When you think of UGC, you tend to think of forced smiles and lots of 'I-would-totally-recommend-this-product' videos. But that's exactly what UGC is not. More often than not, companies are trying to jump on the UGC band-waggon by missing its key component- authenticity. It's the only thing you really need to create a successful marketing campaign, yet so many miss the mark.
This is because, whilst it recognises the importance of user testimonials, paid actors are employed to do the job for them. It is actually less hassle and a lot more valuable to let your community speak freely.
Who can benefit
So, who can benefit from UGC? Yes, we see a mass of it used in the beauty industry in the form of reviews and pictures, but does it become useless elsewhere? The truth is, UGC is valuable anywhere where a product or service is being sold, which doesn't narrow down the ball park of who can collect and display it. If 93% of consumers trust content created by consumers rather than the brand, a community (whoever it belongs to) can help sell anything.
Variety
For example, Stitcht have worked with a variety of clients from so many different sectors. Take our involvement in the fasting community, with BodyFast and Fastic. With them, we helped collect real stories and transformations from people within the community to prove how well fasting works and consolidate the app. UGC in this case injects reality and therefore trustworthiness that real people use the service and recommend it. With 93% believing this type of content, how could it not benefit the brand?
Then take our involvement with Flora; they used our platform to collect kitchen trick shot videos. In this case, they used Stitcht to host a competition for their new 'Be a Natural' campaign, gaining over 24 videos in one week of our partnership to use in advertisement campaigns supporting how great it is to hone in on our natural talents.
Conclusion
There are many more examples to be made here from previous clients that we have worked with, and even those we haven't yet worked with. UGC can be used in any industry, not just in the ones you may think, to help strengthen the brand and marketing message.