First collaboration with a brand: what to clarify

A brand has seen your work and offers a collaboration. That is good news, and the urge to answer “yes” straight away is natural. Yet most of the trouble in a first collaboration comes from what was not said at the start: one revision too many, a payment later than expected, a video used somewhere other than announced.

Before accepting, get five points in writing: the deliverables, the schedule and revisions, the payment and when it arrives, the usage rights, and your disclosure obligations if you publish. Asking these questions does not make you difficult: it is what the Creators brands like working with again do.

Number of videos, length, format, variants, raw files or not: anything not written down risks being expected anyway. If the brief stays vague, rephrase it yourself and ask for confirmation. A sentence such as “I deliver two vertical 20-second videos, edited, with three different hooks — is that right?” prevents most misunderstandings.

Ask for the delivery date, how long the brand takes to answer, and how many rounds of revisions are included. Separate a revision — adjusting a shot, shortening a sentence — from a new request, such as another angle or another product. The second is discussed separately.

The amount, of course, but also its form: a fixed fee, a commission, gifted products, or a mix. And above all when the payment happens: on order, on delivery, after approval? A gifted product is not a neutral payment: it is a benefit in kind, and French law counts it as one.

Where will the brand use your video, for how long, in which countries? On its social accounts, in paid advertising, on its website? Those rights have value. A long advertising use is not negotiated like a single post on the brand’s account.

When you promote a product to your own audience, that is commercial influence. In France, the law then requires a “Publicité” or “Collaboration commerciale” disclosure, clear, legible and identifiable throughout the promotion (French law no. 2023-451, article 5).

The same law requires a written contract, with specific details — the identity of the parties, the nature of the assignments, the payment or the value of benefits in kind, the rights and obligations of each side — when the payments and benefits paid by the same advertiser over one year, for the same promotional purpose, reach 1 000 € excluding tax. That threshold was set by decree no. 2025-1137, in force since 1 January 2026.

If you deliver a video that only the brand will publish, without posting it yourself, the situation is different: clarify with them who publishes, where, and with which disclosure.

On AVYOR, the amount is discussed in the conversation with the brand, and either side can make a counter-offer. The collaboration only starts once the proposal is accepted; the brand then pays, and the money is held by AVYOR until it approves your deliverable. One thing to know before applying: an application that has been sent cannot be withdrawn from the app. Ask your questions first, in the conversation.