Creator Sourcing
Sourcing genuine customer contributions
Invite useful customer reviews, photos and videos, then check their origin, accuracy and intended use before publication.
Start with a question a buyer needs answered. Invite customers to describe or show their own experience. Ask open questions, welcome mixed and critical responses, and keep the contribution's origin and context attached. A polished endorsement is less useful if it obscures what the customer found.
Choose the question and format
Review product enquiries, support questions and gaps in product information. Decide what a customer could explain from use: an opinion, a photograph of the item in a particular setting, or a short demonstration. A photograph of one person using a bag pocket, for example, shows that use; it does not establish that the pocket suits everyone.
Choose a format that fits the question. A review records an opinion; a demonstration can show an action. Do not ask for a five-star verdict when the useful answer is whether the product met the person's needs.
Invite an honest account
A post-purchase message or a clearly marked submission area can invite customers to contribute once they have had a reasonable chance to use the product. Ask what they used it for, what worked, what did not, and what they would tell another buyer. Make the submission route and any proposed public use clear.
If you offer a benefit for a review, make sure the invitation still welcomes an honest account. Wording that asks people to explain why they loved a product can steer responses even when the terms permit criticism.
Give submissions an intake check
Tell contributors how to send material and which product and variant to identify. A private submission route lets the team assess the content before brand publication. Collect the contact and context needed to handle it, and avoid assuming that sending a file grants every proposed reuse right.
For each submission, record:
| Check | Question to answer |
|---|---|
| Origin | Who made it, and what connection do they have with the brand? |
| Experience | Which product did they use, and what do they actually say or show? |
| Accuracy | Would a caption, crop or placement make the account sound broader than it is? |
| Other material | Are other identifiable people or third-party creative elements present? |
| Intended use | Is the proposed placement a review area, brand post or ad, and has that use been cleared? |
Hold a contribution while a material answer is missing. A genuine review can be critical. Check the basis for a suspected false claim; do not remove a negative review merely because it is inconvenient.
Keep review moderation distinct from selecting individual assets for a campaign. Do not present a selectively favourable set as a balanced review record.
Separate review concerns from customer disputes
The ACCC accepts reports about fake or misleading online reviews and review manipulation. It does not resolve an individual disagreement about a review, and it does not provide legal advice.
Reports inform the ACCC's education, compliance and enforcement work. If a business misleads people in relation to online reviews, the ACCC can investigate and may take compliance or enforcement action. Keep the contribution and the concern clear in your triage record. This helps the team distinguish a question about review integrity from dissatisfaction with a product.
Publish the account in context
Keep the original, material edits, contributor correspondence and permission record together. Check the final caption and crop against the customer's actual experience. Identify a relevant incentive or commercial relationship where readers encounter the contribution. Reassess the exact version if it later moves into an ad or another placement.
Use unanswered buyer questions to improve the next invitation.
In this guide
- Asking customers for permission to reuse their contentAsk for permission covering the exact customer content, proposed channels and edits, then keep the answer with the asset.
- Handling customer content featuring other peopleIdentify other people in customer photos and videos, assess the proposed brand use and record a use-specific decision.
- Checking whether an incentivised contribution needs disclosureIdentify a customer-content incentive, assess the actual placement and make the relevant relationship clear to readers.
- Keeping customer submissions separate from commissioned UGCRecord whether content came from a customer, an incentivised review or a commissioned creator, then retain its origin through reuse.
