Seeding versus a paid booking
Product seeding is a volume tactic: you ship product to a researched list of creators, ask for nothing binding in return, and accept that only a fraction will post. Because there is no contract and no fee, you also give up control of the script, the timing, the format and the rights. The number that matters is not how many units went out but how many posts came back that you can actually use.
The nearest neighbour is influencer gifting, which describes the same exchange one relationship at a time. Seeding is the programmatic version: a target list, a shipping cadence, tracking, and a hit rate you try to improve. Add a required deliverable and a deadline and it stops being seeding, becoming a brand deal whether or not cash is involved.
Running a program that returns content
Targeting separates a program from a giveaway. Pick creators who already film your category, whose audience plausibly buys at your price point, and whose feed shows they post about things they receive. Fifty units to a scraped list of handles produces silence; twenty to a researched list usually produces something. Sourcing quality, not shipping volume, is the lever here.
Make posting easy rather than mandatory. Include the product, two or three angles that tend to land, the handle and tag to use, and a plain line saying they are free to be honest. Tell them how to mark the item as a gift, since free product counts as a material connection under most disclosure rules and that duty does not disappear because no money moved.
Deciding whether seeding pays
Track three numbers: units shipped, posts produced, and posts good enough to license or put behind budget. The third is the one that justifies the program, because a seeded post you can turn into a UGC ad is worth far more than a story view. Always go back and ask for written permission to reuse, since the gift did not buy you rights.
Then compare honestly. Fifty units at cost of goods plus shipping, against the same money spent on a handful of briefed paid videos, is a real decision, and the answer changes by category. High margin, visually interesting, impulse priced products seed well, which is why beauty creators get so much unsolicited product. Complex or expensive products usually need a briefed shoot instead.
How it's used
October seeding list is thirty creators across home and pets. No fee, no deliverable, we just want to see who posts. Anything usable we go back and license properly.
Line in the seeding insert: no obligation to post, but if you do, tag us and mark it as a gift. Want a paid brief instead? Reply to this email.