The quick answer
Pick 100 Creatives if you run an apparel brand with a collab or capsule coming, the pieces are sampled, and you need launch and post-drop ads in both brands' placement sizes faster than a second shoot can deliver them.
- Static and video ad creative is quoted in written budget ranges that start at $4,000, as a fixed total, and nothing is charged until you approve the quote.
- Apparel imagery starts at $10,000 per 100-SKU programme, so new settings and colorways come from the same team as the ads.
- Creative batches come back in 48 hours, and revisions within 48 hours, which leaves room in the calendar for a second brand's review.
- A brand intake before production records visual language, model preferences, colorways and export specs. For a collab we run it for both brands, so two sets of rules are written down before the first image.
Pick something else if the collab hangs on a named athlete, artist or designer appearing in person (book a photographer and their time, with image rights in their contract), you need the lookbook that wholesale buyers will judge fit from (a studio shoot), or your partner's licensing team requires every image to come from its own approved photographer (use that photographer).
An earlier version of this page priced a collab campaign at $180,000 to $520,000 by attaching that range to well-known fashion photographers by name, sold a ten-week "dual-spine" production engagement at $28,000 to $72,000 with per-frame prices from $120 to $480, and described a spec image as a finished collab frame. None of those numbers had a source, the photographers never quoted them, and 100 Creatives does not sell that engagement. This version removes all of it and covers what a brand planning a collab has to decide, with each outside fact linked.
What a collab campaign needs that a normal drop doesn't
A normal drop has one owner. One creative director signs off, one brand book applies, and the images live on your site and your ad account for as long as you like. A collab or capsule with a partner brand changes three of those at once.
Two approvers. Your partner will want to see every image that carries its name, its logo or its designs. That review is often slower than yours, and if nobody sets the window in writing, it lands in the week before launch.
Two sets of rules. Each brand has its own casting preferences, color rules, logo spacing and words it never uses. A frame that passes your brand book can fail theirs on a detail neither team thought to mention, such as which logo sits on the left in a lockup.
A limited life. The capsule sells for weeks, but the images keep circulating. Your ad account, your partner's account, retailer pages and press coverage all hold copies. If the agreement says nothing about use after the term, you find out what each side assumed when one of you runs an old image a year later.
A collab with a celebrity, artist or athlete adds a fourth: their likeness and approval rights, which usually sit in their own contract and run on their own schedule.
Five things to put in the collab agreement before any image is made
Morgan Lewis's September 2026 guide to brand partnership contracts lists the approval and licensing terms these deals need: who is authorized to approve materials, the time allowed for review, the number of review and revision cycles, and whether previously approved materials may be adapted to other formats without a new approval (Morgan Lewis, September 2026, checked October 2026). For a capsule campaign, that becomes five decisions.
1. One named approver per brand, and a review window in days. Trademark licenses have long required the mark owner to pre-approve all advertising that uses the mark, because an owner that doesn't control use of its mark can lose its rights in it (Knobbe Martens in the New York Law Journal, checked October 2026). The same article notes that a ten-day approval window breaks down for social posting. Agree a shorter window for ads, in writing, and name the person, not the department.
2. Whether an approved image can be resized and recut. One launch image becomes a 4:5 feed ad, a 9:16 story, a 1:1 catalog tile and a retailer banner. If every crop counts as a new image for approval, your partner reviews the same photo five times. Ask for approval of the image once, with reformatting to listed sizes allowed.
3. Where each brand may use the images, and for how long. Morgan Lewis recommends licenses that set the scope, purpose, territory, media and duration. Write down the channels (your site, your ad accounts, email, retailer pages, press), the countries, and the end date.
4. What happens after the term. Decide whether both brands stop using the joint images, or whether either may keep a version with the partner's logo removed. The same guide says to settle this early, before the jointly created assets gain value.
5. Whether AI-generated or AI-edited images are allowed, and how they are labeled. Some brands ban generated images outright; others allow new settings but not generated faces. Get the answer before you brief anything, and agree who handles disclosure where the law requires it (covered below).
This page is not legal advice. Have a lawyer review the agreement, and treat the five points above as the questions to bring to that meeting.
Who owns AI-generated collab images?
Possibly nobody, in the copyright sense, which makes the contract matter more. The US Copyright Office concluded in its January 29, 2025 report that writing prompts is not enough to make a person the author of what an AI system outputs, and that purely AI-generated material is not protected, while human selection and arrangement of AI images, and expressive edits made to them, can be (Ballard Spahr summary of the report, checked October 2026).
In a collab that has a practical consequence. Each brand still owns its own logo, prints and garment designs, and those are what make the image valuable. But the generated background, light and pose may not belong to anyone. So "who owns the campaign images" is the wrong clause to rely on. The clause that protects you is the license: who may use these images, where, until when, and what each brand must remove afterwards. If your partner's lawyer asks for ownership of all campaign imagery, it is worth asking what that ownership covers when part of the image may not be copyrightable.
Running collab ads from both brands' accounts
On Meta, the format built for this is the partnership ad. Meta's developer documentation says partnership ads let you run ads with creators, brands and other businesses, the ad features both accounts in its header, and you choose which account is the primary identity. The ads deliver only with a permission in place between the two accounts; if you publish without one, Meta holds the ad in a pending delivery state until the partner approves (Meta for Developers, partnership ads, checked October 2026).
Three decisions follow, and they belong in the same agreement as the image terms. Whose ad account pays for which ads. Whose name leads in the header, which can differ by audience: your customers see you first, theirs see them first. And who sets up the permission between the accounts, because an ad stuck in pending delivery on drop morning is a common and avoidable failure. Set the permission up a week early with a test ad.
