People always make little communities on the basis of their interests, passions, and work. Now through the emergence of the social media, people are making virtual communities around the world. For connecting with these virtual communities, the millennial brands are using UGC instead of spending a lot on traditional marketing methods. This way of connecting with the millennial is very engaging and costs very little to the marketer.
Following are some of the examples of millennial brands successfully using UGC to conquer the social media world.
1- Spotify’s UGC Campaign
Everyone is familiar with Spotify, the popular music streaming tool where you can make your own playlists. It is been a decade now that Spotify is catering its audiences since it was launched in 2008. However, playlists are not the only thing there is to Spotify.
It has come up with highly successful UGC campaigns in the recent times. After releasing the Thanks, 2016, It’s been weird campaign, it launched another UGC campaign which was very creative and fun.
In this campaign, they described weird user playlists through their billboards and memes. Along with that, there were videos where singers were commenting on playlists having their songs.
For example, Alessia Cara was commenting on a campaign video over “Global warming is real….let’s dance”.
They started with billboards first, but then they went with this campaign across different channels. The playlist titles were interesting enough to be used across different channels like email, digital ads, and direct mail etc.
The importance of user-generated content for Spotify can be gauged by the statement of their chief marketing officer Seth Farbman:
“There has been some debate about whether big data is muting creativity in marketing, but we have turned that on its head. For us, data inspires and gives an insight into the emotion that people are expressing.”
2- Shot on iPhone Campaign
The previous model of Apple before the iPhone was not taking good shots in the dark. This complaint was constantly recurring in the users’ feedbacks. In order to address this issue, Apple started their Shot on iPhone campaign for their new model.
As part of this campaign, they enlisted photographers who took nighttime photos in different places like the volcanoes in Java, Arctic caves, and nightclubs etc. Through this way, Apple wanted to get this point across that their new model takes good shots in the dark.
Apple’s reputation was deteriorating because of their camera limitations. And because of this people were starting to resort to other phones. Therefore, it was necessary for Apple to address this issue.
And they addressed this issue in the most creative way possible. They asked their users to get engaged by taking their photos in order to show that their new model was very good camera-wise. Instead of saying their camera was good, they practically showed it to all the people how their camera is good by engaging their users in this campaign.
3- Netflix’s Gilmore Girls Revival Campaign
Netflix’s revival campaign of the Gilmore Girls was highly effective. They used Snapchat for this campaign in a creative but simple way.
For this campaign, Netflix distributed 10,000 paper coffee cups to different cafes and coffee shops around the US. These cups had a scannable Snapcode which users could unlock and get an exclusive Gilmore Girls Snapchat Filter. Not only that, the fans who came up early at particular locations would also get special promotional cups. In this way, Netflix generated a huge engagement and interest in the relaunch of Gilmore Girls.
Instead of asking, Netflix gave its audience free filters and free merchandise. This way, they increased the user’s engagement.
Why is UGC so successful?
1- Authenticity:
Authenticity is something users prize very much. Therefore, a shaky video sometimes does a far better job than an advertisement for which huge sums of money is spent.
According to a report, 85 percent of people found user-generated content to be more influential than the brand generated content. According to Elite Daily, 43 percent of Millennials consider authenticity to be more important than the content itself. While 62 percent of Millennials said that engaging with them on social networks is likely to make them loyal customers.
With UGC, the users can see how other people are using the same products. And while sleek visuals would be highly professional and good-looking, the people will not be able to relate to that. The people should know that these images are being taken by someone like them and hence be relatable.
2- It is highly cost-effective
Compared to the traditional methods, the user-generated content is highly cost-effective. It is because the content producers are the users here. They are creating the assets for the marketer along with adding their own audiences.
Take the example of the Ice Bucket Challenge which was the most successful UGC campaign of The ALS Association. The campaign was extremely simple and creative. All a user had to do was post a video of someone dumping a bucket of ice water on their heads. Then, the user would challenge his friends to perform the same feat or make a donation to the organization.
This campaign became highly successful in a very short span of time. Through this way, the organization generated over $100 million. In order to get such a roaring success, The ALS Association did not have to spend a huge amount, instead, they made their users do all the work in order to bring attention to their cause.
3- Personal Value
What is really engaging about the UGC is that it is mutually beneficial, both for the users and the marketers. The users are not only engaging for a prize, rather they are engaging because it gives them an opportunity to get their little moment of fame.
A photo or a video that is shared and liked more is a way for a user to increase their own following on the social media. Even replying to someone from using the name of a brand can hugely strengthen the relationship between the company and a user.
In today’s world of virtual communities, the importance of UGC can’t be stressed more for Millenial brands who are always looking for cost-effective ways of marketing.
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