Setting creator requirements that predict collaboration success
What to Actually Require From a Travel Creator (and What to Stop Asking For)
Follower minimums are the weakest filter in the business. Here are the requirements that predict whether a collaboration works — and the ones quietly costing you good creators.
Brands write requirements the way they write job adverts: by copying what everyone else asks for. The result is a set of filters that screen out excellent creators and let through mediocre ones.
Here is what to keep, what to add, and what to drop.
Keep: a follower floor, set honestly
A minimum is useful as a rough sorting mechanism, and creators expect it. Just set it at the number you would genuinely accept, not an aspirational one. A floor of 100,000 on an offer you would happily give to a great 15,000-follower creator means you never hear from them.
Add: recent, relevant work
The single best predictor of whether a creator will deliver is whether they have delivered recently, in your category. Ask for two links to travel content published in the last 90 days. It takes them ten seconds and tells you more than any metric.
Add: the audience, not the account
A creator with 40,000 followers who are 70% in your feeder markets is worth more to a Tuscan hotel than one with 200,000 followers spread across the world. Ask for top three audience countries and age band — every platform surfaces this in-app.
Add: engagement on saves and shares, not likes
For travel, saves and shares are the metrics that correlate with intent. Someone saving a reel is bookmarking a place they intend to go. Ask for the save and share numbers on their last three travel posts.
Drop: "must have a professional camera"
Vertical video shot well on a current phone outperforms DSLR footage cut badly. Specify the output you want — resolution, aspect ratio, stabilisation, no on-screen watermarks — and let them choose the tool.
Drop: unlimited perpetual usage rights, quietly
Burying a perpetual worldwide licence in a gifting offer is the fastest way to lose experienced creators, and it is the most common reason a promising conversation ends. Ask for the rights you will genuinely use — six or twelve months, organic plus paid social, your own website — and pay for anything broader.
Drop: approval over their caption
Ask for accuracy, required tags, and required disclosure. Do not ask to write their voice. Audiences detect a brand-written caption instantly and it depresses the performance you are paying for.
Never ask: for undisclosed advertising
A creator who accepts a comp or a fee must disclose the relationship to their audience. This is a legal requirement in most markets, it is a condition of every major platform, and on our board it is grounds for removal of your listing without refund. It is also commercially self-defeating — undisclosed promotion is what destroys audience trust, and audience trust is the entire thing you are buying.
Write the requirements as a checklist
The best-performing listings on our board read like this:
You qualify if: 10,000+ on Instagram or TikTok, at least 60% of your audience in the UK, US, or Germany, two travel posts published in the last 90 days, and you can travel midweek between October and April.
Any creator can check that in five seconds and self-select accurately. That is the whole job of a requirements section.
And state what you give, just as precisely
Requirements without a specific offer read as a demand. Pair them: exactly what you provide, exactly what you expect back, and exactly how long the rights run.
Put it in front of the right people
Empire Experience members are paying travel creators who plan, shoot, and publish itineraries. Post your offer for $99 and it stays live for 90 days, with your follower floor, platforms, and deliverables shown up front so only qualifying creators claim it.
Listings are non-refundable and are moderated for accuracy and compliance — read the Brand Listing Terms first.
