If a company focuses more on marketing in order to boost its business, hiring a brand ambassador is a common option. This is the time you need a brand ambassador agreement/contract to protect the legal rights of both parties.

A brand ambassador agreement records the terms of the agreement between the parties – the ambassador and company – in a formal manner. The following are the advantages and disadvantages of a brand ambassador agreement.

A brand ambassador agreement usually includes:

• Exclusive rights

This term prevents your brand ambassadors from working with a direct competitor and avoids conflicts of interest.

• Repurposing rights

This term allows you to have the right to use any of the content produced by your ambassadors in any of your ads, blogs, articles or social media posts.

• Deliverables

This term allows you to specify guidelines that the ambassadors need to follow when creating their content.

• Ownership

It must also specify to who the intellectual property in any deliverables produced under the agreement will belong – the brand or the ambassador.

• Approval process

This term helps ensure that any sponsored content is consistent with your brand message.

• What to avoid doing

This term can include words or phrases that you don’t want to be associated with your brand or competitors and businesses that may negatively impact your brand image.

• Payment terms

This term provides a clear and concise description of payment terms. It should specify how the ambassador’s compensation be calculated (e.g.: will the ambassador receive a flat fee, or will it be commission-based? Secondly, when will payment be made by the company?)

• Timeline

This term includes the number of sponsored posts that should be published on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

• Cancellation notice

This term includes a clear process for terminating the contract.

• Legal responsibilities

This term specifies the requirements that ambassadors and brands must follow when sharing sponsored content.

Benefits of Brand Ambassador Agreement

1. Clearly stipulate the duties and responsibilities of both parties

The duties and obligations of both parties towards the other will be clearly listed in the agreement. This serves as a protection for both parties as duties could not be refused once the agreement has come into effect.

2. Set expectations

A company that focuses more on marketing may have an overwhelming expectation of their brand ambassadors (e.g. unrealistic revenue generated from 1 single advertisement). Thus, the primary benefit of the brand ambassador contract is that the company and the brand ambassador realize what is expected of them in order to prevent future disputes.

3. Offer Protection for Startups

The brand ambassador agreement can ensure that a startup’s brand ambassador will carry out his/her duties according to the legally binding agreement.

4. Confidentiality

The brand ambassador contract also ensures that the confidential secrets of a company are kept secret even if they need to be shared by the brand ambassador.

A sample of a brand ambassador agreement can be found here.

Key Takeaways

• A brand ambassador agreement records the terms of the agreement between the ambassador and company in a formal manner.
• Some of the most important clauses are exclusivity, right to repurpose, approval process, confidentiality, payment terms etc.

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