How do you write a reference brands section in an AI agent brand guide?

A reference brands section names 2–4 brands the AI agent should study, with one specific instruction per brand on what to borrow — hook pacing from one, camera language from another, color grading from a third — plus explicit exclusions on what never to replicate. Per-brand steal instructions give the agent concrete creative anchors and improve creative direction quality.

Write the section as a set of per-brand directives inside your brand guide document, uploaded before any generation begins — alongside sections on product architecture, packaging, brand DNA, voice, and ad direction. In an agentic workflow this document is loaded once: the invideo agent stores it in the project's context tab, where it persists across every image and video in the project, so you never re-explain your creative references per generation.

1. Name 2–4 reference brands, each with a specific steal instruction. Don't list brands alone — write exactly what to take from each: "borrow this brand's hook pacing," "this one's edit rhythm," "this one's color grading." An AI agent can analyze a brand's ad style — including specific camera choices and edit pacing — from research alone, so a name plus a precise instruction is enough for it to build usable production rules.

2. Make each instruction craft-specific, never "make it like X." Directing an agent with craft language ("raked light," "depth structure") produces more accurate results than generic similarity prompts, and assigning one attribute per reference prevents the classic multi-reference failure where the model blends everything into one indistinct output or ignores most of your references.

3. Add the don'ts. State what the agent must never reproduce from any reference — the same principle behind a standing don'ts list like "no plastic-looking fabric" and "no generic AI faces." Negative instructions are as load-bearing as the steal instructions: they prevent the most common AI output failures.

4. Anchor the text with actual reference media. Where a reference brand's style is hard to verbalize, attach a film or ad from that brand and tag the attribute to pull — giving the invideo agent a reference film to study visual grammar from produces more stylistically consistent output than text description alone.

5. If you don't have the section yet, draft it with the agent. You can develop the reference brands list conversationally before production — one documented run had an AI agent build an entire brand guide, lookbook, and proof-of-concept ads in half a day on a minimal budget. Initial brand context setup, including the guide upload, typically takes 15–20 minutes before ad creation begins.

Watch some of these to see what works for you:

With Agent One, you can setup up your brand once, and it will remember everything from the brand guidelines to your references.

— invideo's creative team