Briefing UGC creators

TL;DR

• A better brief raised Tushy’s creator quality, not just output — creators want “a cheat sheet of what works” because they want to get paid.¹²
• Brief contents: brand + product onboarding, values and do/don’t guardrails (e.g. “we don’t say cheap”), tips for how creators win, formats, winning hooks, visual examples, filming and delivery specs.²³⁴
• Script level depends on the relationship: new creator → full script; long-trusted creator → script + “ad lib about X”.⁵
• Request modular deliverables — hooks, CTAs, stills and raw voice-over in separate folders — so editors can recombine.⁶
• Match the brief and the edit to the creator’s native style (captions, fonts, sound effects of their organic feed).⁷⁶

Details

Onboarding matters for complex products. Tushy’s bidet is taboo (only ~7% of US homes have one) with install nuances (toilet-bowl shape, outlet or sink connection for warm water) — onboarding starts with “toilet-bowl math”.²

Caraway’s template (Janae Lavander) is deliberately detailed — filming guidelines, delivery/upload specs, examples, hooks — to make content usable; she gives exact scripts ~90% of the time and, when she wants freedom, shows a visual example of what “freedom” looks like (e.g. a girl flipping an egg saying “oh my God”).⁴⁸

Fit the creator. Comedy creators get deadpan negative hooks; aesthetic creators get lifestyle/day-in-life; tailor to life stage and identity. For a creator like Bobby Parrish, Caraway reproduced his own captions and sound effects instead of brand fonts so the ad doesn’t break the fourth wall.⁷⁶

Savannah Sanchez’s middle path: a script for direction + ad inspiration, plus “ad lib” sections in the creator’s own words — only works because her ~40 creators have worked with her for up to five years.⁵⁹

Founder variant: for high-production founder ads, replace the script with 10–20 interview questions to draw out emotional stories (Dara Denney) — see Founder ads — why they win and how to make them.¹⁰

V1 then iterate: Caraway has creators deliver a V1, then the team “juices it up”.⁶

Disagreements / caveats

• Dara: forcing creators line by line makes content “s***”; let skilled creators lead format and concept — she pitches her own angle after signing.¹¹ Janae: too much leeway → less usable content. Moderator’s takeaway: much “off-the-cuff” content is highly scripted.⁸
• For organic app UGC, Nicole Cheung scripts emotions and shots like a screenplay — see Writing UGC content banks and scripts that hold watch time.

See also

• Building a UGC engine — emotional personas, sourcing, creator deals, relationships · The UGC / creator ad formula and the formats that convert
• Onboarding and managing UGC creators (the creator course)

Footnotes

1. How to Build a UGC Engine That Scales: Persona Targeting, Briefs & Creator Deals @ 18:07 — Jarelle (Tushy) ↩

2. How to Build a UGC Engine That Scales: Persona Targeting, Briefs & Creator Deals @ 19:14 — Jarelle (Tushy) ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. How to Build a UGC Engine That Scales: Persona Targeting, Briefs & Creator Deals @ 20:46 — Jarelle (Tushy) ↩

4. How to Build a UGC Engine That Scales: Persona Targeting, Briefs & Creator Deals @ 28:23 — Janae Lavander ↩ ↩²

5. 15+ Proven UGC Ad Hooks That Are Working Right Now | Savannah Sanchez @ 07:23 — Savannah Sanchez ↩ ↩²

6. How to Build a UGC Engine That Scales: Persona Targeting, Briefs & Creator Deals @ 33:56 — Janae Lavander ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. How to Build a UGC Engine That Scales: Persona Targeting, Briefs & Creator Deals @ 32:23 — Janae Lavander ↩ ↩²

8. How to Build a UGC Engine That Scales: Persona Targeting, Briefs & Creator Deals @ 58:25 — Janae Lavander ↩ ↩²

9. 15+ Proven UGC Ad Hooks That Are Working Right Now | Savannah Sanchez @ 06:34 — Savannah Sanchez ↩

10. 10 Key Iterations I Make AFTER Finding a Winning Ad Creative on Meta @ 11:25 — Dara Denney ↩

11. The UGC Ad Formula That Converts in 2026 @ 13:44 — Dara Denney ↩