Product Update: Creator Verification, Announcements and Direct Messages

This round is mostly about trust in both directions: knowing who you are working with, and being able to talk to them once a campaign is running.

Verified creators

Creator accounts can now carry a verified badge, which confirms that NIWO has checked the platform accounts a creator has linked actually belong to them.

The badge is deliberately not self service. It can only be switched on by NIWO staff, and the database rejects any attempt to set it from a creator account. A verification mark a creator can grant themselves is not a verification mark, and it would be worse than having none at all because studios would reasonably assume it meant something.

Campaign announcements

Studios can now post an announcement to everyone taking part in a campaign. It appears on the campaign page for every creator who has joined.

This exists because campaigns change in small ways that are not worth an edit to the terms: a build has been updated, keys have been re-issued, there is new footage available, the deadline is a week out. Previously there was no way to tell twenty creators any of that at once.

Creators can contact the studio

There is now a contact option on the campaign page for creators taking part. A creator writes in their own language and the message reaches the studio running the campaign.

The gap this closes is real: a creator with a question about whether something is allowed previously had two options, guess or skip the campaign. Both were bad outcomes for the studio too.

Screenshot proof on submissions

Submissions now carry a screenshot alongside the link and the creator's reported view count. Reviewers see the claim, the proof and the verified figure together.

The reported number and the verified number are kept as separate fields throughout. What a creator reports is a starting point for a check, and payouts are computed from the verified figure and the campaign's rate, never from the claim.

Smaller things

• Campaign cover art accepts PNG and JPG, and images are resized on upload rather than being rejected for being large.
• Games now go through an approval step before they can carry a campaign, so a campaign cannot go live against a title nobody has checked.
• The studio dashboard shows spend, verified views, effective CPM and creator counts computed from your own campaigns rather than sample figures.