The PR Haul: How Talent Agencies Use Brand Exclusivity to Protect Creators

I’m not a big fan of “hauls” because they often seem excessive and unnecessary, especially in an age where overconsumption is a serious offense. It’s even worse when the creator is doing haul after haul after haul because at this point, it no longer feels genuine. What I do love is when creators enthusiastically do a shopping haul, where they show viewers the products that they bought themselves.

For example, I love how Viv the Carer (aka Vivienne Truran) excitedly shares some of the items she bought in the following video. It’s organic, authentic, and uncomplicated. The best part is that it’s not excessive, unlike most of the haul videos we see on TikTok.

Although Viv isn’t partnering with a brand in the above video, this example provides an excellent lesson for creators and talent agencies that work on campaigns involving hauls.

Haul videos may seem simple enough, but they can be extremely messy to manage in reality. From high output demands and creator burnout to audience fatigue, there’s a lot that could go wrong with haul-heavy campaigns.

In this post, I break down the impact of haul videos and how creators and talent agencies can figure out the right campaigns for them. Let’s take a look.

When Hauls Threaten Creator Positioning

One of the biggest issues with doing one haul-heavy campaign after the other is that it ultimately weakens a creator’s positioning.

The repeated gifting, the category overlaps…they add up to a pattern of creators promoting stuff for the sake of promoting it. And the once trusted authority now becomes a glorified and biased billboard that promotes anyone who pays them. Let’s break down some of the ways repeated hauls can threaten a creator’s positioning.

Loss of Trust and Perceived Impartiality

A creator who frequently creates PR haul videos comes across as someone who accepts gifts from every brand and isn’t selective about their partnerships. As a result, audiences begin to sense that the creator is no longer impartial about the brands and products they promote.

It sets a precedent that the creator will promote anyone or anything as long as they’re getting paid or receiving something in return. So audiences can no longer trust their recommendations because they’ll always be doubting whether they genuinely vouch for it or they’re just paid to promote it.

For example, someone who does PR haul videos on a weekly basis might not necessarily have the most reliable opinion about the brands they’re showing in their videos.

Diluted Messaging and Niche Standing

You’d think that someone who creates fashion content would mostly do clothing hauls. But that’s not always the case when influencers are frequently doing haul-heavy campaigns. They sometimes do hauls across multiple categories, such as skincare, clothing, wellness, and so on.

As a result, creators lose their niche standing as they can no longer be firmly associated with a specific category. This fragments their audience, which lowers their relevance and affects other aspects of their performance metrics, like engagement and conversions.

Additionally, some creators may also promote competing brands simultaneously. This dilutes the messaging and confuses the audience because which mascara is truly “the best ever,” or which supplement do they really start the day with?

The following PR haul video works because the brand’s haircare products fit in seamlessly with the creator’s usual haircare and hairstyling content. And she’s exclusively focusing on one specific brand instead of promoting multiple competing brands in the same video.

Algorithmic Confusion

Besides the effect on overall creator positioning, repeated gifts and category overlaps also affect how creators show up on people’s feeds. Creating content across a broad category confuses the algorithm.

When a creator’s content lacks clear and consistent topical focus, social media algorithms may have a hard time ranking them accurately. This could limit the creator’s reach and overall visibility.

The Impact of High Content Volumes on Audiences and Creators

Haul-heavy campaigns involve high output demands. Influencers face immense pressure to constantly produce haul content to meet campaign deliverables. Combined with the pressure to keep feeding the algorithm, creators feel compelled to produce more and more content that may not necessarily be of the best quality.

These high output demands also lead to creator burnout, as daily filming and editing drains their mental bandwidth. One study even found that 79% of creators have experienced burnout, while over 75% feel stressed or anxious about content creation.

Meeting these volume quotas will sometimes lead to creators recycling ideas or relying on formulaic content. Topped with the overall decline in content quality, this contributes to increasing audience fatigue. People disengage and mindlessly scroll past the creator’s content as they’ve become desensitized to their messages.

How Creators Should Decide on Haul-Heavy Campaigns

Just because some haul campaigns demand too much of creators and aren’t always the best fit doesn’t mean all hauls are bad. It just means creators and talent agencies need to be more selective of which brands they work with and how they work with them.

This means knowing when to say “yes” to a haul-heavy campaign and when to say “no.” I’m going to share a breakdown of the different situations and factors that will help creators decide on which haul campaigns they should work on vs. which ones they should avoid.

When Creators Should Say “Yes”

• Strict Niche Alignment: The products fit perfectly into the creator's core content (e.g., a beauty creator doing a seasonal makeup haul).
• Clear Audience Intent: The audience frequently asks the creator for shopping recommendations, buying guides, or product comparisons.
• High-Utility Content: The haul provides genuine value, such as testing budget versus luxury alternatives, sizing comparisons, or highlighting small, independent businesses.
• Affiliate or Commission Incentives: The brand offers a solid base flat rate plus an affiliate commission, allowing the creator to capitalize on high purchase intent.
• Creative Freedom: The brand grants creative freedom and respects the creator’s authentic tone of voice.

When Creators Should Say “No”

• Massive Clutter or "Random" Items: The campaign requires the creator to feature five or more vastly different, disconnected products (e.g., an electronics brand, a protein powder, and footwear in the same breath). Audiences easily spot paid "ads for the sake of ads" and will disengage.
• Over-Scripted Guidelines: The brand insists on rigid, robotic scripts that prevent the creator from giving genuine opinions or speaking in their normal conversational rhythm.
• Poor Quality or Values Mismatch: The creator has not vetted the products, or the brand’s business practices clash with the creator's personal values and ethics.
• Strict Brand Exclusivity Clauses: The brand demands long-term exclusivity in an entire category (e.g., barring the creator from reviewing any fashion items for 6 months), which limits the creator's future earning potential.

