Blog
Tips, guides and stories about UGC and creator marketing.
Three Foreign Markets Before Lunch
From most of Belgium you can be in another country in under an hour. Almost no creator here prices for that, and the mistake is always the same one.
The Brief Says Show How the Service Works
There is nothing to show. That single fact is why most service UGC turns into an explainer, and why the explainer does not work.
Two Creators, One Tuesday, Two Different Businesses
One sold footage. The other sold an audience. They used the same camera and the same product, and only one of them knew which business they were in.
For a Restaurant, Reach Is a Cost
Everything written about UGC assumes the product can be posted to the viewer. Yours cannot, and that inverts almost every rule.
The Only Thing You Cannot Fix Afterwards
A slightly dark image can be saved in the edit. Bad room sound cannot, and Portuguese flats are built to produce it.
Somebody Is Watching Your UGC Who Was Never in the Targeting
A retail buyer deciding whether to give you shelf space. They read the same videos completely differently, and almost no brand makes the version they need.
Nobody Has Decided Not to Pay You
Late payment feels personal and almost never is. In Belgium it has three different causes, and the message that unblocks it is different for each one.
When Not to Buy UGC
This is a page on a UGC marketplace telling you when not to buy UGC. There are three situations where it underperforms, and buying it anyway is how brands conclude it does not work.
Two Clauses Decide What You Earn. The Rest Is Furniture
Most UGC contracts run to a couple of pages. Two lines in there set what the work is worth to you, and neither of them is the fee.
The Sale You Lost Is Not in Your Analytics
It happened on somebody else’s site. In Belgium your competitor for the click is rarely another Belgian brand, and what it sells is not a price.
Building a First Portfolio Before Anybody Hires You
A brand opens your best video, watches the beginning, and then scrolls to see how many others exist. The second half of that sentence is the whole problem.
The Best Line in the Video Is the One You Will Have to Cut
In UGC you are not buying a video. You are buying sentences you did not write, and every one of them is now a claim you have to be able to stand behind.
"You Said You Were Bilingual"
It is not an accusation yet. It becomes one about forty minutes later, and by then the shoot is already lost for both of you.
Saudade Is a Beautiful Word and a Bad Brief
The Portuguese abroad are not one market, and the half with the credit card is not the half your nostalgia campaign is speaking to.
What Nobody Tells You Before Your First Tax Return
This will not tell you what you owe. It will tell you why January is hard, which is a different problem and the one you can actually solve.
Belgium Runs on Two Calendars
Ask a Belgian marketing team when the school holidays start and watch them ask you which ones. Your single national campaign has a problem.
The Worst Two Hours to Film in Portugal
They are also the two hours most people are free. The light everybody envies here is the light that ruins takes, and the usual advice makes it worse.
The Zero in Your Gifting Budget
A gifting only campaign appears in the budget as zero. It is the one number in the plan that is definitely wrong.
The Owner Wants to Be in the Video
Your instinct is to say no. In a country full of owner run businesses, that instinct costs you the one thing a competitor cannot copy.
In Portugal Your Video Competes With the Calendar
A shopper standing in the aisle with their phone out is not deciding whether they want your product. They are deciding whether this is the week to buy it.
Ad Labels Are Your Problem, Not the Brand’s
Most creators think the label depends on what they said about the product. It depends on what they received for it, and the obligation is personal.
Your Belgian Campaign Is Already International
Your best performing video last month was probably watched mostly by people who cannot buy from you. In Belgium that is the default, not an accident.
In Portugal, Your Price Is Public
Sooner or later a brand you have never worked with will quote you a price you once gave to somebody else. Here is why, and what to do instead of discounting.
Casting a British Voice for UGC
Somewhere in most UK casting briefs is a line asking for clear, neutral English. It is asking for something else, and it is costing you the take.