Q: I did a campaign for a brand, but they are really late in paying me. Has this happened to you? If so, what did you do about it?
A: Luckily, I can say that nine times out of ten, brands and PR/marketing agencies have paid us on time. That's why it was so suspicious when we started being represented by a talent management agency, and suddenly all of our payments were *routinely* late 60 days late.
I’ve shared about that experience in previous Q&As, but it’s one of the reasons we went back to managing all our campaigns in-house.
(I'm not alone, by the way. Most creators won't openly talk about this, but even the top, crème de la crème agencies regularly play games with creator payments. You'd be amazed by the stories I've heard in private.)
If you do have a brand that pays late, stay on top of them. We have no problem bothering them until they rectify the situation.
After all, we handle our side of the business with utmost professionalism. We submit proofs on time, follow the guidelines in the creative brief to a tee, publish content on time, turn in analytics promptly, and so on. If we are timely as vendors, we expect to be paid in a timely manner. It's that simple.
If you, as a creator, were late in publishing your agreed-upon content deliverables, you can bet that the brand or agency would be relentless is reaching out to you until the work was completed. So it goes both ways.
I had a situation once where it was a paid hotel stay. It was for one of the top 5 largest hotel groups in the world, but this particular project was run by a small agency. The agency completely ghosted when it came time to pay. They stopped returning all emails and phone calls. I even went all the way to the top of the agency, contacting the president and CEO and got nothing.
So, I snitched to their client. I tracked down the guy who ran PR and communications for that hotel group in the Northeast and let him know what was going on, and suddenly the agency became super communicative and paid us practically overnight.
If I did the work, you don't have the option to not pay me. That's all there is to it.
So what are your options when you have a late payment?
1. Be relentless in your follow-up
Stay polite and professional, but don't be afraid to be persistent. Keep emailing and calling until the situation is rectified. If there is some kind of financial problem going on at the company, you can bet that the noisiest vendors (you) are the ones getting paid first. Closed mouths don't get fed.
2. Go up the food chain
If you're getting ghosted, or just not getting anywhere with your follow-up, don't be afraid to go up the food chain with your follow-ups. Find out who your contact's boss is and let them know. No response? Keep going up till you're hitting up the President or CEO.
3. Snitch to the client
If you're working with a PR/marketing agency rather than directly with the brand, don't be afraid to snitch to the agency's client. If the agency is pocketing the money the brand paid them to pass onto you, the client should know about it because that's fraud. And as you can see from my hotel campaign example, snitching gets fast results. Sure, you're burning a bridge with this agency, but would you really want work with their shady asses again? I wouldn't! In fact, I'd also be warning every creator I know to stay far away from this agency too!
4. Post on their social media
If steps 1-3 are still not getting you results after 60 days, it's time to take your complaints public. For both the agency and the brand, post a comment on their Instagram, TikTok and Facebook accounts explaining the situation you're in, and asking for someone to reach out to you. They may delete your comment, but it will be seen by the person running the account, and probably by the public too - even if it's only for a brief time. Publicly @ them on Twitter too, so that it becomes part of the public conversation.
5. Post about it on your own social media
You're an influencer, right? That means you have an audience. Public shaming does wonders. If steps 1-4 still aren't getting you results, go ahead and share your experience on your own social channels, tagging the brand and the agency. Having their dirty laundry aired out like this will make them quick to rectify the situation and get you paid.
6. Lawyer up
Of course, this is an option at any stage of the game, but you can often get faster results without having to spend money on a lawyer. But if steps 1-5 still aren't working, hire a lawyer to get you your money.
Note: I didn't have time to pull together article links in this issue, but I'll get back to the usual format next time!
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Take care,
Carmen Sognonvi
