Most UGC briefs are a mood board and a deadline.
That is not laziness. It is a genuine misunderstanding of what the document is for. A brief is not inspiration, and the creator does not need to be inspired by you. It is the list of decisions you have already made, written down so that nobody has to guess them at nine in the evening while filming.
Six lines carry almost all of it.
The six lines
The four that are the same everywhere
Who is speaking to whom. Not a demographic, a person: somebody buying this for a specific reason, and who they are talking to in the video.
What must be visible and when. The product on screen, the packaging readable, the moment the label has to be legible. This is the one that saves reshoots.
The one claim they may make. Everything else is their own experience, and stating this in the brief is what keeps a spontaneous sentence from becoming a problem later.
What you will not accept. Inaudible, off script, product not in frame. Three items, written before anybody films, so the review is a check and not an opinion.
The two that are Portuguese
Where the product is actually bought. A viewer who wants it and cannot work out where to get it is a lost sale, and in a market this size the answer is often a specific chain, a pharmacy, or your own site with a delivery time worth saying out loud.
Which Portuguese. If the video is for here, say so plainly, because a creator with Brazilian references in their feed will otherwise make a reasonable guess and it may be the wrong one. It is a one line instruction and it prevents an entire reshoot.
| The line | What it prevents | What happens without it |
|---|---|---|
| Who is speaking to whom | A video addressed to nobody | Generic delivery, no recognition |
| What must be visible, and when | The product arriving too late | A recut, or a reshoot |
| The one permitted claim | An improvised statement you cannot support | A sentence you have to cut |
| What you will not accept | Taste arriving disguised as a fault | A revision round about nothing |
| Where it is bought | An interested viewer with nowhere to go | Views without sales |
| Which Portuguese | A guess about the market | Footage that sounds foreign here |
Every row in the middle column is a thing that costs money later. That is the entire argument for spending twenty minutes on the document.
What to leave out
Do not write the script. Do not specify the shots. Do not send a mood board of other brands' finished adverts, which produces imitation rather than work.
You are buying the one thing you cannot make yourself, which is somebody speaking in their own words in their own room. Every line you add that constrains how they say it reduces the only value you were paying for.
Keep reading
- The Brief Says Show How the Service Works
- Saudade Is a Beautiful Word and a Bad Brief
- When Not to Buy UGC
- August Will Look Like Your Business Is Failing
- The complete UGC guide for Portugal
Frequently asked questions
How long should the brief be?
One page, and shorter is usually better. If it does not fit, the missing piece is a decision you have not made yet, and the creator cannot make it for you.
Should we send examples?
Send examples of the format, never of the finished tone. A reference to a competitor's advert is the fastest way to receive a slightly worse version of that advert.
Can the creator write the brief?
They can write the treatment, and good ones will. The six lines above are yours, because every one of them is a decision only the brand can make.