Cross-border influencer marketing

MVP draws up a shortlist from your product, market and budget, then checks whether the account data is real: the platform back end counts and screenshots are reference only (see which data to trust); how to spot inflated followings is under how to tell whether followers are real and the glossary entry audience quality.

MVP turns your requirements into the creator brief: the points to make, what must not be said, the format and the schedule. It then negotiates the fee, the rounds of revision and where the content may be used. A brief going to creators in another market has to be rewritten; what changes is in the next section.

Before anything goes live, MVP checks it against the brief and the rules where it will run: whether any product claim goes too far, and whether the sponsored post is labeled as the rules require. The labeling rules for China, the US and Canada are in the three-country table; the terms are explained under material connection and sponsored-deal registration.

Content that performs well can be boosted with the creator’s permission: in China with boost tools such as DOU+ and Xiaohongshu Shutiao, in North America with TikTok Spark Ads and Instagram partnership ads; the tools are listed under platforms and tools. What the contract must say when a creator’s content runs as an ad is under contract points for running a creator’s post as an ad.

After posting, MVP pulls reach, engagement and conversion data from the platform back ends, compares it with the goals set before launch, and reports to you; the results inform the next round of creator selection and pricing.

Each market books deals through different marketplaces, and the brand needs an account ready on the right one. In China most creator deals are booked through the platform’s own marketplace; to book on Xiaohongshu’s Pugongying, for example, a brand first verifies its company, as the platforms page sets out. The North American counterparts are TikTok One, Meta Creator Marketing Hub and YouTube Creator Partnerships. TikTok One is where advertisers find creators, produce videos and analyze ad performance;⁠¹ the rules for the other two are on the platforms page. What these marketplaces have in common is in the glossary entry creator marketplace.

Both markets require viewers to see at once that a post is an ad, but the wording differs: China requires the label 广告 (“advertisement”), while North America requires the relationship between creator and brand to be disclosed; the rules are in the three-country table. The brief should also name the platform’s own disclosure tool. On YouTube, for example, a creator ticks Paid Promotion in YouTube Studio and a disclosure label appears at the start of the video; YouTube adds that creators and their partners are each responsible for meeting the legal requirements.⁠²

In China, advertisements may not use words such as “national level”, “highest level” or “best” (Advertising Law, Article 9(3)), and advertisements for medical treatment, drugs, medical devices, health foods and some other categories must pass review by the advertising review authority before they run (Article 46).⁠³ Taglines that work in North America have to be checked against these rules before they are translated into a Chinese brief.

China’s Advertising Law says an endorser may not recommend or vouch for goods they have not used or services they have not received (Article 38).⁠³ A creator who recommends a product in their own name may be treated as an endorser, so a campaign with Chinese creators has to schedule time for samples and trial use; samples sent across the border also need time for shipping and customs.

If a brand wants to run a creator’s content as ads, the brief and the contract must say in advance where, for how long and under what permission; ads run inside a platform also go through that platform’s own authorization. The contract points are under contract points for running a creator’s post as an ad.