Mele’s Musings

Is User Generated Content Dead?

I bet many of you recall hearing the following at meetings and conferences over the past few years: You don’t own your brand.  Your customer does.

Really?  If you’re like me, this sentiment always felt a little like over-zealous clap-trap.

I think it’s time to admit that this epiphanic belief that was all the rage a few years ago has run its course.  Of course you own your brand. The customer just gets to call BS on you.

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There is a huge difference between saying that the consumer owns your brand versus that your brand is a promise made to your customers that you must fulfill or get punished for - a relationship that you are creating between what your company does and the people it serves.  Customers no more own your brand than your friends and family own your personality.  You are who you are based on what you do - on the actions you take and the character you show.  Same with your brand.  If you talk one way and act another, there are repercussions.

So, the emergence of social media has not changed this relationship or reality.  All it has done is made it obvious when there is a distance between what a brand says it is and what that brand actually does.  What a brand does - how it treats its customers, its employees, the community it operates in, and the care with which it creates its products and services - is what the brand is.  When a brand says it is one thing but acts differently, consumers now have the voice to call it out.  But that doesn’t mean that they are in charge.

Which brings me to UGC - or User Generated Content.  Because there was this belief that consumers were in charge, it only seemed to follow that we should give them the reins when it comes to advertising.  Afterall, if brands are no longer in charge, then professional advertisers are no longer necessary.

A recent Advertising Age article by Rich Thomaselli really outlines nicely the issue with UGC.  The truth is that consumers are not in the advertising business, most of them don’t want to be, and those few who want to be are probably not in it for good reason.  Consider the time and energy that it takes to create an ad.  Who has the time or energy to do such things if they are not professionals or aspiring professionals, or people with too much time on their hands? 

I am not saying that the only creative people are those already in the business, far from it. But I am saying that it is very hard to ask people to put a ton of time and energy into something and expect high quality when the payout is limited or likely to be nil.

For this reason, most UGC is just not good, and the UGC that is often good is made by people who have the time, talent, equipment, and passion to make it good.  And I do think passion is key in this regard.  You will get people to put together good work for something they care deeply about, but most of the time that is not a brand but rather some cause - which a brand may be associated with. 

I don’t think UGC is dead, but I do think it needs to be very carefully considered.  In order to make it work, you have to be willing to deal with the following:

• You are going to get a lot of crap.  Sorry, but the truth is that bad stuff will outweigh good stuff by a large margin, and you must have system by which you can review content before it gets submitted. 
• You probably won’t get a lot of submissions.  This is highly dependent on what you are requiring from submitters, but if you are looking for a video submission, it is highly unlikely that you will receive submissions in the thousands - you should feel lucky if you get several hundred.  And then you can refer back to the first point above.
• Find a passion point.  It is vital that you find something highly engaging for users to respond to.  Health, the environment, charitable causes, sports, etc. will get you submissions.  A highly loyal and committed user base will get you good submissions.  Condiments, not so much.  Contests will also get you submissions, but the contest prize and purpose needs to be closely tied to the brand and promotion.
• Make it easy to submit.  The more tools and content you give consumers to work with, and the easier it is for them to download, upload, tweak, and mash, the more submissions you will get.  That doesn’t mean they will necessarily be better, but the odds that things will be on brand and on message will likely be higher.

I also really like what the AdAge article says about consumer content in general.  Perhaps instead of worrying about consumers creating ads, we should be more focused on listening to what they have to say and responding to that.  Maybe that is a better reaction to the idea that a consumers own brands (which they don’t) than expecting them to all of a suddent take over the marketing.

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