What a good UGC brief contains, plus tone and culture markers for briefing creators in Brazil.
Why the brief counts even more in Brazil
Six reasons rooted in the local market.
The country is vast, and the exchange almost always happens remotely, with no kick-off meeting.
Creators often work with several brands in the same week, and quickly confuse two sets of instructions.
Time zones and distances make the slightest clarification round trip expensive.
Regional diversity means an ordinary word in one state sounds odd in another.
Many brands send the product before writing the brief, which reverses the logical order.
And the short video format leaves little room: what is not said in the brief will not exist on screen.
What a good UGC brief contains
Seven elements, and nothing more.
The product, in one sentence, said the way you would say it to a friend.
The single objection to handle, which is the video's real subject.
The target audience, described by a concrete situation rather than by an age bracket.
The authorised wordings and those to avoid, in two short lists.
The technical constraints: vertical format, duration, subtitles, file naming.
The delivery date, and what happens if it slips.
And explicit freedom on the rest, setting, hook and tone, because that is exactly what you are buying.
Tone and culture: the Brazilian codes
Seven markers for a brief that rings true.
Informal address is the norm, including between a brand and a creator it does not know.
The warmth of the message is not politeness, it is the condition of a good collaboration.
A curt instruction is read as a reproach, even when it is not one.
Regions have their own words: ask the creator to keep their vocabulary rather than imposing yours.
Humour works, but it has to come from the creator, never from the brief.
National references, series, music, expressions, work better than imported ones.
And writing down an agreement reached in a voice message avoids misunderstandings, very common here.
What goes with the brief
Seven items to send at the same time, because an incomplete dispatch costs a week.
The product itself, with the shipment tracking, and a note on the delivery time to the creator's state.
Two or three reference videos, given as examples of tone, never as models to copy.
The exact product name as it has to be pronounced, pronunciation included if it is foreign.
The link or any code, with its end date, to avoid a video promising an expired code.
The purchase order or short contract, restating the price, the rights and the duration.
The name of a single contact, reachable during the production window.
And how the file has to be delivered, transfer service, resolution and maximum size.
A short example
Here is the form that actually works in a message, seven lines.
Product: face sunscreen, light texture, no white cast.
Objection: people think sunscreen shines and feels sticky.
Audience: someone who takes the bus in the morning and works indoors.
What we want to see: application in close-up, then skin in backlight ten seconds later.
To avoid: promising a result on dark spots or any medical effect.
Technical: vertical, thirty seconds, burnt-in subtitles, file named firstname-product-01.
Delivery: seven days after receiving the product, one round of edits planned.
The four blocks of a one-page brief
| Block | What you write in it | Length |
|---|---|---|
| The product | What it does, for whom | Three lines |
| The expected shots | The list, in shooting order | Five lines |
| The exclusions | What must not be said or shown | Three lines |
| The deliverable | Formats, count, date, rights | Three lines |
What is almost always missing
Two examples of videos you like and one you dislike. Those three links remove more back-and-forth than three pages of written instructions.
What never goes into a brief
A script to recite word for word. The result rings false, and the brand loses exactly what it came for by choosing a creator rather than a studio.
Mistakes to avoid
Six mistakes that recur in almost every failed brief.
Writing a word-for-word script, which produces a video that sounds like an advert.
Stacking three objections, so that none is handled.
Describing the audience by an age bracket, which helps nobody write a sentence.
Forgetting file naming, and spending an hour sorting videos called video final 2.
Requesting claims the category does not allow, whose exact wording is checked with a lawyer before the shoot.
And not saying what is free, which pushes the creator to ask permission for every detail.
One last marker: a good Brazilian brief fits in a message, reads in a minute, and leaves the creator the only thing they really sell, their way of speaking. The rest, product, objection, technical constraint and date, has to be written once, clearly, so that it never needs discussing again.
