How to sign a contract with an influencer?

Recently, many companies have been using influencers in their marketing, who promote various products and services of the company on social networks. For a relatively low cost and with the right targeting, this collaboration can bring a company great advertising and profit. However, the opposite can also happen, an irresponsible influencer can damage the company with inappropriate posts or behaviour and then what? Often companies do not have a written contract for working with influencers, which can be a problem in such situations.So what should a proper contract look like and what are the risks of working with an influencer?

This article was written in 2021. If you're looking for up-to-date information on this topic, feel free to contact us at office@arws.cz or by phone on +420 245 007 740. We will be happy to advise you.

Author of the article: ARROWS  (Mgr. Jiří Koubek, office@arws.cz, +420 245 007 740)

The written contract is the basis

Influencers often come from the younger generation, who think of collaboration as a relatively informal relationship that doesn't need to be unnecessarily complicated by paperwork. This makes it all the more important for the company to come up with the requirement for a written collaboration agreement itself and ideally have the agreement drafted by their lawyer. Otherwise, it risks problems in the future.

What to put in the contract

The contract should define, at least in a basic way, the cooperation between the company and the influencer in promoting the services, products or brand. The more detailed the influencer's obligations are in the contract, the better for the company.

The contract should include at least the following:

• Description of the product/service/brand to be promoted
• Definition of the platform where the promotion will take place (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.)
• Method of promotion - will it be photos, videos or just text posts?
• Number of posts that the influencer will be required to publish
• Exclusivity - will the influencer be allowed to collaborate with other companies, or in what industry?
• How the influencerwill be rewarded (financial reward, barter, discounts on product purchases, etc.)
• Penalties for breach of contract by the influencer
• Copyright of the influencer's posts

Of course, other areas can be addressed when entering into a collaboration. For example, it can be recommended that the company always asks for statistics of followers, as some influencers often "buy" their followers to improve their image, thus distorting the real reach of their posts.

The company should also pay attention to consistently marking influencer promotional posts as paid collaborations. Failure to do so is a violation of the law for which not only the influencer, but also the company that commissioned the promotion, may be liable.

Conclusion

Collaborating with an influencer to promote your brand may look easier at first glance than it actually is. There are all sorts of legal or factual pitfalls that should be contractually addressed to minimize the risk of later damage. Not only can an influencer serve you well as a marketing tool, but it can also cause you unpleasant problems that could have been eliminated at the outset.