Glossary
The terms that come up when brands book creators and commission video, in plain English. Where NCA has a specific practice, it says so.
- Average views
- The typical number of views a creator’s recent posts receive. It is a more reliable guide to real audience size than follower count, because followers include people who no longer watch. How much do influencers charge in South Africa?.
- Brand activation
- An experience or event that brings a brand to life in front of its audience, such as a launch, a panel or a pop-up, rather than only advertising to them. Youth marketing and cultural strategy.
- Creator management
- Representing creators: finding and negotiating brand deals, handling contracts and invoicing, and planning content, usually in exchange for a share of each fee. At NCA the split is 80% to the creator and 20% to the agency. NCA.EXE Group.
- Culture-led marketing
- Marketing built from a community’s real behaviour, language and values rather than from outside research alone, so the work is recognised by the audience as honest and relevant to them. Culture-led marketing in South Africa.
- Deal memo
- A short document that sets out the terms of a creator and brand deal: deliverables, dates, fees, usage, exclusivity, revisions and approval.
- Deliverable
- A specific piece of work promised in a deal, such as one TikTok video, a Facebook reel or a series of stories.
- Engagement rate
- The share of an audience that interacts with content through likes, comments, shares or saves. Agencies and platforms calculate it differently, for example against followers or against reach, so always ask which one is being quoted.
- Exclusivity
- A promise by a creator not to work with competing brands for a set period, usually limited to a defined category. Because it costs the creator other income, it is priced as an extra. Usage rights, whitelisting and exclusivity explained.
- Influencer marketing
- A form of marketing in which a brand pays or partners with creators who have an engaged audience, so the creators promote the brand to that audience in their own voice. Influencer marketing in South Africa.
- Micro-influencer
- A creator with a smaller but often closely engaged audience. Definitions vary between platforms and agencies, and many use a range of roughly 10,000 to 100,000 followers.
- Rate card
- A list of what a creator or agency charges for each deliverable, with notes on what is and is not included. A rate card lets a brand see prices before the first conversation. How to build a creator rate card.
- Reach and impressions
- Reach is the number of different people who saw a piece of content. Impressions are the total number of times it was shown, including repeat views by the same person.
- Room tone
- A recording of a location’s silence, usually about thirty seconds, used by editors to fill gaps and smooth cuts so the background sound does not jump. How to shoot a short film on your phone.
- Short-form video
- Vertical video made for feeds such as TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, usually running from a few seconds to around a minute or two. Social media strategy and management.
- Spark Ads
- TikTok’s ad format that boosts an existing organic post, including a creator’s post where the creator has given permission, so the promoted post keeps its original account, comments and likes. TikTok marketing for South African brands.
- Talent split
- The share of a booking fee paid to the creator and the share kept by the agency. NCA’s split is 80% to talent and 20% to the agency, and it is printed on the rate card. NCA facts.
- Text-based editing
- Editing a video by editing its transcript: deleting or moving words in the text changes the video to match. It is very fast for interviews and talking-head content. AI in video editing.
- Turnaround
- The time between a signed brief and the published content. NCA.EXE Group’s typical turnaround is 5 to 10 business days.
- UGC (user-generated content)
- Content made by customers or independent creators rather than by a brand’s own team and then used in the brand’s marketing. Some creators are paid to make UGC for a brand’s channels without posting it on their own.
- Usage rights
- Permission for a brand to reuse a creator’s content beyond the creator’s own post. A usage clause should say where the content can appear, for how long, whether it is paid or organic, and in which territory. Usage rights, whitelisting and exclusivity explained.
- Whitelisting (partnership ads)
- Running paid ads through a creator’s own social handle, with their permission, so the ad appears to come from the creator and carries a paid-partnership label. Also called creator licensing or partnership ads. Usage rights, whitelisting and exclusivity explained.