I’ve been trying to build a co-created UGC workflow with LATAM creators, and I’m hitting this tension I can’t quite solve: the more structured the brief, the less authentic the content feels. But the less structure I give, the more I end up with content that doesn’t align with what the brand actually needs.
I’ve done a few test campaigns where I gave creators total creative freedom—just the product and a loose vibe—and the content was beautiful and felt real. But the messaging didn’t always land, and a couple of pieces missed the brand voice entirely. On the flip side, when I’ve written detailed briefs, the content feels overproduced. LATAM audiences can sniff out inauthenticity from a mile away.
I think part of the issue is that I’m not necessarily leveraging the partnerships and relationships properly. Like, maybe I need to be more collaborative in how I’m building these briefs? More of a conversation with creators instead of a one-way directive?
Have you found a framework that actually works for co-created UGC without feeling like you’re either sacrificing authenticity or control? How do you brief creators in a way that gives them creative room but keeps the brand message intact?
This is such an important question, and honestly, it comes down to how you build the relationship first. Before you even get to the brief, the partnership quality determines everything.
What I’ve seen work really well is pre-campaign creator alignment calls. Not a brand presentation—an actual conversation. You share the product, you ask them questions about their audience, their style, what resonates with their community. They share ideas. You’re listening, not directing.
Then, when you write the brief, it’s collaborative. You’re capturing what they said, what you heard, and building the brief together. Something like: “Based on what you told me about your audience loving authenticity and humor, here are three core messages. How would you naturally communicate these to your people?”
The creators I work with who produce the best UGC are the ones who felt heard in that discovery phase. They own the brief because they helped shape it. Authenticity comes from trust, and trust comes from real partnership, not a command structure.
Have you built in time for that pre-brief conversation, or are you jumping straight to creative direction?
Okay, so from my side as someone who creates UGC, the briefs that work best are the ones that give me the “why” and the “what,” but let me figure out the “how.”
Like, a good brief tells me: “We need to show that this product saves time in your morning routine because our audience is busy professionals.” Then I show that in my way—maybe it’s a sped-up video of me getting ready, maybe it’s me talking to my roommate about it, maybe it’s a before-and-after comparison. The core idea is locked in, but my voice isn’t.
The briefs that feel suffocating are the ones that dictate every shot, every word. Those produce content that doesn’t feel like me, and my audience catches that immediately. But the briefs with zero direction result in content that doesn’t actually sell the product.
So the sweet spot is: clear on the value prop and the audience need, flexible on execution. And honestly? Taking feedback loops seriously. If my first cut doesn’t feel right to you, let me iterate. That collaborative back-and-forth usually lands on something authentic and on-brand.
I’d add something from the measurement side: track authenticity alongside performance. This is harder to measure, but you can do it.
Compare engagement rate and sentiment analysis (comments, replies) between:
- Creator-driven content (more freedom)
- Brand-dictated content (structured brief)
- Co-created content (collaborative brief)
In campaigns I’ve audited, co-created content often scores highest on engagement AND comment sentiment. Comments tend to include more questions, follow-ups, purchase intent language—all signals of authenticity and resonance.
Brand-dictated content sometimes has higher vanity metrics (likes) but lower meaningful engagement. Creator-driven content without brand guardrails can be beautiful but miss product benefits entirely.
So this isn’t just a qualitative feel—you can actually prove that the collaborative model delivers better results. Use that data when you’re pitching the collaborative approach to stakeholders who want maximum control.
We structure our UGC briefs in three tiers now, and it’s been a game-changer for working with LATAM creators:
Tier 1 (Non-negotiable): Core message, product benefits, brand voice pillars, any compliance/legal language.
Tier 2 (Flexible): Suggested angles, trending formats, audience insights. Creators can use these or ignore them.
Tier 3 (Creative freedom): Tone, style, specific scenes, dialogue—completely up to the creator.
We also build in a first-draft review that’s collaborative, not punitive. We comment with “This is great—here’s what resonates with us. What if we also showed ?” instead of “This doesn’t work, redo it.”
With LATAM creators specifically, I’ve found that they respond really well to this tiered system because it respects their expertise while giving them clear guardrails. They’re professionals who know their audience better than you do.
How much of your brief is currently flexible vs. locked down? That might be your bottleneck.
From a strategic angle, I’d reframe the tension you’re describing. It’s not authenticity vs. control—it’s clarity vs. dictation.
The best briefs are radically clear about outcomes and problems, but agnostic about solutions. So instead of “Create a 15-second video showing someone using the product at a desk,” you say: “Our audience needs to understand this product solves the [specific problem] that [target persona] faces daily. Show us how this creator would naturally explain that to their audience.”
The creator then owns the solution. Authenticity comes from ownership. Control comes from clarity.
One more thing: consider the feedback loop timeline. If you’re expecting revisions in 24 hours, creators will panic and produce templated content. If you give them 48-72 hours with space for 1-2 thoughtful rounds of feedback, the quality jumps significantly.
What does your current feedback and approval timeline look like?
We’re learning this with our expansion team right now. One thing that helped us: we stopped thinking of UGC as “cheaper than sponsored content” and started thinking of it as “different media format with different rules.”
Sponsored content (where the creator endorses the product) needs more brand control. UGC (where a real person uses the product) needs more creative freedom to feel real. If you’re trying to get UGC to feel like sponsored content with heavy brand messaging, that’s where the authenticity dies.
What type of UGC are you creating? Is it supposed to look like real user testimonials, or are you going for something more produced? That distinction actually changes what the brief should look like.