A brand loves your video and the brief mentions "usage rights", "whitelisting" and "raw files". If you nodded along and quietly opened a new tab, this is that tab. Here's what each one means, in plain English.
What are usage rights in UGC?
Usage rights are the permission you give a brand to use your content. You keep ownership of what you make, and the brand gets a licence to use it in the ways the brief describes. A usage right always answers three questions.
- How can the brand use it? Posted on its pages, run as an ad, or run from your own account.
- How long can it use it? 30 days, 90 days, a year, or forever.
- Where can it use it? Worldwide, or only in certain countries or regions.
Organic usage
Organic usage means the brand posts your video on its own channels, like any normal post. Its Instagram, its TikTok, its website. No money is put behind it to push it to more people. This is the simplest kind of usage and the most common starting point.
Paid usage (ads)
Paid usage means the brand puts budget behind your video and runs it as an ad. Your content is shown to people who don't follow the brand, often thousands of times a day. It's the same video doing a much bigger job, which is why paid usage is treated as its own right.
"We'd like to post this" and "we'd like to run this as an ad" are different jobs, so it's always worth knowing which one a brief asks for.
Whitelisting
Whitelisting means the brand runs ads through your own social handle. The ad shows your name and profile picture at the top, with a small "sponsored" label, so it looks like it comes from you. Brands love it because ads from a person tend to feel more trustworthy than ads from a logo.
You'll see it called Partnership Ads on Instagram and Spark Ads on TikTok. To set it up, you share a link to your post and a short ad code from the app. You never hand over your password, and the access only covers that piece of content.
A few good habits keep it safe.
- Never share your login. A code or an in app approval is all a brand needs.
- Only whitelist products you're happy to stand next to, since your face and name are attached.
- Know how long the ads can run before you agree.
Raw files
Raw files, or raw footage, are your unedited clips. Brands ask for them so their own editors can build new versions, new hooks and new lengths from your material. It's a lot of extra value from one shoot, so when a brief includes raw files, they're part of what the brand is paying for.
What to check before you apply
- Is the usage organic, paid ads, whitelisting, or a mix?
- How long does the brand have the rights?
- In which regions can it use the content?
- Does the brief include raw files?
- When and how do you get paid?
If all five are clear, you know exactly what you're agreeing to.
How Bliss handles it
On Bliss Social every brief tells you up front which usage the brand wants, which networks it will whitelist on, how long the rights last, where they apply and whether raw files are part of the job. The price you see already includes those extras, so you have the full picture before you apply.