Influencer–Brand Collaboration: What to Agree Before the First Post

Legal status as of 15 September 2026. Translated by the Blogger Bank editorial team from the Polish original.

First, let’s agree on what the collaboration actually covers

“One reel and three stories” sounds specific until you have to decide what it actually means. Should the reel be 20 or 60 seconds long? Should it be published on the influencer’s profile, or only delivered to the brand as UGC? How long should it stay on the profile? Should the stories be saved to highlights? Is the creator supposed to prepare the copy, captions, a thumbnail and a version without music?

These are things worth describing before the work starts. Otherwise each party may have a completely different idea of what it is paying for or what it has to deliver. In influencer marketing, disputes very often do not arise because someone acts in bad faith. They arise because the parties use the same words but understand them differently.

A good description of the deliverables should state at least: the platform, the format, the number of pieces, the approximate length, the deadline for the draft, the publication date, how long the post stays up, and the mandatory elements – e.g. tagging the brand, a link, a discount code or specific product information.

A brief should not turn the influencer into the brand’s voice-over

The brand has the right to define the campaign goal, the key messages and the elements that must not be left out. On the other hand, the strength of influencer marketing is that the message sounds like the creator, not like a TV commercial read off a teleprompter.

So it is worth splitting the brief into three groups of information: mandatory elements, prohibited elements and the space left to the creator. The list of phrases the influencer should not use is especially important. With cosmetics, supplements, medical devices or financial products, one sentence that goes too far can change the assessment of the whole ad.

If the brand wants full control over the creator’s words, it should also take responsibility for what it hands over. The influencer, in turn, should not assume that because a sentence was in the brief, it is automatically lawful.

How many revisions does the price include?

This is one of the most underestimated points of a collaboration. The brand expects two minor corrections, while the creator, after the third change to the script, feels they are recording completely new material for the same fee.

The simplest approach is to agree on the number of revision rounds and to distinguish a revision from a change of concept. Fixing a typo, swapping one shot or clarifying the CTA is something different from deciding after filming that the campaign should have a different tone, the product should be shown in a new location, and the video should be recorded from scratch.

The contract can provide that revisions caused by a mismatch with the approved brief are included in the fee, while a significant change to the brief after production has started requires a new quote. Such a clause works better than a general “the material is subject to the brand’s approval”.

The fee is more than the amount on the invoice

You need to agree whether the quoted rate is net or gross, when the right to payment arises and what the payment term is. With barter, it is worth stating the value of the product or service and making it clear that it is the fee for a specific advertising service.

If the campaign requires travel, renting a studio, a photographer, a make-up artist or buying props, it is also worth answering the question of who covers these costs. In larger productions, the difference between a “fee for publication” and a “full production budget” can be significant.

It is good to regulate separately the situation in which the campaign is put on hold after part of the work has been done. Even if the parties do not want to create an elaborate cancellation mechanism, they should know what happens to costs already incurred and to finished material.

Ad disclosure should not be a decision made five minutes before publication

For several years UOKiK, the Polish consumer protection authority, has consistently stressed that the commercial nature of a post must be clear to the audience. A two-level disclosure is recommended: using the platform’s tools and on your own, e.g. in the caption or directly on the material. The promoted brand should also be named.

It is not enough to assume that “everyone knows it’s a collaboration”. The audience should recognise an ad immediately, not only after reading a dozen hashtags. Responsibility for the transparency of a campaign does not end with the influencer – UOKiK also addresses its recommendations to advertisers and agencies.

The safest option is to agree on how the ad will be disclosed already in the contract or brief. That way, on publication day nobody has to negotiate whether #ad, “collab”, a heart with the brand name or the paid partnership label is enough.

The most expensive sentence in a contract is often about rights to the material

The brand pays for a reel and assumes it can later publish it on its own profile, website, newsletter and marketplace, and then run it as a paid ad. The influencer, meanwhile, assumes the fee covered one post on their Instagram. Both sides may be convinced that their version is obvious.

It isn’t. The scope of use of the material should follow from the contract. You need to distinguish organic publication from use in paid media, and define the period, territory, channels, the possibility of editing and of passing the rights on. If economic copyrights are to be transferred, the Polish Copyright Act requires the proper form and a list of the fields of exploitation.

In practice there is often no need to transfer “all rights forever and everywhere”. A well-constructed licence is often sufficient for the brand and more proportionate to the fee for the influencer.

A non-compete clause should have limits

A brand may have a legitimate interest in the influencer not advertising a competing product the day after its campaign. The problem starts when the ban covers half the market, lasts many months and nobody knows what a competing product actually is.

Instead of a broad “no collaboration with competitors” clause, it is worth defining the product category, the duration, the territory and – where it matters – a list of specific competitors. For the creator, exclusivity has real economic value, because it limits their ability to take on further jobs. It should therefore be reflected in the price.

Is it enough to agree on Instagram or by email?

Many business arrangements can be validly made without a traditional paper document. Messages and emails can therefore have evidential value and create binding arrangements. There is, however, an important exception: an agreement transferring economic copyrights requires written form, otherwise it is invalid. The equivalent electronic form requires a qualified electronic signature.

This means the parties can validly agree on the price, deadline and scope of the campaign in correspondence, and at the same time fail to “transfer all rights” with a single sentence in a message. This detail can become very important only once the campaign reaches a large audience or a dispute arises.

The best contract is the one that fits the specific campaign

Not every collaboration needs a ten-page document. A simple post for a few hundred zloty and a nationwide campaign with paid use of someone’s image are two different projects and should not be secured in the same way.

The most attention is worth paying where the risk grows: paid advertising with the material, long exclusivity, regulated industries, a large budget, use of the creator’s image beyond their profile, or an extended brand–agency–influencer chain. In such situations, a short review of the contract before signing usually costs less than sorting out the rights after publication.

About the author

Natalia Łukawska – attorney (adwokat), founder of Influ na Legalu. She advises influencers, marketing agencies and brands on contracts, advertising, copyright and running influencer marketing campaigns, including in regulated industries and the beauty sector.