The message, and what happens after it
Send a short, specific message that names one product by name, says what you would make with it and roughly when, and links to one piece of relevant work. Five lines by email to a named person beats a long direct message to an inbox nobody reads. Then plan for the silence: it is the ordinary outcome, one follow-up is enough, and keeping a list of who you contacted is worth more than rewriting the message a fourth time. Choosing which brands to approach is a separate job, and it is covered on /for-creators/brands-that-gift-canada.
Assume you already have a short list of brands whose product you would buy anyway, because choosing them well is its own piece of work and /for-creators/brands-that-gift-canada covers it.
What matters here is what you do with the list. Pick the specific item, by name, before you start typing. "I would love to try your products" reads as a request for a parcel. "I would like to make three clips with the 200 mL everyday cleanser" reads as somebody who has already pictured the shot, knows the size of the bottle, and can be imagined holding it. Brands receive both versions every week and can tell them apart in a second.
The person reading is usually a founder or a one-person marketing team going through an inbox on a phone between two other jobs. Length works against you. A pitch that gets a reply tends to contain five things and nothing else.
"Hi Dana, I am Priya, a food creator in Halifax. I would like to make three vertical clips and five photos with your maple chili sauce, shot in a home kitchen, delivered within two weeks of the parcel arriving. Recent work is at this link. Would you be open to sending one bottle for a gifted collaboration?"
That is the whole message: a person, a place, a product, a deliverable, a window and a question. Notice what is missing. It does not promise a result, because you do not control one. It does not ask the brand to design the collaboration, which is the work most pitches quietly hand back. And it can be answered in a single word, which is the only way a busy inbox answers anything.
Email wins for anything involving a shipment. It survives longer than a direct message, it can be forwarded to whoever packs the parcels, and it does not sit in a filtered request folder for three weeks because the brand does not follow you. Look for the address on the contact page or the shipping policy, and use the founder's first name if it is published.
Instagram DMs still work for small brands where the founder obviously runs the account. TikTok comments almost never do, and commenting "DM sent" under a post is the quickest way to be read as a mass sender. Send once, to one address, at a sensible hour in the brand's time zone, and then leave it alone.
Most rejected pitches are not judged on merit at all. They trip one of a short list of signals that mark a message as untargeted, and the reader stops there.
Silence is a possible outcome, and there is no honest universal reply-rate benchmark for your list, offer and category. Treat every unanswered message as no result rather than evidence that a fourth rewrite will work.
Follow up once, about a week later, in the original thread, in two lines. Then stop. Keep a plain list of brand, date, product and outcome. We are not going to tell you that a later approach performs better, because we have not measured that. The reason to keep the list is duller and more reliable: in six or eight months, when your samples are better, it is the only record of who is worth approaching again.
Ad Standards says a material connection between an influencer and a brand should be disclosed clearly, prominently and close to the representation. Its current guidance specifically covers gifted products. Use a disclosure a viewer can notice and understand before relying on this page for a specific campaign. This is general information rather than legal advice, and regulated categories or large agreements deserve qualified advice.
Put the disclosure requirement in the written terms before accepting a parcel, so the creator and brand are working from the same instruction. The primary guidance used for this section is linked below.
Direct outreach and joining a creator roster are different actions. Outreach lets you choose the brand and product but gives you no reply guarantee. A roster lets a future brief find you, but registration is not a job, a queue position or a promise of volume.
Use both only when their terms fit you. Keep your own portfolio current, record what you agreed to deliver, and read each offer before accepting it. Never stop direct work because a form says your application was received.
Useful before you approve
Use the form. A message sent around a form is usually redirected back to it, which costs you a week and starts you off as someone who did not read the site. Fill it in with the same specifics you would have emailed, name the exact product, and only write separately if the form has sat unanswered for a few weeks.
Two lines in the original thread, roughly a week later: a reminder of what you offered, and a question about whether it is something they would like this quarter. No new pitch, no guilt, no third message. If it stays quiet, note the date and move on.
Not for a first gifted pitch. A link to three to five sample clips does more work than a deck, and a deck attached to a cold email is often the reason the email is not read at all. Build a one-pager later, once you have collaborations to show: who you are, what you shoot, the formats you deliver, your turnaround, and rates only if you charge them.
Send one polite note in the same thread asking whether it is still going ahead, and do not start shooting before the product is in your hands. Approvals stall for ordinary reasons such as stock or a delayed launch. Any replacement, remedy or new date depends on the written terms accepted for that collaboration.
No. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, a blog post and a newsletter in one message reads as padding, and it makes the deliverable impossible to approve or price. Offer the one or two formats you are genuinely good at, do those well, and let the brand ask for the rest.
Primary source
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