Brand partnerships agency for creators, celebrities and founders
MVP (Mega Volume Production, 十方众声) works as a brand partnerships agency for creators, celebrities, founders and companies. It finds brand, platform, media, entertainment and live-event deals that fit you, negotiates fees and contracts, and follows delivery and payment, all through its own team. Every deal is checked for fit with your positioning before negotiation begins. Brands looking for creators: see cross-border influencer marketing.
What does a brand partnerships agency do for talent?
MVP finds and closes the deals that fit you: brand sponsorships and endorsements, platform and media opportunities, film and TV, and live performances and events. This is how influence becomes long-term income; Chinese marketers call that goal “IP commercialization” (IP 商业化; see the glossary entry Creator monetization).
The work is split like this:
- What MVP does: works out which level and which categories of deal suit you, finds partners, checks who they are, negotiates fees and terms, reviews the contract, and follows delivery and payment. MVP’s own team does the negotiating.
- What is done with outside specialists: legal questions in a contract go to outside law firms, and filming to outside production teams.
- What you do: decide which deals you will not take, approve every deal before it is signed, and do the shoots, posts or appearances a deal needs from you in person.
Every deal is checked for fit before the fee is discussed. MVP turns down brands or products with doubtful credentials, and deals that clash with your public image. An endorser answers for what they recommend, and in China may not endorse a product they have not used, so MVP would rather close fewer deals than a wrong one.
How MVP is paid: a commission or a share only on deals that close, with no introduction or service fee before that; see the FAQ below.
If you are a brand looking for creators: that is part of MVP’s cross-border brand marketing, set out on cross-border influencer marketing. This page covers the other side: finding and negotiating deals for the people MVP works with.
Who needs help with brand partnerships?
Partnerships work suits people who already have a steady following but whose deals are stuck in quality or level: creators who want better deals and better rates, celebrities and artists who need endorsements, film and TV, and cross-industry opportunities, and founders and companies who need brand, media and event opportunities. For creators and influencers the bar is 100,000 followers and a steady record of content and brand deals; celebrities, founders, experts and companies are judged on their standing in their field, not on follower count alone. If you are not sure you qualify, get in touch anyway.
Founders & executives
Personal branding built around limited time, from positioning to privacy protection
Creators & influencers
Brand deals, operations and pivots for established creators
Celebrities & artists
Social media and digital presence, alongside your existing agent or manager
Companies & brands
One plan for the official, founder and employee accounts
What does deal representation include?
MVP’s deal representation has four parts, from working out what you are worth to getting paid.
Valuation: what suits you
MVP looks at your audience, your influence and your past deals to judge which level and which categories of deal suit you. This is the basis for pricing and negotiation, and it shows you where you stand in the market.
Screening and checking partners
MVP screens partners and categories against your list of deals you will and will not take, and checks each brand’s legal entity, product credentials and past controversies; deals that carry endorsement risk are declined. The public records worth checking are in the table below.
Negotiation and contracts
MVP negotiates the fee, what each side has to do, the schedule and the deliverables. In the contract it looks hardest at exclusivity, how and for how long your image and voice may be used, and what happens on breach.
Delivery and payment
MVP arranges shoots, posting and sign-off, follows results and whether payment has arrived, and keeps the deal data that informs renewals and the next quote.
What partnerships and opportunities can MVP bring?
MVP works across five types of opportunity, set out below by type and format; the creator marketplaces, press wires, and live-event and ticketing platforms it works through are listed under platforms and tools.
Brand partnerships and endorsements
A single sponsored post, a short-term endorsement, a brand ambassador role and a long-term endorsement are different levels of deal, and the rights, terms and fees differ sharply between them. MVP chooses the level that fits where you are now rather than chasing the highest one-off fee.
Platform opportunities
Applications for platforms’ official campaigns, programs and content support, and custom deals beyond the standard bookings on Xingtu (巨量星图, Douyin’s brand-deal platform) and Pugongying (蒲公英, Xiaohongshu’s). Each platform’s official brand-deal platform and agency rules are on the platforms page.
Media and publishing
Media interviews, documentaries, books and industry speaking, which build credibility beyond social platforms; these matter most for founders and experts.
Film, TV, entertainment and cross-industry
Film, TV, variety and music, plus co-branded products and licensing, which take your influence into new settings and audiences.
