A UGC and founder-content system for clinics that hate being on camera

Every clinic knows the founder or the lead surgeon needs to be on camera. Almost none have a system that produces the footage. It becomes a monthly guilt tax, one Loom, one rushed reel, and then back to stock B-roll for another six weeks.

Six new concepts every two weeks is not a talent problem. It is a production system. Here is the one we run.

Why the founder specifically

For a service where trust is the entire purchase, the founder or lead surgeon is the most persuasive asset the clinic owns. A polished actor with a script tests worse than a slightly awkward surgeon answering a real patient question. Every time. Across every market we run.

The instinct to "get proper video" is wrong. The instinct to film on an iPhone in the consultation room is right.

The monthly filming day

One day a month. Blocked out on the surgeon's calendar 90 days in advance so it does not get moved.

The kit that works:

• iPhone 15 or newer, mounted on a small tripod at eye height, 4K at 30fps.
• One clip-on lav mic. Do not rely on the phone's onboard mic. It is the single biggest quality difference.
• Ring light or window light, either works. Consistent, not fancy.
• The consultation room, not a studio. The setting is the credibility.

Four hours produces enough raw footage for eight weeks of ads. The whole cost is one afternoon and £300 of kit that lives on a shelf.

The prompt list

The founder does not need a script. The founder needs a list of 30 to 40 real patient questions, printed on paper, sitting next to the camera.

Categories that consistently produce winners:

• Objections. "Will it look natural?" "Can I fly home the next day?" "What if I'm too far along?"
• Process. "What does day one look like?" "How long do I need off work?" "What can't I do for the first month?"
• Comparisons, without naming names. "Why does the price vary so much between clinics?" "What should I ask any surgeon before I book?"
• Regret and reassurance. "What's the most common thing patients tell you six months in?" "What's the one thing you wish patients knew before they booked?"

Answer each in 30 to 60 seconds. One question per clip. Do not restart if you fumble a word. Fumbles test better than perfect takes.

The editor brief that produces six concepts, not one

Hand the raw footage to an editor with this brief:

1. Cut six variants per question. Same footage, six different hooks, six different first three seconds. Same body, same call to action.
2. Burned-in captions, always. Style-matched to the brand, not the platform default.
3. Two aspect ratios per cut. 9:16 for Reels and Stories, 4:5 for Feed. Never 1:1.
4. A B-roll cutaway every 8 to 12 seconds. From a shared clinic library, not stock.
5. No music unless the clip is under 15 seconds and the founder is silent. Music behind spoken content tests worse.

One filming day + one editor = six concepts per question × 30 questions = a rotation deep enough to feed a Meta account for a year.

Captions and hooks that carry the click

The caption is the second creative, not an afterthought.

• Line one is the hook, always a question or a pattern interrupt. "Most Norwood 4 patients ask us this on day one."
• Line two is the specific claim. One number, one outcome.
• Line three is the ask. One CTA, one link, no emoji ladders.

Three lines. Under 40 words. If the caption needs a "read more" cut, it is doing too much.

What we ignore

• Studio-style shoots. Slower to produce, worse conversion, higher cost.
• Stock B-roll. Every clinic has the same three drone shots of a city skyline. It reads as filler.
• Long-form YouTube for paid ads. Different audience, different intent, different platform behaviour. Fine as an organic channel. Do not cut it down and run it on Meta.
• AI voiceovers on a founder's face. Patients spot it in one clip. The trust cost is not worth the time saved.

The number that matters

Concepts shipped per two-week cycle, and hook-rate on those concepts, measured in the first 72 hours.

If the number is below six per cycle, the bottleneck is production, not creativity. Fix the filming day, not the brief.