UGC brief template: what to send creators

What a brief has to do

A brief has one job: let a creator who has never heard of you shoot the right video on the first attempt. It is not a script. Scripts produce stiff videos, and stiffness is what UGC exists to avoid. A brief sets the edges and leaves the middle to the creator.

It also protects you later. The brief is the standard a delivered video is reviewed against, and the place where the usage terms were first stated.

The seven parts of a UGC brief

• Audience. Who the video is for, in two sentences a stranger would understand.
• One message. The single thing a viewer should remember. If there are three, there are none.
• Must-shows. The product in use and anything else that has to appear on screen.
• Format. Vertical video, a rough length, the number of versions and two or three optional hook ideas.
• Do's and don'ts. Claims to avoid, competitors not to name, words your brand does not use.
• Usage and disclosure. Where the video may run, for how long, and how the paid relationship is labeled.
• Deadline and delivery. The date, the file type and where to send it.

A copy-ready outline

Paste this into a document and replace the brackets.

Before you send it, hand the filled-in outline to someone outside the project and ask them to describe the video they would shoot. If their description surprises you, fix the brief before a creator has to guess.

• Brand and product: [one line, with a link]
• Audience: [who they are and what they struggle with]
• The one message: [a single sentence]
• Must show: [up to three items]
• Format: [vertical, length range, number of versions]
• Hook ideas: [two or three, optional]
• Please avoid: [claims, words, competitors]
• Usage: [organic, paid ads or both; channels; duration]
• Disclosure: [how the partnership is labeled]
• Due: [date, file type, where to send]

Mistakes that make creators guess

• Describing the brand at length and the audience not at all.
• Asking for 'authentic' without saying what must be shown.
• Supplying a word-for-word script.
• Leaving usage until after the video is delivered. See UGC usage rights.

Where Link AI fits

The outline works with any process. With an agent, the brief is also the instruction the software acts on, so the audience line carries extra weight. In Link AI by Linkme, the published first step is to say who you want to reach, in plain words. Link then picks creators on Linkme by size, industry and niche and sends your brief.

We recommend it for teams that write good briefs and lose time on everything after. Book a demo to try Link AI, bring a filled-in outline and ask to read exactly what a creator receives.

Connected entries

Questions & answers