Live performances and events
Concerts, tours and other live projects and events, which put you in front of your audience in person. MVP runs its live-performance promotion under the MVPSHOW brand.
How does a brand partnership come together?
After signing, partnerships work runs in four steps, each within your list of deals you will and will not take. The steps from application to signing are on the approach page.
Agree what you need
MVP works out what you want at this stage, how much time you can give and which categories you will not take, and turns that into a plan for the year or for the current phase.
Matching and checks
MVP looks for partners that fit the plan and checks each brand’s legal entity, product credentials and past controversies. Deals that conflict with your list, or rest on doubtful credentials, never reach negotiation.
Negotiation and signing
MVP agrees the fee, rights, schedule and deliverables, reviews the exclusivity, image-use and breach clauses, and signs only after you approve.
Delivery and review
MVP arranges delivery and sign-off, follows payment and results, and reviews the deal data and audience response to inform renewals and the next quote.
How is partnership work measured?
MVP looks at three things. They measure the quality of your deals, not how many you take.
Level and fee
Whether the terms and fees you get for similar deals rise, whether long-term partnerships make up a growing share of your deals, and whether one-off deals decline.
Brands coming back
The share of partners who renew or add new work. It shows that the deal worked and that the brand liked working with you, and it is direct proof of your commercial value.
Fit with your image
Whether each deal matches your positioning, whether audience response and public discussion after a deal are positive, and whether any deal has triggered a negative incident.
What public records should be checked before accepting a brand deal?
At least four kinds: the brand’s company registration and penalty record, whether the courts list it as failing to pay a judgment, whether the trademark belongs to the brand, and whether the law sets special rules for endorsers in the product’s category. Every channel in the table is public, so creators, talent teams and brands can all check for themselves. Guiding opinions issued by Chinese regulators in 2022 likewise expect a celebrity, before endorsing, to look up the company’s registration, its approvals and its credit record.1
| What to check | Where | What it shows | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration and penalties | National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity Systemgsxt.gov.cn | CN | |
| Unpaid court judgments | China Enforcement Information Disclosure Websitezxgk.court.gov.cn | CN | |
| Trademarks | China Trademark Office searchsbj.cnipa.gov.cn | Whether the registered owner of the trademark is the brand itself.6 | CN |
| Rules for endorsers, by category | Advertising Law of the People’s Republic of Chinasamr.gov.cn | Advertisements for medical treatment, drugs, medical devices and health foods may not use an endorser to recommend or vouch for the product. What the law restricts is that one form of advertising, the endorser’s recommendation; these categories also have to pass review before an ad runs, as the next entry sets out. In addition, an endorser may not endorse goods they have not used or services they have not received, and where a false advertisement for goods or services that affect life and health causes harm, the endorser shares liability with the advertiser (Articles 16, 18, 38 and 56).7 | CN |
| Ad review in special categories | The advertising review authorities’ websites | Advertisements for medical treatment, drugs, medical devices, health foods and some other categories must be reviewed by the advertising review authority before they run (Advertising Law, Article 46).7 Advertisements for drugs, medical devices, health foods and foods for special medical purposes must show their approval number prominently; the review authority publishes the approval number, the applicant, the advertisement as approved, its period of validity and the product registration or filing number on its website, where anyone can check them (Articles 9 and 17 of the interim measures on reviewing such advertisements).8 | CN |
These checks also bear on intermediaries themselves: under the FTC Endorsement Guides, ad agencies, PR firms, review brokers and reputation management companies can be liable when they knew or should have known an ad was deceptive (16 CFR 255.1(f)).9
Notes
- 《关于进一步规范明星广告代言活动的指导意见》 (Guiding Opinions on Further Regulating Advertising Endorsements by Celebrities)
- 《企业信息公示暂行条例》 (Interim Regulations on Enterprise Information Disclosure)
- 国家企业信用信息公示系统 (National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System)
- 《执行信息公开查询指南》 (Guide to Looking Up Enforcement Information)
- 中国执行信息公开网 (China Enforcement Information Disclosure Website)
- 中国商标网：商标查询 (China Trademark Office: trademark search)
- 《中华人民共和国广告法》 (Advertising Law of the People’s Republic of China)
- 《药品、医疗器械、保健食品、特殊医学用途配方食品广告审查管理暂行办法》 (Interim Measures for the Review of Advertisements for Drugs, Medical Devices, Health Foods and Foods for Special Medical Purposes)
- Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising
How MVP works
Before any engagement, MVP reviews public information and reputation.
