Working with brand ambassadors can be exciting. But in order to develop great partnerships and protect your brand, you need to successfully communicate your expectations to the ambassadors you work with. A brand ambassador contract can help with that!
Contracts typically cover practical matters, such as payments and partnership length, as well as legal matters, such as content usage rights and disclosure. By having solid contracts in place when you work with brand ambassadors you will have a mutual agreement on what you want to achieve in your collaborations. They’ll also prevent any potential misunderstandings and conflicts!
Here’s what you need to know about them.
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Table of Contents
What’s a brand ambassador contract?
A brand ambassador contract formalizes the agreement between you and your ambassadors.
It outlines specific requirements for your ambassadorships that should be fulfilled over a set period of time. A contract typically:
- Clarifies language and tone guidelines that should be used for sponsored content
- Specifies what ambassadors should avoid when representing your brand
- Covers legal responsibilities and disclosures to ensure compliance with governmental agencies, such as the FTC and ASA
- Documents standard terms, such as payment, number of sponsored posts, and a cancellation process
Why use a contract for your brand ambassadorship?
A brand ambassador contract is a legally binding agreement between two or more parties.
It helps ensure your ambassador marketing is successful by clearly communicating your expectations, and it protects your legal rights. A contract serves as a point of reference in the case of any possible disputes, provides a record of agreed services, and details terms of payment.
If your ambassadors promote products or services for other brands, it can help you to avoid any potential conflicts of interests.
A contract also adds a level of professionalism to your brand and reassures both you and your ambassadors that your partnership will be carried out as agreed upon.
What to include in a brand ambassador contract
If you haven’t used a brand ambassador contract before, there are certain areas you’ll want to cover. You’ll need to ensure your contract includes expectations, responsibilities, and rights, as well as financial compensation and legal aspects.
When you create your brand ambassador contract, be sure the following points are covered in your agreement:
Exclusive rights
Exclusive rights will prevent your brand ambassadors from working with a direct competitor and avoid potential conflicts of interest.
Sometimes, ambassadors promote similar products to their audience. This can send mixed messages to their audience, and their sponsored content may come off as inauthentic. Exclusive rights will help solve this potential problem.
Repurposing rights
Content created by ambassadors is often authentic and high-quality, and you may be interested in reusing the content. You’ll want to add terms in your contract that ensure you have the rights to use any of the ambassadors’ content in your ads, blogs, articles, or social media posts.
Having the freedom to do this will increase your return on investment and help you effectively connect with your audience.
Deliverables
Your contracts should clearly state your expectations of the ambassadorships. It should have an overview over: how many total pieces of content should be produced, what type of content should be created, and which social media platform the content should be shared on.
You should specify what guidelines the ambassadors need to follow when creating their content, such as adding hashtags or mentions. This will help them create content that appropriately reflects your brand and meets your expectations.
Approval process
While creative freedom is important, some brands may choose to have an approval process in place. Monitoring posts before they go live helps ensure that any sponsored content is consistent with your brand message. You’ll also be able to share useful feedback to your brand ambassadors.
Be sure to detail how your approval process will work. This will help ambassadors understand when they need to create content by, for approval and publishing.
What do avoid doing
To give ambassadors a clear idea of what you’re looking for, you can add a list of things they should avoid doing. Include words or phrases that you don’t want associated with your brand, or competitors and businesses that may negatively impact your brand image. This will enable your ambassadors to promote your vision correctly.
Payment terms
Many disputes arise because of financial misunderstandings. A clear and concise description of payment terms and release dates can help you avoid this. You should include the exact amount of compensation you’ll be paying in your contract, as well as a schedule of when you’ll be releasing payments to the ambassadors and how.
Timeline
Your brand ambassador contract will need to include the number of sponsored posts that should be published on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Along with a posting schedule, your contract should specify how long the agreement will be effective. Is it a rolling contract that continues until it’s cancelled by either you or the ambassadors? Do you want to engage the services of the ambassadors for a set period of time?
Either way, make sure that the dates are clear and agreed upon by you and your ambassadors!
Cancellation notice
Most things don’t last forever and contracts are no exception. If you or your ambassadors want to end the contract, there should be a clear process for doing so. A written notice period of, for instance, 30 days, is often required. This notifies you or your ambassadors in advance that the contract will be coming to an end.
Legal responsibilities
Agencies like the FTC and ASA have specific requirements that ambassadors and brands must follow when sharing sponsored content. In most countries, content must be marked clearly, in the very first word of the caption, as an #ad. By adding this requirement in your contract, it’ll ensure you and your brand ambassadors are following local marketing laws and regulations.
Do’s & Don’ts
To help your brand ambassadors successfully align with your brand, add a list of do’s and don’ts in your contract.
For example, you may have specific types of content that you don’t want ambassadors to create, such as blurry photos that only feature your products. You may also want to specify that all content created must be newly created specifically for the ambassadorship.
Detailing what you want and don’t want can help you avoid irrelevant or inappropriate content.
Final thoughts on brand ambassador contracts
Should you consider using a brand ambassador contract? The answer is a resounding “Yes!”
Contracts are an efficient method of highlighting your expectations and guidelines. A contract will create a legally binding agreement that protects you and your brand ambassadors. It’ll also add legal protections to help ensure your ambassadorships run smoothly – with no unexpected hiccups!
