Here’s the situation
A brand we advise sells premium air purifiers. They want someone who can find good creators, get partnerships running and tell them what’s working. The immediate job is to bring in sales for the holiday campaign and get useful content for Meta ads. You’re running the first two weeks.
$399Product price · 25% off during the sale
$2,000Creator fees + content rights
5 unitsMaximum gifts · shipping covered
10%Affiliate commission on discounted sales
The brand, creator profiles and numbers in this exercise are made up. You have a media buyer to test content and a teammate to help with shipping. Product claims need brand approval. Don’t promise to prevent or treat illnesses. We haven’t supplied lab results or product specifications, so flag any fact you’d need the brand to confirm before using it in content.
A quick note from Nik
I want to see how you’d handle the work. Give me your picks and explain the calls you’re making. Short answers are great. Spend about 8 minutes on the shortlist, 17 on your outreach and plan, and 10 each on the last two tasks. Stop at 45 minutes, even if you haven’t finished. You don’t need to research real creators or build a deck. Feel free to use AI, but be ready to explain your answer.
01 · Make the call
Who gets the first message?
Pick your first and second choice, plus a backup. These are opening asks, so you can negotiate. You don’t have to spend the full $2,000. Show your proposed fees and rights costs for the two picks so we can see the total. Your backup is not a third booking. If your plan depends on a creator changing their fee or timing, say so.
01
The Home Educator
24k · Instagram
Thoughtful home and cleaning content. Comments often ask for product links. No verified sales history.
$650 · one Reel
Paid usage costs extra.
02
The Lifestyle Name
210k · Instagram
Polished content, averaging 12k Reel views. Several recent sponsored posts.
$1,500 · Reel + 3 Stories
No paid usage included.
03
The Practical Reviewer
16k · YouTube
Detailed home-product reviews. Says older reviews still drive purchases; evidence not yet shared.
Gift + 10% commission
Three-week production lead time.
04
The UGC Specialist
Small audience · UGC
Strong product demos and several paid-ad examples. No affiliate track record.
$900 · three videos
Includes 90 days of Meta usage.
05
The Wellness Creator
48k · TikTok
Active audience. Recently worked with another purifier brand. Some past posts make strong health claims.
$400 + 10% commission
Exclusivity and usage rights unconfirmed.
03 · The first results are in
Nik asks, “Where should we put another $500?”
For this task, imagine you’ve inherited a different three-creator test. These results cover the same 14-day period and are separate from your earlier picks. There’s another $500 available. Tell Nik what you’d do with it, or what you need to check before spending it.
Creator A
The affiliate dashboard shows 24 orders. Shopify shows 18 existing customers and 6 first-time customers. Their reusable discount code appeared on a coupon site. Only 30 link clicks were recorded.
You haven’t checked how these customers found the brand.
Creator B
8 tracked orders, 6 first-time customers and 160 link clicks. Spent $150 in fees, plus one gifted unit. Two usable demos delivered. No paid ads have run.
You can run the videos from the brand’s Meta account for 30 days. You don’t have permission to run ads from the creator’s account.
Creator C
No organic affiliate orders. A demo generated 12 purchases reported by Meta on $300 ad spend. Content fee was $200, plus one gifted unit. These purchases may overlap with other reporting.
Permission to use the video in ads expires in five days. You haven’t agreed on a renewal price.
Assume every order is at the discounted price above. You don’t yet have product costs, refunds or the reporting windows used by each platform. Tell us what else you’d ask for. You don’t need to know a particular tool to answer.
04 · Before you hit send
Your AI tool wrote this. What would you change?
You asked an AI tool to draft outreach to a home-cleaning creator. You’ve seen their cleaning videos, but you don’t know whether they’ve used the product or talked about allergies. It came back with this.
“Hey! Loved your recent video about managing allergies at home. We’d love to send you our purifier to help your audience get the same relief. In exchange, could you share two videos by Friday? We’d also use the footage in our ads and make a few AI edits with your voice to test different hooks. We can run those from your handle too. Let me know where to ship!”
You haven’t agreed on deliverables, timing or ad permissions with this creator, and the brand hasn’t approved the claims. Rewrite the message so you’d be comfortable sending it. Then tell us where AI would help you get the day-to-day work done.
05 · Send it back
That’s it. Send it over.
Download your answers and reply to the person who sent you this challenge with the file attached by Monday, October 19 at 11:59pm in your timezone. This page does not send your answers automatically.
What happens next
Nik will review your answers. If we move forward, you’ll spend about 10 minutes talking through your choices with him. He’ll change one part of the situation and ask how you’d handle it. You don’t need to prepare anything else.
We’re looking at who you choose, how you spend, the messages and content you write, and whether your plan would work. We’ll also look at how you respond when things change. This is a fictional hiring exercise. Please don’t contact creators or buy anything.