What Should Be Included in an Influencer Contract at Minimum?

An influencer contract should, at minimum, cover six items: schedule, deliverables, compensation terms, expense allocation, rights, and prohibited matters. Omitting any of these can easily become a source of trouble later on.

Why Are These Six Items the Bare Minimum?

Matters not clearly spelled out in a contract tend to lead to conflicting interpretations between the two parties later on. As discussed in How Should You Handle It When an Influencer Changes Terms After the Fact?, many disputes over after-the-fact changes to terms stem from the fact that the terms were never put in writing at the contract stage to begin with. These six items cover the issues that inevitably arise in the course of any project: the progress of posts, compensation, the handling of materials, and how to respond when trouble occurs.

What Should Be Specified for Schedule, Deliverables, and Compensation Terms?

For the schedule, specify not only the planned posting date but also the deadlines for reviewing drafts and materials and for handling revisions. For deliverables, clearly define the number and format of posts (feed, reels, stories, etc.). For compensation terms, specifying the timing of payment as well as how cancellations and revisions are handled helps prevent misunderstandings later on.

What Should Be Specified for Expense Allocation, Rights, and Prohibited Matters?

For expense allocation, determine in advance which party bears costs such as travel expenses and prop costs incurred during filming. For rights, you should include whether secondary use of posted materials is permitted and, if so, its scope. As discussed in What Is Secondary Use of Posted Content? The Basics and Precautions of Repurposing for Ads, if the scope of secondary use is not defined at the time of contracting, additional negotiations for permission become necessary later. For prohibited matters, specifying the scope of prohibited products and prohibited expressions—together with the scope of revision requests covered in How Far Can You Go When Requesting Corrections from an Influencer?—helps prevent misunderstandings about post content.

Scope of This Article

This article covers the overall picture of the items that should, at minimum, be included in a contract. It does not address the specific wording of individual clauses or additional clauses unique to particular industries.

In Closing

These six contract items exist to put in writing, in advance, the issues that inevitably arise in the course of any project. We believe that any omissions can easily lead to differing interpretations between the two parties later, which in turn can develop into disputes.