Brands, Your Creator Script Is the Problem

One of the biggest mistakes brands still make is handing creators a script and expecting them to read it word for word. At that point, the brand is deciding how the creator sounds and how the video moves. A good brief explains the product truth and marks any language that has to stay exact. The creator writes the video within those boundaries.

Mark Stenberg reported for ADWEEK on how Not Skinny But Not Fat host Amanda Hirsch and Dear Media president of global entertainment Mark Mullett approach advertiser relationships. Mullett called the straight script read one of the biggest mistakes marketers still make.

Hirsch considers whether she already likes or uses the product and whether her audience would find it useful before accepting a partnership. Dear Media relies heavily on host-read advertising that its talent can develop with the brand.

Short-form creator partnerships have the same problem. Brands may need specific claims or approved product language in the finished post, and those requirements belong in the brief. The creator can handle the phrasing and structure.

Mark the words that cannot change

If a claim or legal disclaimer has to appear exactly as approved, label it. Explain any safety or usage limits so the creator can write around them without guessing.

The rest of the brief helps the creator write the hook, structure the video, pace the edit, and decide when the product shows up.

Reviewers can check whether the finished post is accurate and follows the agreed brief. Once it clears that review, leave the creator’s sentence alone.

My guide to creator briefs breaks down how to separate requirements from preferences. If the creator’s delivery carries the ad, choose someone whose work already fits the product and audience.

Better Than Everyone needs its own rhythm

Better Than Everyone is about the superiority people feel over random, ordinary things. The character brags about a real product feature or behavior.

A line-by-line script can throw off that rhythm. It might explain the product before the premise has a chance to work or put brand language in the character’s mouth. Now the audience has to adjust to a different voice while the video is already moving.

For that series, I need the product truth, any claim that has to stay exact, the campaign objective, and the safety or usage restrictions. I decide why the character feels superior, which determines the order of the scene and when the product appears.

Sometimes the random thing is a product. I take one product fact or behavior and exaggerate it within the premise.

Watch the creator before you hire them

Before making an offer, watch enough of the creator’s work to understand their pacing, language, recurring formats, audience responses, and previous integrations.

Once the brand hires them, put the creator’s recurring visual and editorial cues in the treatment. Each wording change should protect an approved claim or campaign requirement.

Review the finished work for accuracy and the requirements in the brief. If a note cannot name the claim or campaign requirement it protects, it is probably rewriting the creator’s delivery.