Talent Management Decision Checklist for Haul-Heavy Campaigns

As the agencies in charge of helping creators decide whether to work on a campaign, talent management teams need a stronger internal decision filter for partnership selection. This will make it easier to quickly determine if a partnership is right for a specific creator. Here’s a useful checklist to help with the process:

1. Is It the Right Brand Fit?

First things first, is the brand a good fit for the influencer? And I’m not just talking about product category.

Do the brand’s business practices match the influencer’s values? Are they aligned in terms of overall vibe? For example, a sustainable beauty brand could be the right fit for an influencer who regularly posts about their sustainable lifestyle even if beauty isn’t their main category.

For example, Coach is a great fit for the following creator because although she considers herself a “chaotic lifestyle creator,” her profile gives off a relatable luxury vibe that aligns with the brand.

2. Does It Risk Audience Fatigue?

You should also consider the brand’s ask and whether meeting the campaign deliverables could result in audience fatigue. Alternatively, you’ll also want to spread out campaigns between different influencers in your roster, so creators aren’t overloaded with demands to create haul content.

So if a specific beauty creator is already doing PR hauls for two brands this month, you may want to assign a different creator to any new campaigns for that month.

3. Is There a Category Conflict?

While cross-category influencers exist, you should consider if there’s too much category conflict before assigning a creator to a haul campaign. A fashion influencer may also post about beauty and makeup. But if they’re suddenly posting about a vacuum cleaner, it’ll look random and out of place.

There’s also the fact that you’ll have a much harder time reaching a relevant audience.

In the following video, it may seem like the creator is doing a PR haul of a bunch of random stuff. But a closer look shows that these are all items that are relevant to lifestyle and food, which are categories she posts about.

4. Does It Offer Creator Equity?

You’ll also want to consider the unique, organic value a creator adds to the brand before pairing them together. Do they bring in a unique and relevant audience? Creators should be able to engage a highly relevant target demographic on behalf of the brand.

Do they have a reputable standing in the niche that makes people trust their reviews and opinions? For a haul campaign to work, you need audiences to trust the creator enough, so they don’t view it as just another ad.

Best Practices for Creators to Stay Relevant Amid Product Hauls

On the creator side, there’s a growing pressure to stay relevant and maintain content equity while taking on partnerships that involve product hauls. Let’s look at some best practices that can help.

Partner with Brands You Truly Love

It goes without saying that you should only do PR hauls for brands that you genuinely love. This could mean accepting gifts from brands that you’re already a fan of or reaching out to your favorite brands with a collaboration offer.

The following creator pitched a collaboration to brands she genuinely loved and got accepted by 33 brands. She then created haul videos featuring authentic opinions and honest reviews.

Alternatively, even if you do decide to partner with a brand that’s new to you, negotiate an agreement that doesn’t strictly require you to create content if you don’t love the products. Or make sure they give you the freedom to be honest about your opinion and take the time to truly explore and test the products before you publish your haul video.

For example, you could create a video showing your unboxing experience and edit it with a one-week follow-up after you’ve used the product for a while.

Mix It Up with Actual Purchases

People are going to stop watching your content at some point if everything you post is a PR haul or a promo video. Retain audience trust by mixing things up with reviews and unboxing videos of your actual purchases.

For every sponsored haul, post two to three organic, non-sponsored hauls or recommendations to retain audience trust. The following creator even combines PR hauls with recent purchases to create an unboxing video.

Maintain Transparency and Disclosure Guidelines

Transparency is another key step to maintaining audience trust. People hate hidden ads and having to guess whether an influencer’s post is branded or organic. Use clear disclosures (e.g., #ad, #sponsored) in the video caption and on-screen to comply with FTC and ASCI transparency guidelines.

Negotiate Boundaries and Brand Exclusivity

Some brands expect exclusivity where you don’t promote competing brands or products within a specific timeframe. This could be a good thing for influencers too, as it helps them maintain messaging clarity for one specific brand or product. At the same time, you’ll want to negotiate brand exclusivity terms, so you’re not excessively restricted from other partnership opportunities.

For instance, a 2-month exclusivity clause might be unfair for a one-time gifting campaign. In this case, an exclusive PR haul video where the brand isn’t mashed together with other brands might be more reasonable.

Winning with Product Haul Campaigns

Product haul campaigns look simple on paper. Creators just need to show their latest PR hauls and open them in front of the camera, right? But it gets complex and messy when there’s an overflow of gifts and brand expectations. Use the guidelines and tips I shared above to manage haul-heavy campaigns more seamlessly.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between gifting and seeding?

Gifting is a transactional approach where free products are sent to creators with clear expectations or explicit requirements for a post, review, or video. Seeding is a relationship-building approach where products are sent "no strings attached" to test the waters and organically earn long-term brand advocates.

What brands give PR to small creators?

Brands like Glossier, ColourPop, Flower Knows Beauty, Rhode Skin, Gymshark, Fabletics, and ASOS are known to give PR to small creators.

What are brand exclusivity rights?

Brand exclusivity rights involve an agreement where influencers are restricted to promoting only one brand or product category for a certain period. This prevents them from partnering with the brand’s competitors.