"We need some UGC" is a request, not a brief. The handful of formats that fall under that umbrella are built to do different jobs, and picking the wrong one for the goal is a common reason content underperforms even when the creator and product are both good.
Testimonial / review
A creator giving a direct opinion, usually to camera, about their experience with the product. This is the format for building trust with someone who is already close to a decision. It works because it looks like a recommendation, not a pitch. It's a weak choice for cold awareness, where the audience doesn't yet know why they'd care about the category at all.
Demo
Showing the product doing the thing it does. Best for products where seeing it work answers the main objection a buyer has, fit, texture, how something is used, how fast a result shows up. A demo with no personality or point of view reads as an ad, so the best ones still carry some of the creator's own reaction while showing the thing.
Storytime
A creator narrating a problem and how the product fit into solving it, usually with a longer runtime and a slower build. This format earns attention rather than grabbing it in the first second, so it works best distributed to an audience that will actually sit through a slower open, an engaged organic following, a retargeting audience, rather than a cold paid placement competing for a scroll.
Unboxing / first impression
Reaction in the moment of receiving or trying something for the first time. This leans on genuine surprise or delight, which is hard to fake and easy to spot when it's forced. It's a good format for products with a strong physical or sensory first moment. It's a poor fit for products whose value only becomes clear after repeated use.
POV / day-in-life
The product shown inside an ordinary moment rather than as the subject of the video. This is the format most likely to be mistaken for a real, unpaid post, which is both its strength and the reason it needs the lightest touch in the brief. Over-direct it and the format collapses, because the entire appeal is that it doesn't look directed.
Picking one
The question that actually decides the format isn't "what looks good" but "what does this specific audience, at this specific point in their decision, need to see." A cold audience usually needs a demo or a POV moment. A warm audience considering a purchase usually responds better to a testimonial. An engaged, existing audience will sit through a storytime that a cold one would scroll past in a second. Matching the format to where the viewer actually is does more for performance than any amount of extra polish on the wrong format.