What To Include (And What To Avoid) In Your Influencer Campaign Brief

Creative briefs should be less prescriptive & one-size-fits-all to allow influencers to do what they do best: creating content that tells a captivating and authentic story that speaks to their audience.

What creative briefs should include:

Scope of Work

The content requirements for the campaign, including platforms and post types. Consider a flexible scope that allows creators to choose content types they are best suited for based on social presence and consumer relationships across those channels.

Timeline Details

Set expectations for when drafts should be received, when content needs to go live, and how long amplified content will run (if part of the scope).

Do’s and Don’ts

What must creators absolutely include within their content? This could be brand tags or hashtags, photo requirements...on the other hand, is there anything that would trigger an immediate reshoot? Spell out any do’s and don’ts plainly so that there is no confusion on what the brand is looking for.

A Holistic Overview of Content Guidelines

Provide an overview of key talking points, visual requirements, and the overall storyline of the campaign. 

Examples of Content the Brand is Looking For

Examples of visual and caption content that the brand loves help illustrate exactly what the brand is seeking out of influencer content. While brands should not expect influencer partners to directly recreate example content, it helps give everyone a clear understanding of content expectations.

Want successful influencer content? Don’t do these things in your creative brief:

DON’T Provide a script or caption that influencers must read/post word-for-word.

Social media users are savvy to branded content and won’t be moved by generic, overly-branded messaging. Allow room for each influencer to tell a story through their content and make the campaign their own.

DON’T include frame-by-frame guidelines on what content needs to look like.

Likewise, a rigorous frame-by-frame outline of requirements will stifle an influencer’s creativity and prohibit them from making the content their own. Instead, provide a holistic overview of required talking points but allow flexibility for the creator to make their content unique.

DON’T require influencers to post on a platform or create a content type that they’ve never shared before.

Unless you’re activating an A-list celebrity to create their first post on a social media platform (think: Jennifer Aniston finally joining Instagram to promote the Friends reunion) we advise against requiring an influencer to post on a brand new platform or create a type of content they haven’t shared before. It’s why we recommend a flexible scope of work that allows the individual influencers to select the content types they are best at making. If your brand is insistent that every influencer partner post to a specific platform, do the research into suggested influencers ahead of time to ensure that each one has the ability to create that type of content.

Need help crafting your influencer campaigns? Lytehouse can help! Let’s work together.