I’ve been working with a Russian-rooted e-commerce brand that’s trying to scale into the US market, and we’re hitting a wall with UGC. The problem isn’t the creators—they’re solid—but somewhere in the collaboration the brief gets lost in translation, and I don’t just mean literally.
We tried the standard approach: write a detailed brief in Russian, translate it to English, send it to US-based creators. The UGC comes back technically competent, but it feels generic. It could be for any brand. When I compare it to the UGC from Russian creators for the same brand, there’s this spark missing.
I think the real issue is that we’re not actually co-creating with the US side. We’re just shipping instructions across time zones. The creators don’t understand the brand DNA—the cultural nuances, why certain messaging matters, what makes the product resonate with Russian audiences in the first place.
I started experimenting with something different: instead of a finished brief, I’m sharing the “why” first. Why does this product matter to the founder? What problem does it actually solve? What’s the brand’s honest take on things? Then I let US creators riff on that foundation and propose their own angle.
The UGC that comes back is still authentically American, but it doesn’t feel disconnected from the brand anymore. It’s like they actually get it.
Has anyone else figured out how to brief across markets without losing authenticity? What’s your actual workflow when you’re working with creators who don’t have the cultural context of your brand?