Can I Reach Out to a Brand on the Hummingbirds Platform Directly - Before, During, or After a Campaign?

We love the excitement that comes from working with a brand you really connect with! That said, we ask that Hummingbirds do not reach out to any brand featured on the Hummingbirds platform directly - before, during, or after a campaign.

Most of the brands we work with:

• Truly value connecting with smaller creators like you

• But often have tiny teams and limited bandwidth

• Can feel stuck when they get direct outreach—they’d love to work with you again, but don’t have the capacity to manage 1:1 relationships outside the Hummingbirds platform

In fact, several brands have specifically asked us to remind birds not to reach out directly, and this is also part of our Terms & Conditions. (No worries if you didn’t know—we’re here to clarify whenever it comes up!)

Behind the scenes, there’s a ton of time, expense, and energy that goes into sourcing these brands and bringing you cool opportunities.

When creators go off-platform:

• It hurts future chances for you and other birds to work with these brands

• It undermines the partnerships we’ve built and can jeopardize ongoing opportunities for the whole community

It’s also a breach of contract for brands to take the relationship off-platform or to reach out to you for content revisions, which means if we notice this happening:

• We may terminate the brand’s contract (resulting in fewer opportunities for everyone)

• We may also choose to remove birds from the community who bypass these guidelines as reaching out directly to brands on the Hummingbirds platform is against the Terms & Conditions you agree to when signing up

If ever a brand reaches out directly (beyond saying they loved your content), please let us know! This is a part of their terms & conditions to protect you:

• From brands asking for assets beyond what you agreed to by participating in the campaign

• If a brand is looking for more than what was required in the campaign, we're going to ask them to compensate you for more! You may receive requests from us to whitelist content for brands or provide other assets beyond the scope of what was in the campaign, but this will be entirely optional and include extra compensation for you (and we don't take any sort of cut - it all goes directly to you)!

• From unreasonable revisions to content

• While we may reach out if requirements aren't followed, we do our best to be fair and communicate with brands who may be asking for content changes outside of what was communicated in their campaign vs. having you adjust content

• And anything else that may put you in an uncomfortable position!

✅ Exceptions

If a brand has a public ambassador program you can apply to on their website, that’s different! As long as you’re not directly messaging the brand, you’re welcome to explore those opportunities.

Here are the best ways to stay connected:

• Keep expressing interest when you see the brand run new campaigns

• Mention in your pitch notes that you’ve worked with them before and would love to again (bonus points if you share why!)

• We often share this feedback with brands, and recently started helping some run invite-only ambassador campaigns with Hummingbirds they already love. These are new, but growing all the time!

💛 Thank you for showing up so thoughtfully and respecting how we partner with brands. Protecting these relationships ensures we can keep bringing amazing campaigns to you and the entire Hummingbirds community.