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This article has been written by Bhumi Agarwal, pursuing a Course in Diploma in Advanced Contract Drafting, Negotiation and Dispute Resolution from LawSikho.

Introduction 

This article consists of the terms that must be included in an influencer agreement. Before going to the details of what is an influencer agreement one must know what an influencer means. An influencer is any person who influences or affects the purchaser’s decision of purchasing a product/service. An influencer agreement is a new type of agreement that is in between two parties i.e. the advertiser and the influencer. So, let us understand who is an advertiser. Means an advertiser is any person, marketer, company, campaign or any brand owner which takes the help of an influencer to promote its sale of products/ services.

This influencer agreement can be of two types-

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  • Short term influencer agreement.
  • Long term or an ongoing influencer agreement.

In short term influencer agreement, the parties agree to the clauses of the contract for a specified product/service and for a specific time duration while in long term or an ongoing agreement the parties remain under the contract for a longer duration or maybe permanently in some cases. This kind of agreement is more often used by big brand name owners and so their influencer remains the same for a long period. Nowadays, many companies hire influencers to promote their product on social media via the internet which is now more in use and these influencers are known as social media influencers.

What are the important terms to be included in an influencer agreement?

An influencer agreement must include all the terms and conditions required by each party during their professional relationship tenure. The influencer must promote the services and in return, an advertiser is bound for reasonable payment for the work of an influencer. So, an influencer agreement must include all the terms and conditions on which both parties have agreed upon.

The following things must be kept in mind while drafting an influencer agreement:

  • Always get the basic content of the agreement correctly,
  • Duration of agreement,
  • Specify the content the advertiser expects to promote,
  • Mention all the channels of publishing content,
  • Content Rights, 
  • Mention the timelines and deadlines,
  • Mention grounds for termination,
  • Mention hashtags if required,
  • Payment clause,
  • Confidentiality clause,
  • Dispute Resolution clause.

Always get the basic content of an agreement correctly

This basic content must include the name of both the parties i.e. the ‘advertiser ‘and the ‘influencer’ and a short description of the campaign and the brand name. Also, mention the date on which the agreement becomes effective. A campaign is a basic group that is working to achieve a particular objective. It can be a company, organization, social or political group. You can draft the basic content as follows:

This influencer agreement is agreed and signed by and BETWEEN the “ name of the company” situated at “address of company”  AND “ name of the influencer” a resident in “address of influencer”. 

Date of enforcement- DD/MM/YYYY.

Brand Name:

Objectives/Description of Campaign:

Duration

Under this term, you have to draft a proper clause mentioning the duration of the contract i.e. for long this agreement/ contract will be continued. It is often noticed that long-term or ongoing influencer agreement is more beneficial as the influencer becomes well aware of the ethics and objectives with which the campaign works and it becomes easy for the influencer to promote accordingly. In case you have any further renewal mention the same in it. 

Example- This agreement shall continue for the next two years and if continued further then, the agreement shall be renewed accordingly.

Specify the content to be promoted

This section consists of a type of posts, videos, audios and the type of content to be published. You must mention all the specifications that a brand owner wants to publish and what not to publish in the advertisements. Try to detail it properly because anything less specified in this may become a great cause for disputes in the future. It should include the details: The form in which matter needs to be published, the number of posts/videos, usage of proper language in the posts, the prohibition of discrimination in the posts, prohibition of any other companies brand name as a comparison, etc.

Mention all the channels for publishing content 

Under this clause you have to mention the platforms where you want to publish your content. You can have a separate channel for your brand where you can provide various links for different products. Also, to compete with different brands you can add the different popular social media platforms. The selection of platforms must be as per the product or services provided like you can add the platforms like Twitter and Instagram for the products/services which would be more often used by the youngsters and platforms like TV channels ( daily soap channels) for the product/services which would be more often used by the ladies, etc.

Content Rights

In this particular clause, you would mention all the rights which an influencer may have related to the brand name as per the owner’s will. Also, mention the rights of usage of influencers work which the company can have after the termination of the agreement. It interviewed rights like- License rights, Copyright, Third-party rights, etc.

Mention the timelines/Deadlines

Your influencer agreement must always have a separate timeline and deadline clause so that the work can be carried out smoothly on time without any chaos or dispute. Mention a proper timeline for the publishing of each post on different platforms. Example- The posts/videos shall be published by the end of every week and the two posts should have a gap of at least one week each.

You should also mention a proper and fixed deadline for each post to be reviewed and published. Try to create a smooth timeline and deadlines which is possible for an influencer to meet on time. 

Grounds of termination 

This is an important clause to be included in your influencer agreement. Under this clause, you should mention all the terms on which an agreement of influencer shall be terminated in this clause the no. of days required for prior notice of termination by either party in any situation. Also, lay down the possible events in which the agreement shall be terminated and the action that would be taken in case of sudden termination. Mention the compensatory charges in a separate clause.

Hashtags required

Mentions and hashtags. Specify if the content needs to be uploaded with a specific hashtag or mention. The hashtag might be the name or the theme of the campaign and the mention can be your brand’s handle. This way you will be able to track the reach and awareness of each post.

Payment clause

In this clause, one has to draft the mode and the structure of payment that has to be made to the influencer for his work. It must mention a proper detailing of durations on which the payment will be made to the influencer. It can be as- 50% of the payment on hiring the influencer, the rest 30% on the preview of the content and the remaining 20% after the content is successfully published. You can also have any other form of payment structure as per your( parties) will. Include other compensation also under this clause such as free services or free usage of the product, any kind of allowances if provided, any bonuses if offered, etc.

Other Standard clauses

Apart from the clauses mentioned above, there are several other clauses also that should be mentioned in an influencer agreement. These clauses are:

  • Indemnity clause,
  • Force majeure clause,
  • Confidentiality clause,
  • Admissibility clause,
  • Non- disparagement clause,
  • Dispute Resolution clause, etc.

Where can this influencer agreement be used??

This document can be used for a one-time campaign, where the advertiser hires the influencer to help with one specific campaign for a specific period, or for an ongoing relationship, where the influencer will promote the advertiser’s products or services over time.

Conclusion

An influencer agreement is nowadays important as most marketers are now following the trend of promoting their brand and products by publishing the content on various platforms. The buyers are often influenced by the role models promoting a product which gives a great benefit to the marketers. So, to have a written ten, legal agreement becomes mandatory to be on a safer side. As the influencer promotes the products/services of a company which he is not so well aware of, it can sometimes create disputes on the matter of ideas, timings, ethics, objectives, etc, So to have a written proper clause is a safe method to get the work done smoothly as all the terms and conditions are laid down in this agreement which both the parties are bound to follow once signed the agreement. So, keeping in mind the above-mentioned important clauses one should always get into a proper legal influencer agreement if planning to promote your brand with the help of influencers. 

References 

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