Notes for owners · Digital marketing
How to write an influencer brief
A brief fixes the claim, the offer and the disclosure, and then leaves the creator alone. Hand them a script and you have paid a premium for a bad advertisement.
The GullySales team · Updated 21 Sept 2026 · 8 min read
An influencer brief is a permission document, not a script. It fixes three things: what has to be said, what must not be said, and how the post must be labelled as an advertisement. Everything else belongs to the creator, because the only reason their audience listens is that the post sounds like them. Brands that send a finished script get a stiff, obviously paid video, and they paid a premium for it.
The label is not optional
Paid creator content in India has to be disclosed. ASCI's guidelines for influencer advertising and the consumer affairs endorsement guidelines both require it, and the responsibility sits with the brand as well as the creator.
Put it in the brief as a requirement with the detail filled in rather than as a line saying "please disclose". A workable instruction names the label to be used, says it must appear where the reader sees it without tapping to expand a caption, says it must be in the language the post is in, and says it may not be buried among twenty other hashtags. On video, say that it stays on screen long enough to be read rather than flashing past.
Then check the current wording with the creator's own manager before the campaign, because these guidelines have been revised more than once and the platforms have their own paid-partnership tools on top of them. A creator who offers to skip the label is offering you their risk along with their reach.
What the brief fixes
The short list, and it should stay short.
The product, by its exact name and variant. The one claim you want made, and the proof behind it, so the creator is not inventing a benefit. The offer, if there is one, with its conditions and its end date written out. The handle, the location tag and the hashtag. The disclosure. And the do-not-say list.
That last one saves the most trouble. Competitor names. Superlatives such as best in Bengaluru, which nobody can stand behind. Prices that change by branch. Anything about a medical result, a return on money, or an admission or a placement. If a handful of words are fixed for legal reasons, mark them in the brief as fixed and say why, because a creator will honour that and will resent being corrected afterwards.
What the brief leaves alone
The format, the opening, the words, the joke, the edit and the shoot. If the brief specifies the first line, the outfit and the camera angle, you have hired a very expensive actor.
Give context instead of instructions. Who the buyer is, what they get wrong about this product, what a normal day of using it looks like, and one thing you would love them to notice. A good creator turns that into something their audience will actually watch.
The parts owners forget
| Clause | What to write |
|---|---|
| Posting window | The date and the rough time band, not just a month |
| How long it stays up | A minimum period before it may be archived or deleted |
| Usage rights | Whether you may run it as a paid advertisement, on which platforms, for how long |
| Exclusivity | Whether they may post for a competing business, and for how long |
| Approvals | Two rounds, on the idea and on the draft, with a turnaround time each way |
| Comments | Who answers questions under the post, in whose voice, and how fast |
| Raw footage | Whether you get the unedited files, agreed before the shoot |
| Reporting | A screenshot of the creator's own insights at seven days and at thirty |
The comments clause is the one people skip and the one that earns money. Under a good creator's post, forty people ask what it costs and where it is. Those are enquiries, and they arrive on somebody else's handle. Decide before the post goes live whether the creator answers with a stock line, whether your own handle replies, and where the person is sent.
For example, a boutique in Jayanagar that runs four creator posts in a festive month and leaves the comments unanswered has paid for reach and given the enquiries away.
The brief has to reach your own counter
The part that is nobody's job and ruins the most shoots. A creator arrives at the salon, the showroom or the clinic, and the staff on duty have not been told. They are turned away, or kept waiting, or filmed being unhelpful, and that footage exists now.
So the brief travels twice. Once to the creator, and once to whoever is at the counter that day, with the name, the date, the time slot, what the creator may film and who is authorised to speak on camera. Put a named person on shift.
Send the product ahead of the date if there is one, in the variant the brief names, and allow time for it to be used before it is filmed. A creator shooting a review of something that arrived that morning shows in the video.
The one-page brief
Keep it to a single page that a creator reads on a phone. Who you are, in two lines. Who the buyer is. The one claim and its proof. The offer and its conditions. Deliverables, with counts and dates. The must-say and must-not-say lists. The disclosure instruction. The commercial terms, referenced from the agreement. A named person to ring, with a number.
Anything longer gets skimmed, and the parts that get skimmed are the parts you needed.
What to do next
Write the do-not-say list first, because it is the part that decides whether you can use the content afterwards. Then cut every instruction about how the video should look. Send the brief and the agreement together, so usage rights and the disclosure are agreed when the fee is agreed rather than after the shoot.
Our influencer and creator marketing work draws up the shortlist in the language the market actually uses, writes the brief, negotiates the rights and checks the draft before it goes up. The creators themselves are paid directly by you, and our fee is not a percentage of theirs, which is settled in writing after the free audit.