How do you make UGC samples before any brand hires you?

Which products should you use for your first UGC samples?

Use products you already own and use, because you can speak about them honestly and film them in your real routine.

Walk round your home and pick three things you reach for every week: something from the kitchen, something from the bathroom shelf, something you carry in your bag. Everyday products work well for a sample because the viewer can picture them in their own life, and you already know what you would say about them. Skip anything you bought and never used, since a sample built on a product you cannot speak about will sound like reading a label.

Choose products from the kind of work you want next. If you hope to film for home and kitchen products, a sample of a skincare routine shows range but not fit. What should a UGC portfolio include covers how the finished samples sit together.

How do you write a brief for yourself when no brand sent one?

Write a short self-brief that answers the questions a real one would, then treat it as fixed while you script and film.

A sample made from a brief shows a brand that you can follow one, which is the job you are asking to be hired for. Fill in the table below for each product before you pick up your phone. Then use how to turn a brand brief into a script to go from your brief to a script, exactly as you would with a paid one.

How many samples should you make, and how should they differ?

Start with three samples in three different formats, because each one shows a different skill.

If all three are you talking to camera about a product on a table, you show one skill three times. Vary the format instead, so each sample proves something new. What a UGC video format is explains what makes two videos the same shape.

• A talking sample, straight to camera, to show you can carry a script and sound like yourself.
• A hands sample, close shots of the product being used, to show you can light and frame detail.
• A story sample, such as a problem-solution or a day in the life, to show you can hold a viewer through a change.
• Film two or three different hooks for one of them, so a brand can see you think about the opening as its own job.

How do you film a sample so it holds up next to paid work?

Film it to the same standard you would deliver to a client, from a written shot list, so the sample can stand next to paid work.

Turn each line of your script into a shot list before you film, so you know every shot you need and nothing gets missed on the day. Clean the frame, face a window, and film more takes than you think you need. The light and sound side is covered in filming UGC on a phone. Then edit it the way you would for a client: tight cuts, captions if the brief you wrote asks for them, and a clean file with no watermark.

How do you show a sample without implying a brand hired you?

Label every sample as a sample, made by you with a product you bought, so no viewer or brand reads it as a paid partnership.

Put the label where people will see it first: in the portfolio caption and in the file name. A line like the one below is enough. Leave the product's own logo out of your portfolio's headline and thumbnails, and never describe the work as a collaboration, a campaign or a client project. If a brand you featured gets in touch about the sample, say plainly that it was spec work and offer to make one for them from their brief.

Spec sample: made by [NAME] with a product I bought and use myself. Not sponsored or commissioned. Brief and script written by me.

Honest labelling does not change the skill on show. A labelled UGC sample still shows that you can follow a brief, script a clear video and film it well.