Product review

A balanced, reviewer-energy piece to camera: what it does, what it is like, who it is for. Less enthusiastic than a straight UGC ad and more credible for it.

When to use it

For considered purchases where a hard pitch triggers scepticism — electronics, tools, appliances. It also works well against competitors, since the honest-reviewer frame gives you room to make comparisons.

The thing to get right

The register is the whole format. If every line is positive it collapses back into a normal UGC ad, and the credibility that made the format worth choosing is gone.

The format at a glance

• Output — a video ad.
• Structure — 4 beats, each one a separately planned shot.
• Family — Creator & UGC video.
• Recipe id — product_review, which is what you name when you ask for it by hand or from an agent.

Does the review have to say anything negative?

It has to be balanced enough to be believed. If every line is positive it collapses back into an ordinary UGC ad and the credibility you chose it for is gone. Naming who the product is not for usually does the job without costing a sale.

Related formats

Formats built around a person on camera — the talking-head, the unboxing, the try-on, the demo. These are the highest-volume paid-social formats on TikTok, Reels and Shorts, and the ones where realism matters more than polish.

• Podcast clip — a viral podcast-clip ad — two people at a mic'd table mid-conversation, one telling the product story as an authentic sit-down excerpt, captions-forward
• How-to tutorial — a clean step-by-step how-to-use walkthrough — clear, instructional, each step shown in order
• Transformation — a before→after video transformation — space, skin, hair or outfit — with the reveal as the payoff beat
• Virtual try-on — apparel/beauty shown ON the body — a clean try-before-you-buy demonstration (full-body, detail, movement)
• Green-screen reaction — a creator green-screen composited over a full-bleed on-screen element (a review/article/product screenshot) they point at and react to — hook-first talking-head
• Skit / comedy bit — a short acted comedy skit — a relatable scenario with a punchline (the creator may play multiple characters)

The full catalog is on the creative recipes index.

Models that render it

This format is rendered by a video model. The plan picks one unless you name it, and Seedance 2.5 is the default pick. You can ask for another by name, such as Veo 3.1 Lite, Kling 2.6 or Kling 3.0 Turbo. All three render native sound, so a voice comes out of the same take as the picture. The video models page compares every option.

Hermoso plans and renders a product review from your brand rather than from a prompt you write, composites every on-screen word after the render so the copy comes out exact, and exposes the same format to an AI agent over MCP. How Hermoso renders a format covers all three.