UGC - Dead Or Alive ?!

Hello there and welcome back for another bite to chew on.

This week we’re talking about UGC.

Is it dead?

Is it still alive?

Are consumers finally starting to see through the fake creators who are “ObSeSsEd” with every brand on the internet?

Let’s dive into it!

Is it really dead or is it just something people on Twitter are saying?

The short answer is no - it’s not dead.

It’s very much alive and thriving

But…

Very few brands have ever had access to REAL UGC.

Like - real customers who talk about their real pain points and how your product solved their real problems.

“Soooo what is it that my UGC agency has been selling me?!” - You might ask. Rightfully so

Chances are that they’ve probably sold you what I call “Actor-Generated-Content” or AGC.

Because… it’s not real users, right?

It’s simply bad actors that couldn’t get into Hollywood, so they started a career as a UGC creator (Although there are some very talented creators out there, there is also a lot of garbage)

Now, back to the question - is UGC dead? Hell no!

Is AGC dead? Yup - it’s over.

3 Reasons Why AGC Is Dead (And Why You Should Invest In Authenticity Instead)

We can’t write about UGC and AGC without having a well-loved and well-overused “3 reasons” section.

So here it is

1) Consumers have started to see through the fakeness

Authenticity wins over fakeness every day of the week - but sometimes, it takes some time before consumers can tell the difference. The reason why AGC worked in the first place is because it looks native to the platform, and it can look authentic. But now it just stands out like a sore thumb and consumers can see through the fakeness instantly.

2) Everybody is copying each other and using the same hooks, intros, and creators

Differentiation is not a choice. It’s a necessity.

This goes for video ads too. Once everybody started to make videos that began with “3 reasons why”, “This product is a game-changer”, and “I’m obsessed”, - it started losing its value. Fast!

3) UGC started to become a volume game rather than a quality, authenticity, and creativity game

Truth be told - we’re part of this problem too. We thought we just needed as many creatives as possible to scale.

… but the problem is that - once it becomes a volume game, the quality starts to go down, the authenticity of the videos starts to go down, and the creativity becomes more or less non-existent because you’re trying to optimize for efficiency

This makes the creative format less efficient because consumers start to ignore these types of videos.

“Gimme the actionable piece!”

It’s not Chew On This if we don’t give you a few actionable tips that you can go out and implement today - so here you have it.

First of all, let’s state the problem we’re trying to solve: Getting more authentic and REAL UGC from actual users.

There are a few ways we can do that:

1) Ask your most loyal customers if they want to hop on a Zoom call with you, where you can interview them about their experience.

=> Incentivize them with a $100 Amazon Gift Card and get permission to use parts of the interview for advertisement

=> Record the interview and get your video editor to chop it up and make ads from it + mix and match it with other footage / B-Rolls

=> Turn the same loyal customers into “UGC Soldiers” who you can always send free products to, and ask for their honest opinion about it (on a video call)

2) Run a competition to your email list, where you incentivize people to send you a video where they talk about their honest opinion of your product

This is also quite simple.

The key takeaway, though is that you need to think about two things in order to actually receive content from your customers.

=> You’ll need to incentivize them properly. Similar to how you can’t get an AGC creator to shoot videos for you for free, don’t expect that your actual customer will either

=> The process needs to be as efficient and smooth as humanly possible. If there’s too much friction involved - nobody will do it

If you need inspiration, check how DuraDry is doing it here

3) Ask your community 

Having a community you can tap into for everything from R&D to Content is one of the biggest cheat codes for the DTC brand.

So - if you have a community, then tap into that.

If you don’t - you better start building it.

TL;DR

If you scrolled down to the bottom to get the TL;DR - here it is:

1) REAL UGC is not dead, but fake actor-generated content is

2) Authenticity wins every day of the week

3) If you’re still spending thousands and thousands on fake AGC - and not investing equally as much or more on getting actual UGC from customers - you’re NGMI