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- Influencers are popular content creators who have amassed a social media following that they capitalize on by making deals with advertisers to promote brands through the Influencer’s creative content which they distribute through their social media feeds.
- • Influencers exhibit their content through personal feeds on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, SnapChat, Pinterest, etc.
- • Followers can range from a few hundred to a hundred million
- • This provides a “one stop shop” for advertisers: The Influencer provides performance, stills, posts, production, creative, editing, directing, lighting, distribution, etc.
- • Agreements between Influencers and advertisers vary significantly. There are no set rates and other terms can be very different as well.
- Influencers are popular content creators who have amassed a social media following that they capitalize on by making deals with advertisers to promote brands through the Influencer’s creative content which they distribute through their social media feeds.
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- The influencer marketing industry is on track to be worth up to $15 billion by 2022, up from $8 billion in 2019. (Source: Business Insider).
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- Presently, Influencer content creation is overwhelmingly non-union.
- • The union has not previously offered a contract designed specifically to allow Influencers to cover the sponsored content they create.
- • In consequence, members have had to turn down opportunities for Influencer brand deals or risk working off the card.
- • Another result is that Influencers who are not members have had no viable path to union membership, preventing the union from organizing this growing and increasingly high-profile group of performers.
- • The union is also losing the opportunity to achieve new and additional funding for the Pension & Health plans.
- Presently, Influencer content creation is overwhelmingly non-union.
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- Influencers can sign the Agreement as a corporation or LLC. Partnerships, sole proprietorships, or other business forms are not allowed.
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- The Influencer Agreement only covers content made for digital distribution on the Influencer’s and/or advertiser's own website, social media and YouTube channels.
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- The Influencer Agreement allows certain Influencers to sign their content to a union contract.
- • The Influencer’s company is treated similarly to an advertising agency that is paid by an advertiser to produce, edit and distribute content.
- • Compensation is freely bargained—meaning it’s whatever the Influencer negotiates with the advertiser.
- • The Influencer makes Pension & Health contributions on the portion of their compensation that represents the value of their “covered services,” i.e., their work as a performer as opposed to their work as a writer, producer or editor, etc.
- • By default, the Influencer pays Pension & Health contributions on a minimum of 20% of their compensation and can qualify for benefits based on the compensation actually subject to contributions. For example: if an Influencer is paid total compensation of $100,000, and makes P&H contributions on $20,000, only $20,000 will be considered SAG-AFTRA earnings that can help them qualify for health insurance or a pension.
- • The Influencer’s union-covered employment also triggers eligibility for membership.
- The Influencer Agreement allows certain Influencers to sign their content to a union contract.
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- There is no follower count minimum, but at present only some Influencers will be eligible to sign the Influencer Agreement
- • Presently, only Influencers who perform alone can sign the Influencer Agreement. There are no provisions for ensemble use.
- • The Influencer must be incorporated.
- • The Influencer must produce their content themselves with no involvement by any third party production entity.
- • The Influencer must own their own intellectual property.
- • The Infuencer must have a direct contractual relationship with the brand.
- • Hazardous stunts, gratuitous nudity and sexual content are not permitted under the Influencer Agreement.
- There is no follower count minimum, but at present only some Influencers will be eligible to sign the Influencer Agreement
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- In order to protect other areas of the Union’s jurisdiction, there are limits to how the Influencer content may be used.
- • Exhibition is allowed only on the Influencer’s and Advertiser’s social media feeds, YouTube channels and websites.
- • No use of the content, in whole or in part, is allowed in other areas of the union’s jurisdiction (e.g., no TV, traditional commercial or industrial use, etc.)
- • Influencer content creation cannot be combined with another covered service.
- • The maximum period of use for influencer content will be 1 year unless otherwise negotiated.
- In order to protect other areas of the Union’s jurisdiction, there are limits to how the Influencer content may be used.
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- The Influencer Agreement will be signed through an online portal.
- • Applications to sign the Influencer Agreement will be closely reviewed and vetted by staff.
- • The union retains full control to deny, revoke or investigate any project.
- • Staff will track feedback, experience and concerns in order to continue revising and improving the Influencer Agreement and the process by which it is administered.
- The Influencer Agreement will be signed through an online portal.
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- Influencers will be bound by the same membership rules as their fellow members.
- Influencers will qualify for Pension and Health benefits in exactly the same way their fellow members qualify: based on contributions made on covered earnings.
- Increasingly, members who are successful in traditional mediums are doing more Influencer-type work, and more Influencers are moving into traditional mediums. It’s crucial to allow all our members to cover all their performance work with a union contract.
- As is evidenced by their dedicated followers and the volume of advertisers who want to hire them to sell their products, Infuencers are creative, multi-talented performers whose performances should be covered by a SAG-AFTRA contract.