When a brand wants to run a creator’s content as ads, what should the contract cover?
Four things: where the content may run, for how long, how long you may not work with competitors, and how the permission can be withdrawn. Where the contract is unclear, Chinese law reads it in favor of the person shown. The rules by market and platform are set out below.
Permission to use your image and voice (China)
Where a contract is unclear about how your image may be used, the law reads it in your favor; where no period is agreed, or the period is unclear, either side may end the permission at any time with reasonable notice; a voice is protected in the same way as an image (Civil Code, Articles 1021 to 1023).10
Ads run inside a platform (China)
Running a creator’s content as ads inside a platform goes through the platform’s own task types and authorization rules: Xingtu, Douyin’s brand-deal platform, has a task type named Xingguang Liantou (星广联投任务) for this.11 The contract’s terms are usually kept in line with the platform’s rules; each platform’s back end is on the platforms page.
Ads run inside a platform (North America)
On TikTok, a creator generates a code that lets a brand run their post as an ad, called a Spark Ad; once that is done the caption can no longer be edited, and a private video used in an ad becomes public.12 On Instagram, advertisers can boost a creator’s existing post as a partnership ad (formerly a branded content ad).13
AI copies of your image and voice (California)
California has a state law, AB 2602: a contract clause that lets an AI-made “digital replica” stand in for your own performance cannot be enforced if it does not say what the replica will be used for and you had neither a lawyer in the negotiation nor a union agreement protecting you. The full conditions and the exception are in the glossary entry digital replica.
Morality clauses
A morality clause says that when one side’s conduct seriously damages the other’s reputation, the other side may end the deal. Brands use it against an endorser’s scandal; how talent can leave when the brand is the one in trouble, and how courts read such clauses, is covered in the insight on morality clauses.
Notes
- 《中华人民共和国民法典》 (Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China)
- 《巨量星图结算管理规则》 (Xingtu Settlement Management Rules)
- How to create Spark Ads for Manual and Search Campaigns in TikTok Ads Manager
- Making it Easier for Brands and Creators to Collaborate on Instagram
Frequently asked questions
How does a brand partnerships agency get paid: commission or fee?
By commission. MVP takes a commission or a share only on deals that actually close, and charges no introduction or service fee before a deal exists. The rate is set by deal type in the contract, and you see the terms of every deal in full. How each type of client is charged is set out under how MVP charges.
How is this different from an agency’s deal team or a creator marketplace?
Platform marketplaces such as Douyin’s Xingtu and Xiaohongshu’s Pugongying are standard bookings in which brands order from creators under platform rules, and in China an agency’s deal work is usually part of a full management contract that covers everything the creator does. MVP does something else: it judges which level of deal you should take, negotiates custom deals beyond the standard bookings, and reviews the contract, so that every deal stays within your list of deals you will and will not take.
How does MVP make sure every deal fits my brand?
Every deal is screened against your list of deals you will and will not take, and brands or products with doubtful credentials are declined. This also protects you: in China, an endorser who knew or should have known that an advertisement was false shares liability with the advertiser, as the public-records table above sets out.
How can a brand partner with a Chinese creator or celebrity MVP represents?
Send a request through the contact page stating the category, the kind of partnership and the budget range; every request gets a reply. This includes foreign brands looking for a Chinese celebrity endorsement. MVP does not name the people it works with; where a request involves one of them, MVP first checks the brand against the public-records table above, and the conversation opens only with that person’s consent. A brand looking for suitable creators rather than a particular person: see cross-border influencer marketing.
Related capabilities
Partnerships work starts from the list of deals you will and will not take, set in personal brand strategy, and reputation protection reviews the contracts and the risks.
Brand strategy
Defines your positioning, content direction and commercial limits
Talent development
Turns a growing account into a long-term career
Channel operations
Runs your accounts, content and fan communities across platforms
Reputation & risk
Monitors risk, responds to crises and repairs reputations
Get deals that match your standing.
Tell MVP about your current deals and your goals, and it will assess the level and categories that suit you and propose a partnerships plan.