User-Generated Content: Redefining Branding in the Digital Era
User Generated Content (UGC) sounds like another trendy marketing phrase that will be here today, gone tomorrow.
Make no mistake, it’s not.
UGC is no passing fad, and it’s not a term some over-achieving account manager made up to add a little weight to their PowerPoint presentation.
In fact, it’s as important to marketing and branding today as TV and outdoor was in its heyday. Perhaps even more so.
But before we explain the nitty gritty of where User Generated Content is going, and how it will impact every arm of branding and marketing, let’s take a look at what it is and where it came from.
The Birth of Adoption of UGC
You can go back to the mid 19th century…
for UGC’s origins. Richard Chenevix Trench of the London Philological Society asked for help from people around the world to create the first Oxford English Dictionary.
Since that time, whenever the public has sent letters to the editor, or footage to America’s Funniest Home Videos, it has been actively participating in UGC.
Modern user-generated video content came from electronic bulletin boards in the late 1990’s, and content requests from news stations in the mid 2000’s. What’s more, in 2006 UGC was featured in Time magazine’s “person of the year” edition. So it has been on the radar for quite some time, even if it had not been widely adopted at that point.
But something massive happened to the tech world in 2007. Something that would not only change the way we all communicate with each other, but would fundamentally change our daily lives.
It was historic. It was a game-changer. It was, of course, the launch of Apples’s first iPhone.
The landscape changed almost overnight.
Now the public had a high-quality camera, video camera, voice recorder, phone, and hundreds of other content-creation tools in the palm of their hand.
This was the turning point, and brands quickly realized that they could tap their fans and ambassadors for original, authentic content.
Just a few years later, brands were starting to see the power, and the viral possibilities of UGC. In 2009, Burberry reached out to its many fans requesting photos of themselves in their iconic raincoat. Fans were more than happy to provide these shots; after all, it meant being featured on Burberry’s site, and that comes with some extreme bragging rights.
And for Burberry, the results were huge. Their Facebook subscriber base grew to over 1 million fans, the largest ever fanbase in the luxury sector at that time.
Burberry- Art of the trench 2009
In 2015, UGC powered the incredible success of the Ice Bucket Challenge for the ALS Association. If you don’t know it, well, feel free to return to planet Earth soon. It was everywhere. In just two and a half months, over 1.2 million videos were shared on Facebook, with 2.2 million mentions hitting Twitter in under three weeks!
This is the power of UGC. And it is only going to get stronger and stronger over time.
Why is User Generated Content Growing in Popularity?
One word. Authenticity.
In fact, AdWeek found that over 85% of users find UGC more influential than content created by the brand itself. That’s hardly surprising. The consumers of today, and millennials in particular, are seeking genuine experiences from life. They want hand-crafted food with whole ingredients. They want to take the path less travelled, not the obvious tourist attractions. And they want stories from real people with real emotions, not something manufactured in an agency by a crew of professionals studying demographics and key insights.
UGC fulfills that desire.
LAUGHING CHEWBACCA MASK LADY
When you look at what people are sharing, and what they care about, it’s genuine reactions. Remember “Chewbacca Mom?” It was a silly video of an everyday woman cracking up over a $40 Star Wars mask. What made it go viral was authenticity.
Compare that with the infamous Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad. Millions of dollars spent on the production. Millions more on the media buy. But the fake sentiment and tone-deaf messaging resulted in the ad being pulled and Pepsi going into panic PR mode.
As Technology Makes Great Strides, UGC Will Explode
In the 80’s and 90’s, movies that imagined our…
future like “Back To The Future Part II” and “Blade Runner,” predicted a world consumed by mechanical marvels. Flying cars. Hoverboards. Sentient robots. In most cases, they were way off. They did not imagine the digital revolution that made the world a lot smaller, and information way more accessible.
It’s mind boggling to think that in just 10 years from now, technological advances will make today’s video games and computers look archaic. And we’re already seeing a glimpse of that with 5G, which is promising speeds hundreds of times faster than 4G. Just imagine what could be achieved when you go from 150Mbps to 100Gbps. For example, a full length movie that takes 7 minutes to download on 4G will take just 6 seconds on 5G. PC Magazine estimates that 5G speed will save the average consumer over 24 hours in downloading time every month.
5G will have a huge impact on how anyone with a smartphone captures and shares high-quality video footage. Network throttling will be a thing of the past. Seeing the spinning wheel take forever to buffer content, that will be a distant memory. And as such, UGC video footage will not only be available instantly, but it will be available in high-quality from multiple users around the world at the same time. With 5G, you get:
• Incredibly fast upload times of high-quality video footage from anywhere in the world.
• Even faster download times of the same HD or 8K content.
• The ability to download multiple files at once that are many gigs in size.
Brands Utilizing UGC Will Rule the Media Space
When you look at all the ways UGC is superior to…
traditional advertising and the future of marketing content, the strategy is obvious. Let’s break down the many advantages, starting with the one that can make or break any campaign. Cost.
UGC IS A LOW-COST SOLUTION
No film crew. No equipment rental. No unions. No sets and locations. No overtime. No actors. No scripts. Everything you associate with a traditional branded video is thrown aside in favor of users with smartphones.
TIME IS NOW ON YOUR SIDE
Creating original video has always been a race against the clock. From planning and storyboarding to booking locations, hiring talent, and incorporating everyone’s feedback, even a relatively simple shoot can fall behind schedule quickly. UGC puts time back on your side. The content isn’t being created by you, in a studio or on location, with dozens of people all chiming in. Each piece of content you request has one creator. Remove the complexity and you remove the time issues. Father time is no longer ruling your shoots.
YOUR REACH IS GLOBAL
Imagine pitching a video campaign that requires shoots in locations as far-reaching as Alaska, Tokyo, Melbourne, London, and Brasilia. Even for a company with very deep pockets, like the aforementioned Apple, Pepsi, or even Amazon, that’s one heck of a price tag to justify. With UGC, location is not an issue. Put out requests for content wherever the fans are, and you’ll get it back as quickly as the network will allow. And with an app like Cinebody, you can ask for specific footage with a shot list, review video in real-time, and request new shots with a direct push to the user. World, meet your brand. Brand, meet the world.
UGC IS A MODEL OF EFFICIENCY
All the layers of complexity with a traditional video or photo shoot are removed. You’re contacting the filmmakers directly, you’re giving feedback directly, and you’re receiving the files directly. All the steps that can make a shoot go off the rails are removed. The whole process is stripped down to only what is required, and that means fewer errors or communication issues, and you’re saving time and money.
IT’S THE MOST SCALABLE SOLUTION AROUND
With UGC, scaling up and down is as easy as sending out requests for content on social media and through emails. By leveraging user-generated content (UGC) on social media, scaling content up or down becomes a seamless process that involves issuing requests for UGC through social media and email. The users provide the equipment, their own time, and their own locations. It’s also scalable between projects. On one campaign you have 50-60 videos coming in, and on another 900-1000. You control the size and scale of the operation, and yet the costs barely move.
UGC will get bigger and more influential. It’s what the people want. It’s budget-friendly. It’s easy to scale. The quality is getting better every day. And with 5G (and then 6G) giving brands almost instant access to huge files, there are no tech constraints.
The future is UGC. Embrace it now, or risk falling behind with no way to catch up.
