Recently, I’ve been highlighting a slew of user-generated content campaigns from marquee brands.
One of the most notable is the new campaign for “The Peanuts Movie,” which is slated for release November 6. Film studio 20th Century Fox Animation created a character-generator platform—which is even available through mobile—to jump-start excitement over the upcoming release of the new Peanuts movie. Users are creating fun Peanut versions of themselves, family, and co-workers—and then sharing them on social media.
Yet another great example is centered on Universal Studios biopic “Straight Outta Compton,” which sparked a viral sensation with its Straight Outta Somewhere meme generator from Apple and Beats. Even storied brand Western Union got into the UGC game; its marketers launched WU Home Cooked, a fun microsite that captures the strong longing for home and the pleasant memories of native food. Fueled by hashtag #WUHomeCooked, the site features a social media collective of recipes and pictures of customers’ favorite dishes from their native countries. And of course, there’s the perennial “Share a Coke” campaign that’s fueled by hashtag #ShareaCoke.
The list goes on.
The moral of the story is this: consumers make stellar marketers. Shoppers make a brand’s content more personal and relevant. Here, 10 stats that might persuade you to consider infusing user-generated content into your own marketing strategies.
1. Fifty-nine percent of millennials say they use UGC to inform their purchase decisions about major electronics. That’s followed by cars (54%), major appliances (53%), mobile phones (46%), hotels (45%), and travel plans (40%). (Crowdtap)
2. Eighty-six percent of businesses use content marketing; of those, 70% are creating more content than they did a year ago. (Content Marketing Institute)
3. Seventy percent of consumers place peer recommendations and reviews above professionally written content. (Reevo)
4. Web content increasingly is dominated by user-generated content as Pinterest pin creation is up 75%, Twitch video broadcasts are up 83%, Wattpad stories are up 140%, and Airbnb reviews are up 140% year-over-year. (Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers)
5. Sixty-five percent of social media users from ages 18 to 24 consider information that’s shared on social networks when making a purchasing decision. (eMarketer)
6. Consumers who are between the ages of 25 and 54 are the biggest content drivers—contributing 70% of all UGC. (SparkReel)
7. Twenty-five percent of search results for the world’s 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content. (Kissmetrics)
8. Eighty-four percent of millennials report that UGC on company websites has at least some influence on what they buy. (Bazaarvoice)
9. Eighty-six percent of millennials say that user-generated content is generally a good indicator of the quality of a brand or service. (Bazaarvoice)
10. Brand engagements rise by 28% when consumers are exposed to both professional content and user-generated product video. (comScore)
