entering a partnership and signing the sponsorship agreement pdf they sent if you end up truly loving the product.

2. The danger of a change in the brand's reputation

Even if when you first start your collaboration with a brand, you think you are fully aligned with the brand, what it stands for, and its products, that may change over time. 

A brand may change the formula of its products, make a controversial statement or do a full rebranding. All these changes and events could negatively affect your reputation.

Suppose you are a beauty influencer who only uses vegan makeup products. You only sign sponsorship contracts with brands that only sell vegan products. However, one brand decides to sell products that are not vegan. This will likely have a negative effect on your reputation with your audience if you keep sponsored content for that brand published.

However, most sponsorship contracts you receive from brands will state that they may terminate the sponsorship if your reputation changes, but not the other way around.

Therefore, you need to make that clause reciprocal. Or, if no such clause is included, have them include that clause.

3. Use of your content by the brand that negatively affects you

Another thing that may damage your reputation that you must consider is when you assign the rights to your sponsored content to the brand or give the brand the right to use your content. If that is stated in your sponsorship contracts, consider that those brands can use your image or name in situations that affect your reputation. Those brands could also misuse your content by editing it or using it in a different context, which could harm your reputation. That also depends on the wording of the sponsorship contracts. If a brand wants to be able to use your content, make it subject to your approval so you can control how those brands use your content and, thus, maintain control over your reputation.

And that brings me to the next implication to look out for in your sponsorship contracts.

4. Loss of control over your content

Depending on the wording of the sponsorship contracts you sign, you could lose complete control of the content you create for those sponsorships.

If your sponsorship contracts that you agree to assign your rights, you lose all ownership rights to the brands. 

Assigning your rights, in other words, giving up ownership over your content, will have the following implications for you as an influencer:

• The brands can tell you what you may and may not do with that content and restrict you in how you can repurpose that content.

• The brands are entitled to use your content for whatever they want without limitation, including for advertising purposes.

It could also state that you give the brand permission or a license to use your sponsored content. That means you are still the owner of your content, but depending on the wording, you could still give the brand almost the same freedom to use your content for whatever they want.

So, even if you give a license, depending on the wording, it could still mean that you have no control over your sponsored content, even though you are still the owner of that content piece.

5. Lose rights to fair compensation

Suppose your sponsorship contracts state that you give the brands a worldwide, unlimited, royalty-free, perpetual license that can be used for any purpose. That broad license essentially means you give the brands permission to do whatever they want with your content, including using it for advertising, without having to pay you any additional compensation. 

Brands could potentially use your content in ways you might not have foreseen when you first signed the sponsorship contracts and in ways you might not agree with. 

Therefore, you should:

• not assign your rights to your content and, thus, remain the owner of your content; and 

• if the brand asks for it, only give the brand a limited license to your sponsored content.

The license should be limited in time, location and purpose so that you still have control over where, when and how the brand may use your content. 

6. Payment terms that negatively affect your income 

Before signing sponsorship contracts, you must consider the payment terms.

Your sponsorship contracts should be transparent, not only about what the compensation is but also about how and when you get paid.

In many sponsorship contracts, especially with bigger brands but also smaller brands, the payment deadline for the compensation might be far in the future. That is something you must keep in mind when you are doing all the work and making your investment (in time) now.

You may want to request an upfront payment of at least part of the fixed fee or a deposit. Especially if it's a new brand or a brand you have never worked with before, you want to avoid never getting paid.

In another case, the payment may be made in parts over a longer period of time. Or, the brand could make the payment of any fees conditional upon hitting certain milestones. If milestones are agreed upon, ensure the milestones are clearly defined and measurable so you don't end up in a disagreement with the brand about whether certain milestones are met or not.

7. Limitation on future opportunities

You may assume that the sponsorship contracts you receive from brands will include exclusivity provisions.

These provisions will prohibit you from working with certain competitors. That's fine. If you are promoting one meal delivery service this week and another one delivery service the week after that, your audience will not trust you, and you want to avoid that anyway.

However, you do not want the exclusivity provision to be so broad that you can't work with any brand in the entire food industry. Then, you would not be able to promote products like protein powders or bars, online supermarkets or other brands in the food industry that do not actually compete with the meal delivery service.

So, ensure that the sponsorship contracts do not include exclusivity provisions that are reasonable and not too broad so that you are not unnecessarily limited in your future opportunities (and income). 

What to do with a sponsorship agreement pdf

Now, what do you do if a brand sends you a sponsorship agreement pdf for you to sign, but it contains certain elements discussed in this blog post that you do not want to have in it? 

Simply ask the brand if they can send you a Word version instead of the sponsorship agreement pdf so that you can make the appropriate changes. Do not feel awkward about it. This is very common in the influencer marketing industry. The brand may come back with the answer that they use this template for all the influencers they work with. Don't buy that. It's simply not true, and they will respect you for being a professional who will not just take anything handed to them. If they don't, then you may want to think twice about working with them.

Another option is to tell the brand what exactly you want to have changed in the sponsorship agreement template so that the brand can amend the sponsorship agreement pdf itself.

Sponsorship agreement template

If you are at the point in your influencer career where you are signing sponsorship contracts regularly, perhaps you want a sponsorship agreement template that you can send to the brand instead.

The best way is to present your sponsorship contracts first before they do when you have agreed on the brief.

You can also use an influencer-friendly sponsorship agreement template as an example to include clauses in your favour in the sponsorship contracts you receive from brands. 

Either way, if you are looking for a sponsorship agreement template that contains all the protections you need, you can use my sponsorship agreement template! I sell sponsorship contracts for sponsorships with influencers, YouTubers, podcasters and bloggers. My sponsorship contracts contain alternative versions for both influencers and brands.

You can get your brand sponsorship agreement template on this page of my contract shop!

This post was all about the key consequences sponsorship contracts may have, how to protect your rights and how to even increase your income. 

Are you a YouTuber, and do you want to know how to earn more money on your brand deals? Read this blog post on the 9 Key Terms Every YouTuber Must Have in a YouTube Sponsorship Contract Template to Earn More & Keep a High Income.

Are you a podcaster? Read this blog post on the 5 Essential Terms Every Podcaster Needs in a Podcast Sponsorship Agreement for the Best Sponsorship Deals.

Are you a brand closing deals with influencers? Read this blog post on the The Ultimate Influencer Contract Checklist Every Company Needs.

You can get your brand sponsorship agreement template on this page of my contract shop!