#user-generated-content

Why UGC Works

Customers want to feel engaged and heard. They want to be entertained and they want to deal with issues quickly. User-generated content engages customers more than brand-generated content. Marketing teams save time, energy and resources and see an increase in ROI.

EMarketer predicted that in 2013, there would be an estimated 155 million user-generated content consumers and 114.5 user-generated content creators. This is a giant spike in numbers from 2008, when there were 116 million user-generated content consumers and 82.5 user-generated content creators. The influential popularity of UGC is only expected to gain momentum in 2014.

Contests & Sweepstakes

For marketers, user-generated content drives marketing campaigns such as a promotional sweepstakes. This marketing technique encourages consumers to snap and upload a photo of themselves or share a story through a Vine video as entry for a contest. A business can target a specific demographic and leverage a social platform to draw in potential customers and nurture those relationships. While your business connects with a demographic, you're also harnessing fan endorsements that boost your marketing efforts.

Endorsements & Promotion

The Content Marketing Institute lauded the Australian Tourist board for its explosive "The Best Job in the World" campaign, which earned $368 million in global media coverage. The Board's contest was worth AUD $1 million and offered a six-month island caretaker's position in an exotic Australian location. The prize included a salary of AUD $150,000.

To enter to win, applicants had to explain why they're right for the job in a one-minute video. The Board's campaign website and YouTube page received more than 34,000 video applications viewed by more than 8.6 million people. The winner gave more than 450 media interviews and enough international media attention to significantly promote Queensland Australian as a top tourist destination.

Fame & Personal Value

A user-generated marketing campaign is mutually beneficial for business marketers and consumers. Applicants are entering for more than a chance to win a prize—they're entering for a chance to get their 15 minutes of fame. A winning photo or video that's shared, regrammed, re-tweeted and liked captures the attention of the digital world. In return, the winner can potentially increase his or her own personal social media following on Instagram or Vine and share their notoriety on Facebook and Twitter.

Even a personal comment or "shout out" from a brand or company can strengthen the B2C relationship. For example, identity theft protection company LifeLock replied to someone who praised the company's services in a tweet. By personalizing your communication and making your fans feel valued, you're naturally increasing your business's marketing efforts and fostering connections.

Tips for User-Generated Marketing Campaigns

Adopt user-generated content marketing tactics for your next campaign with these 7 strategies:

Ask for photo entries that feature one of your products

Participate in the popularity of Vine and Snapchat by requesting video submissions

Collaborate with fans on branded Pinterest boards

Invite fans and entrants to be guest bloggers

Offer incentives for a customer to write a case study or blog post about a product, service or experience

Establish discussion forums

Inspire new ideas internally with fun company competitions that you can share on social platforms

With these tips, you can utilize user-generated content to create a powerful online presence. Your customers will be happier and more invested in your business.

How have video games companies taken advantage of User Generated Content?

            With the success of websites like YouTube, Tumblr, phone apps, and other media that use user-generated-content to prosper, it’s no surprise that video game companies have seen the potential of UGC and have also been incorporating this into their games. Some game companies, in fact, have become successful through UGC for longer than these websites. For example, Second Life, a MMO (massively multiplayer Online game) had successfully implemented this idea of the player creating the world around them to make products and to make the world they live in since 2003. Other game companies like EA Games and LittleBigWorld also have recognized the potential of UGC and have incorporated these concepts into their games.           

            Second Life is an online virtual world created by Linden Labs. Its players mainly run the game, of which there are over 1 million. The players have created almost all of the game’s content. The game is free to sign up for and download, but Linden Labs makes plenty of money. The virtual world they created has it’s own economy, with it’s own form of internal currency called Linden dollars (L$). These Linden dollars can be spent on products/goods/services, all of which are created by the players themselves. Everything is customizable. Players create clothes, cars, futuristic products, realistic products, virtually anything they can imagine. To do this they go to something called a ‘Sandbox’ where they play with shapes, simple polygons called ‘prims’ until they’ve formed a product they’re happy with. They then would need to create packaging for their product and, if they have enough in-game money, buy or rent a spot for a store and then pay for advertising to get the other players to take notice of their store. If they don’t pay to advertise their store then they likely won’t get customers and won’t be ale to pay rent, thus having to close down. It’s very much run like a real world economy.

             There are players of Second Life, of course, who choose not to create their own content or just do not have the skills to. These people are mainly consumers. They pay Linden Labs real money in exchange for in-game Linden dollars. They pay through a credit card and the virtual money gets sent to their account. These consumers then take their newly acquired Linden dollars to a store, run by another player, and spend money on whatever that player had created. For example, I could spend about $2 US dollars and receive around 600L$ in the game. I can then go to a business, say a car company. I can then look through all the player-designed cars and use my virtual money to by my virtual avatar a virtual car. That player could then exchange his virtual lindens for real life money. And example of this is the story of a woman who ran a real estate company in this virtual world, buying a large plot of virtual land then breaking it up into plots of land and renting it out to other players. She exchanged all her in-game Linden Dollars for real life currency and became a millionaire. According to figures published by Linden Lab, about 64,000 users made a profit in Second Life in February of 2009. Second Life was opened up in 2003, and by 2006 had a GDP of $64 million. By 2009 the economy of Second Life had grown 65% to US $567 million, which is 25% of the entire US virtual goods market.

            Although players create their own companies and business that produce their own in-game products (and I have looked around Second Life and there are even well-known virtual ‘brands’) real world businesses and companies are beginning to see the potential of this virtual world. Scion, a real-world car company, has created a virtual version of their company, creating and selling virtual versions of their cars. There are also copycat companies created by users. An example of this is the very popular virtual clothing store ‘Armidi.’ Almost everyone in game knows of the fake ‘Armidi’ brand, a play-off on the real-world equivalent of Armani. It’s considered a virtual ‘luxury’ brand as the owner creates high quality, realistic clothing and spends a decent amount of money advertising his store.

            Second Life is a very good example of the game industry using User Generated Content to their advantage. Today games are being created with a very clear option to implement UGC. For example, The Sims 3, created by EA Games, allows its players to create ‘mods,’ short for modifications, and share them with each other online. Mods can vary from player-created objects, to clothes designs, to houses… and these can all be shared and downloaded by other players via the EA Games ‘Sims Exchange’ website. Another game, like Little Big Planet created by Media Molecule in 2007, is based on the concept of user-generated content. This game allows players to create their own levels, customize their characters, and design their own objects for use in game. Most of it’s popularity stems from the fact that players can do virtually whatever they want and make the game ‘theirs’ through their own creations, making it the game anything they want it to be. Due to its popularity, Little Big Planet has since launched an online, multiplayer version akin to Sims Exchange where people can interact and share their products/services with other players.