A great brief is the difference between a model nailing the spot on take one and a model giving you four rounds of revisions you don’t want to ship. After a couple hundred briefs, here’s the template we use at Vibey, field by field, with the reasoning for why each field exists. Steal it. Adapt it. The format matters less than what each field forces you to actually decide.
Section 1: Strategic context (5 fields)
Problem statement
One sentence. The problem the customer has before they meet the product. Not the feature. Not the brand promise. The problem.
Bad: “Our serum is a hyaluronic acid blend.”
Good: “My skin is dry and tight by 2pm even though I moisturize every morning.”
The model needs to be able to act this. Abstract product features are unactable. Specific problems are. Write the brief from the customer’s POV and the model will deliver from the customer’s POV.
Dream outcome
One sentence. What does the customer’s life look like after the product is working. Again — not the feature, the lived outcome.
Bad: “Hydrated skin all day.”
Good: “I stopped reaching for my desk moisturizer at 2pm — I just don’t need it anymore.”
Specificity is what makes a UGC spot land. Vague outcomes feel like ad copy and viewers tune them out. Specific moments feel like a real person telling you what happened.
Audience
Who is this spot speaking to. One persona, not three. If you have three personas, write three briefs.
Where the spot will run
Meta cold traffic, TikTok cold traffic, retargeting, email — every destination has slightly different format requirements and different audience expectations. Cold traffic on Meta wants a problem-statement opener. Retargeting can skip straight to the product because the audience already knows the brand.
The single line of voiceover that has to land
One line. The most important sentence in the entire spot. The one that, if the viewer only hears that one sentence, still understands why they should buy. Models will lean into this line if you flag it. Without it, they’ll deliver every line at equal weight and the spot will feel flat.
Section 2: Creative direction (4 fields)
Hook line(s)
Give the model 2-4 hook options for the first 3 seconds. Don’t lock them into one — let them try multiple takes. The hook that lands on set is almost never the one that read best on paper.
Examples of formats that work as hooks: a confession (“I’ve tried every X and none of them worked until…”), a stat (“X% of women in their 30s deal with this and nobody talks about it”), a question (“Why does my skin still feel tight if I’m using moisturizer?”), a scene (“Me, at 4pm, in the office bathroom…”).
CTA copy
The exact words you want the model to say at the close. “Link in bio” is fine for organic; for paid, you want something that maps to the destination page. “Try it for 30 days”, “Use code FIRST20”, “Tap Shop Now”.
Brand do’s
Specific behaviors you want the model to embody. Not adjectives — behaviors.
Bad: “Be authentic and friendly.”
Good: “Speak like you’re telling a close friend, not pitching. Use contractions. Look at the lens like it’s a friend, not like it’s a camera. If you flub a line, leave it in — we’ll often use the flub.”
Brand don’ts
Words and phrases that will get the spot rejected by ad platforms or that just don’t fit the brand voice. For supplements: any disease claim, any “cured my X”, any superlatives. For beauty: no “instant results”. For SaaS: no “guaranteed” anything. Be specific. Models follow lists, not vibes.
Section 3: Deliverable specs (5 fields)
Aspect ratio
9:16 vertical for paid social by default. If you also need 1:1 for placements, say so explicitly — and ask the model to frame the action centered so it crops cleanly to both.
Length
Give a target and a tolerance. “15 seconds, +/- 3 seconds.” Models who try to hit exactly 15 seconds will deliver a spot that feels rushed; models with a tolerance window will deliver a spot that breathes naturally.
Audio environment
Quiet room? Outdoor? Walking? Each one changes the mic setup and the editing burden. For most paid social, lean into a quiet bedroom or kitchen — clean audio, slight ambient noise. Don’t shoot UGC outside on a windy day unless you’re ready to redo the audio in post.
Outfit and environment
Brief specifically. “Casual at-home outfit. Hair undone. Bedroom or kitchen background.” If you don’t brief this, you’ll get “styled-for-Instagram” energy and the spot will look like an ad.
Number of variants and revisions
Tell the model how many cuts of the spot you want and how many rounds of revisions are included. “3 hook variants, 1 round of revisions” is a fair baseline. Without this, briefs spiral into endless tweaks.
Section 4: Compliance and rights (2 fields)
Usage rights
Specify exactly. Paid social, X months, brand handle and whitelist from model handle, territory worldwide. The cheapest mistake brands make is buying “6 month paid social” and trying to keep running the spot forever. Get your rights right the first time.
Disclosure language
If FTC disclosure is needed (#ad, #sponsored), specify whether on the post or in the caption. For pure paid-ad use this is usually less of an issue, but for whitelisted Spark Ads on TikTok or branded content on Meta, you need this nailed down before the model films.
What this brief actually does
The fields force you to make decisions before the model is shooting, instead of leaving the decisions for the editing room when it’s already too late. Most bad UGC isn’t bad because the model failed — it’s bad because the brand didn’t decide what they wanted before the model was holding the phone. A 15-minute extra investment in the brief saves you four rounds of revisions and the spot you’re actually going to scale spend on.
If you’re a DTC brand in the $500K-$10M ARR range and you’d rather just hand off the briefing to a team that does this every day — book a 15-min call and we’ll take it from intake.