"I cannot change the campaign, but I can localise it."
You will hear some version of that sentence in half your Belgian conversations, and most creators treat it as a polite refusal. It is the opposite. It is the buyer telling you exactly which budget they control.
Many Belgian buyers have no creative mandate
Belgium hosts an unusual concentration of subsidiaries: Benelux offices, European distribution arms, regional headquarters of groups whose marketing is decided in another country. The person reading your message is often a country or regional manager executing a plan they did not write.
They cannot approve a new concept. Proposing one puts you in a queue that ends in a head office abroad, where nobody knows who you are.
What they can approve, without asking anyone, is a local version of something already approved. That is not a consolation prize. It is a recurring budget with a short decision chain, which is the best combination available to a creator.
What that changes in your approach
Sell the version, not the concept
Lead with what already exists. "You have a campaign running in France and nothing in Dutch" is a sentence that fits inside their authority. "Here is a creative idea for your brand" is a sentence that leaves it.
The localisation budget already exists
Groups that operate across borders budget for adaptation as a line item, because they have been doing it for packaging and legal text for years. You are asking to be paid from a line that is already open, rather than asking for a new one to be created.
The calendar is not yours
A subsidiary works to a campaign calendar set elsewhere, often two quarters ahead. Ask when the next wave is planned rather than proposing your own timing, and you will look like someone who has done this before.
Who is on the other side of the email
| Who replies to you | What they can decide alone | What they have to escalate |
|---|---|---|
| Country or Benelux manager | Local adaptation, language versions, local media | A new concept, brand positioning, anything visual that changes |
| Marketing lead of a Belgian family business | Almost everything, quickly | Rarely anything, which is why these are the best clients |
| Ecommerce or performance manager | Ad creative, because it is measured and reversible | Long term brand assets |
| Communications officer in an institution | Explanatory and recruitment content | Anything that looks like advertising |
| Agency working for the brand | The brief they were given | The budget, and any change to it |
Read the middle column before writing to anyone. It is the list of things you are allowed to sell them today.
The buyers who do have a mandate
Belgian family businesses, which are numerous and often larger than they look, particularly in Flanders. Here the person answering is frequently the owner or one step away, and a decision takes a conversation rather than a quarter.
Ecommerce and performance teams, wherever they sit, because ad creative is measured and reversible and therefore delegated.
And institutions, federations and associations around Brussels, which buy explanatory content and recruitment material with their own budgets and almost never receive an offer from a creator.
How to write the first message
Name the thing that already exists, name what is missing in one of the two languages, and state a price and a delivery date. Three lines.
Do not open with an idea. An idea asks for a mandate they may not have, and it forces a polite refusal from someone who would otherwise have said yes to something smaller.
Keep reading
- Flemish Dutch and Belgian French in Your UGC
- The UGC Market in Belgium
- What to Charge for UGC in Belgium
- Setting Up as a Self Employed Creator in Belgium
- The complete UGC guide for Belgium
Frequently asked questions
Why do Belgian buyers say they cannot change the campaign?
Because many work in subsidiaries executing a plan set abroad. They still control the localisation budget.
Should I propose creative ideas?
Not in the first message. Propose the missing version of something already running.
Which Belgian clients decide fastest?
Family businesses, where the person answering is often the owner or close to them.
Does the institutional world around Brussels buy?
Yes, mostly explanatory and recruitment content, and almost nobody offers it to them.