Also called sponsorship, paid partnership, collab
A brand deal is a paid agreement in which a creator produces content featuring a company's product, under agreed terms of usage, exclusivity and disclosure.
The fee is only part of the negotiation. Usage rights determine whether the brand can run your face as a paid advertisement, and for how long — a clause routinely worth more than the headline fee. Exclusivity determines which competitors you cannot work with, and for how long, which is a direct cost to your future income.
Deliverables should be specific: how many posts, on which platforms, in which formats, with how many rounds of revision, and who approves. Vague scopes expand, and the expansion is always unpaid.
Disclosure is legally required in most markets and is enforced against the creator, not only the brand.
In practice
A €2,000 fee with six months of paid usage rights and category exclusivity may be worth less than €1,200 with neither.
Common mistake
Agreeing a fee before reading the usage and exclusivity clauses. They routinely cost more than the difference being negotiated.
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