The Creator's Guide to Negotiating Deliverables, Usage Rights, and Exclusivity (D.U.E.)

Many brands can be disorganized when it comes to partnerships.

They waffle even when you ask simple questions about the deal.

It's frustrating, I get it (shouldn't they know this stuff already?)

But the truth is that many brands don't know.

This may be their first partnership, so delving into their strategy and tactics might overwhelm them.

That's why it's so critical to understand the expectations from the jump.

Deliverables: what exactly does the brand want you to do?

Brands often say, "We love what you create and want to collaborate! How about a few monthly posts or videos on all your platforms?"

Not going to fly.

How many posts do they want, specifically?

What specific platforms?

If video, integrated (60-90 second shout-out) or dedicated (focused solely on the brand)?

Short-form or long-form?

If podcast, pre-roll, mid-roll, host-read?

If written, dedicated feature or simple shout-out?

If an event, will the brand be integrated deeply into the programming or just have their logo on signage?

You get the idea.

All these formats have different complexities and require different amounts of effort.

Usage Rights: what else does the brand want to do with your work?

As you now know, repurposing your work is often a big reason brands will want to collaborate with you.

But the one thing they should not get is unlimited, free reign to do whatever they want with it forever.

So, the first thing to establish is whether the brand wants organic or paid usage rights.

If the brand wants to embed your work on their website or repost it on their social media accounts, this would be considered organic usage.

This is the simplest type of deal, although you still need to be mindful of how long the brand wants to do that for (called the duration of usage, which we'll touch on shortly).

Things get a little more complicated when the brand asks for paid usage.

This is where the brand wants to use your work specifically for advertising purposes and spend additional dollars (beyond what they're paying you) to amplify the campaign to reach more eyeballs (beyond those in your audience).

There are three main types of paid usage: licensing, amplification, and "dark" posts.

Licensing: When a brand asks for the raw assets you generate during a partnership so they can run advertising on their platforms or handles.

Amplification: When a brand asks for back-end access to your platform or for a unique code, which allows them to boost your native post on your platform so it reaches a larger audience. Amplification is sometimes called boosting or allowlisting.

"Dark" Posts: When a brand asks for back-end access to your platform or a unique code that allows them to run ads through your platform/handle, the content will not appear when someone clicks your profile or feed.

By the way, paid usage can extend outside social media ads on the Internet!

Maybe the brand wants to put your work in a magazine.

Slap your work on a billboard or bus bench.

Heck, maybe they want to use your "Name & Likeness" on their product packaging.

If a brand hasn't asked, trust me, they will eventually.

They may even want "perpetual" usage (sometimes called usage in perpetuity), which means forever.

Do you think you should let the brand use your work forever?

No, you shouldn't.

When they ask, always limit the duration of usage.

Exclusivity: is the brand prohibiting you from working with their competitors?

When brands pay you to feature them, the last thing they want to see is you promoting their competition a week later.

Not only might that threaten the trust you've established with your audience, but the brand will instantly think you're only in this for the money (good luck trying to get them to hire you again).

However, the category of exclusivity should be negotiable.

For example, when my wife and I negotiated a sponsorship with a big cheese brand, they asked for exclusivity in "Snacks."

I don't know about you, but "Snacks" feels like a comprehensive category.

If we were to partner with a potato chip brand a few months later, would that really cause our audience not to buy the original brand's cheese products?

I beg to disabrie (please laugh).

So, we made that case to the brand and proposed confining the category to "Snacking Cheeses."

"OK, sounds good," they said without hesitation. Nice.

Also, remember that potato chip brand that hypothetically approached us?

Had the cheese brand said "no" to our change of category, and had we also not negotiated the duration of exclusivity, this new deal would have been fried. Mashed?

The point is that broad & long exclusivity represents a direct opportunity cost for you. Dollars that would have been in your pocket.

Don't be the creator I know who agreed to five years of exclusivity for a free mattress (without realizing it).

Argh.