Your instinct is to say no.
You have seen it before: the owner goes stiff, reads a sentence they wrote themselves, and the video dies in the first three seconds. So you explain gently that UGC works better without the brand in it, and you shoot it alone.
Why yes is usually the right answer
In Belgium you will meet this request often, because a large share of the businesses hiring you are run by the person who owns them.
Saying yes is not a courtesy. It is the strongest thing available to you on that shoot.
They are the one thing nobody can copy
A competitor can copy the product, the price, the format, the edit and your entire script by the end of the week.
They cannot copy the person who founded the company. An owner on camera makes the video permanently specific to that business, which is exactly what a good piece of UGC is trying to be and usually fails at.
Give them a task, not a line
Everything that goes wrong goes wrong because you asked them to perform.
Do not hand them a sentence. Hand them a job: unpack the delivery, show what changed in the new version, open the machine, pour the thing. A person doing something they do every day stops watching themselves, and that is the whole problem solved.
| What you ask for | What they will actually do | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Say this line to camera | Read it, twice, worse each time | Nothing usable |
| Tell us about the product | A two minute company history | One good sentence, buried |
| Show me how you make it | Work, and talk while working | The take |
| Answer my question off camera | Relax, because it is not a take | Your best audio |
| Be natural | Freeze | Nothing, and now they are nervous |
The fourth row is the practical trick. Keep filming while you ask something conversational, and use that, not the part where they knew they were being recorded.
When to say no
There is one case: when the video needs to look like a customer, not like the company.
If the format is a genuine first impression, an unboxing, a review, a discovery, the owner's presence destroys it, and no amount of good delivery fixes that. Say that plainly and offer them a second video where being the founder is the point.
Almost nobody refuses that, because they did not want to be in your video. They wanted to be in a video.
Keep reading
- Working with Clients on Both Sides of Belgium
- Delivering Bilingual UGC in Belgium
- German-speaking UGC Creators in Belgium
- Your Belgian Campaign Is Already International
- The complete UGC guide for Belgium
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Frequently asked questions
Do I charge more for this?
Not for their presence, but do charge for the extra time, because a shoot with somebody who is not a performer takes longer. Say that when you agree the scope, not after.
What if they are genuinely bad on camera?
Then shoot their hands. A pair of hands doing skilled work carries the same signal and asks nothing of the person attached to them.
Which language should they speak?
Their own, always. An owner speaking their second language is thinking about the language instead of the work, and it shows in the first sentence.