The creative changes too. A partnership ad already tells the viewer two brands are involved, so the image doesn't need both logos stamped in a corner. Spend the frame on the product and the reason the two brands belong together. Our guide to static ads for Meta covers sizes and safe zones for each placement.
Which collab frames need a real shoot, and which can be generated
| Asset | Who needs it | Real shoot or generated |
|---|---|---|
| Each capsule piece on a real person | Both brands, retailers, press | Real shoot. It proves fit and drape, and every other image is checked against it |
| Close-ups of co-branded labels, trims and hardware | Product pages, the partner's approver | Real shoot. Generated logos and small text drift, and two logos double the risk |
| Lookbook and line sheet for wholesale buyers | Retail accounts | Real shoot, or follow each retailer's own image rules |
| Frames with a named athlete, artist or creator | Both brands | Real shoot, under that person's contract and approval |
| Launch ads in more settings and moods | Both ad accounts | Generated from the approved photos, then reviewed by both approvers |
| Placement sizes and regional versions | Both ad accounts, email | Generated or recut from approved images |
| Restock, last-sizes and "back in stock" ads after the drop | Whoever holds inventory | Generated, inside the license term |
The split is the same one we use for any apparel brand, with one extra rule: anything that shows the partner's mark up close is photographed, because a generated logo that is slightly wrong is the fastest way to lose the partner's approval for the whole set. Our page on when you need a real photo shoot goes through the general case, and AI fashion photography vs a traditional shoot compares them channel by channel.
Keeping a capsule consistent across every frame
A capsule is usually a handful of pieces sold for a short window, and the campaign has to make them look like one collection. That is where generated imagery is both most useful and easiest to get wrong. Useful, because one approved photo of a piece can become a dozen scenes in a day. Easy to get wrong, because small details shift between generations: a button count changes, a hem moves, a print repeats at a different scale, a model's face drifts between frames.
These two spec images show the check a collab approver will make. The dress, the model and the light have to read as one campaign across a close frame and a wide one, and the details have to match the physical sample: count the buttons, check where the front slit starts, compare the strap width. When frames differ, the sample decides, not the better-looking render. We are not presenting these as collab work; our portfolio has no collab spec piece, and most of our client work is under NDA.
Expect to discard most attempts. Before Overs existed, we built four campaigns by hand in 2026 with AI image models: 361 renders for 45 usable images, about eight per keeper. Keeping one face and body across a set was the hardest part; surf apparel on one consistent model took 163 renders for 12 keepers, and men's trousers on a model took 40 for 11. Today we make our campaign and product images with Overs, an image tool built by our founder and owned by the same company as 100 Creatives (2587689 Alberta Ltd.). Our checklist for reviewing AI creative from an agency lists what to check image by image, and it works for a partner's approver too.
Disclosing AI imagery in a collab
If a generated image shows a realistic person who does not exist, plan the label before the ad runs, and agree in the collab terms which brand applies it. New York requires a conspicuous disclosure when an ad knowingly uses a synthetic performer, from June 9, 2026 (Cooley, January 2026, checked October 2026). Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires disclosure of realistic AI depictions from August 2, 2026 (Davis+Gilbert, checked October 2026).
Collabs carry a likeness risk normal drops don't. If the partner is a designer, artist or athlete, a generated face that resembles them, or resembles someone from their world, will look like an endorsement nobody signed. Brief generated people as clearly fictional and never prompt for a resemblance to a real person. Our page on AI fashion models vs real models covers consent and likeness in more detail.
A capsule campaign plan, working back from the drop date
This is the order we work in. It is our plan, not an industry standard, and the time each step takes depends mostly on the slower brand's review.
Before any image. Collab terms signed, including the five points above. Both brands complete an intake: visual language, casting rules, colorways, logo lockups and export specs. Agree the drop date, then mark each approver's review window on the calendar, slowest first.
The shoot. Approved samples on real people, plus a plain-background photo of each piece and close-ups of every co-branded label and trim. If a named partner appears, book their time here and nowhere else.
The first ad set. A small set of concepts goes to both approvers at once, not one after the other. Each concept differs by setting, person, reason to buy or format, so the review settles direction early. Our guide on how to brief an agency for AI creative lists what to send.
Launch. Finished ads in every placement size, the partnership ad permission tested, and the ads submitted early enough to clear Meta's review before the drop.
After the drop. Restock and last-sizes ads for the pieces still in stock, inside the license term. On the end date, take down what the agreement says comes down, in both ad accounts.
Which should you buy?
The collab is built around a person. If the draw is a named designer, artist or athlete, book a photographer and that person's time, with image rights and approvals in their contract. The campaign depends on them being in the frame.
Your partner's licensing team supplies the photographer. Some licensors require all imagery from their own approved studio. Use it, and ask for usage terms that let you recut those images for your ad placements.
You have the samples and the shoot, and need launch and post-drop ads. An ad creative agency that makes statics, video and the imagery behind them, and can work to two brand books. This is the work 100 Creatives does for apparel brands.
The capsule will sell on try-ons and reactions. A UGC creator agency. See UGC ad creatives for what that buys.
You have a designer in-house and want to make variants yourself. An AI image tool. Overs is one; it is built by our founder and is a brand of the same company as 100 Creatives, so weigh that.
Where 100 Creatives fits
100 Creatives is an AI-powered creative agency in Calgary, Canada, that makes static and video ads, and the product imagery behind them, for DTC and consumer brands advertising on Meta, TikTok and Google. Most of our client work is under NDA, so the portfolio shows spec work: concepts made for brands that did not commission them.
For a collab, send the signed terms that cover imagery (or the draft, if they're still open), both brands' guidelines, the sample photos and the drop date. If a frame needs a real person, a real label close-up or the partner's own photographer, we will say so before we quote. For how many ads a launch needs, see how many ad creatives you need; pricing lists the starting points.