What is a UGC creative brief? What's inside

Creative brief: A creative brief is the document a brand gives a UGC creator setting out the video's goal, audience, key message, required and banned claims, format and deadlines.

A creative brief is the brand’s set of instructions for the videos they’re paying you to make. It says who the video is for, what it needs to say, what it must not say, and what to deliver by when. A clear brief saves you a reshoot. A vague one often causes one.

What’s in a brief

Most UGC briefs cover:

Goal. Installs, sign-ups, sales or awareness.
Audience. Who the viewer is and what problem they have.
Key message. The one thing the video should get across.
Talking points. Features to mention, sometimes a full script.
Do’s and don’ts. Required phrases, banned claims, competitors not to name.
Format. Length, aspect ratio, captions, music, number of hooks.
Deliverables. How many videos, which files, and by when.
Usage and disclosure. Where the video will run, for how long, and how the paid relationship is disclosed.

For Canvas UGC deals, the brief may also cover posting: how many posts a day, on which accounts, and what the brand counts as on-brand.

Example

A fitness app’s brief, with example terms: “Audience: people who quit the gym and want to train at home. Message: short workouts that fit a lunch break. Must show the workout timer screen. No weight-loss claims. Deliver 3 vertical videos, 20 to 30 seconds each, 3 hooks per video, by Friday. Organic use on our TikTok for 90 days.”

Questions to ask if the brief is thin

Who approves the video, and how many revision rounds are included?
Will it run as a paid ad, and from whose account? See usage rights.
How should the brand relationship be disclosed? See FTC disclosure.
Is there an example video they liked?

Why it matters for UGC creators

It’s your reference in revisions. If the video matches the brief, extra changes are new work.
It shapes your price. More hooks, more files or paid usage mean a bigger quote.
It tells you what to film in one go. Read it before you shoot so you capture every required shot in one session.
It shows how the brand thinks. A brief full of banned claims tells you the client is careful. One with no audience tells you to ask more questions.

Related terms

Deliverables: Deliverables are the specific items a UGC creator agrees to hand over or publish in a deal, such as edited videos, hook variations, raw footage, posts and deadlines.
UGC script: A UGC script is the written plan for a short creator video: the hook, the spoken lines or on-screen text, the shots to film, and the call to action.
Usage rights: Usage rights are the permissions a creator grants a brand to use their videos, defining where the content can appear, whether it can run as paid ads, and for how long.
Hook: A hook is the first line, shot or on-screen text of a short video, built to stop viewers from scrolling past in the first seconds.