By Olga Egorsheva, CEO & Cofounder at Lobster
UGC videos are an integral part of a marketer’s toolkit and pick up 10x more views on YouTube than content created by a brand. But transforming a series of videos into a successful campaign takes more guile than simply flinging a handful of product reviews at your owned media.
Savvy brands are creating campaigns that resonate with their audiences. From Ridley Scott’s interpretation of a single day on Earth, through to Pepsi’s clever use of “Superfans” - here are seven of the best.
GoPro
VIDEO: 16 must-see GoPro videos
You might think that GoPro has it easy, given that thousands of its fans are adrenaline junkies who throw themselves off cliffs on a whim. But actually, it’s battling for space with other energy-fuelled brands such as Red Bull and Monster. GoPro’s success is down to the way that it makes it simple for anyone to get involved. You just tag a video on social media with #GoPro or upload your own freakish stunt directly to its platform. 4.7 million people subscribe to GoPro’s YouTube channel and thousands of videos have been tagged.
Nextel
VIDEO: Nextel - #1minutodecoragem
Brazilian telecoms giant Nextel also opted for an adrenaline rush with its #1minutdecoragem campaign. It brought together UGC video of bungee jumpers and base jumpers around the notion of “if you’re unhappy with something, change it”. #1minutdecoragem translates as one minute of courage and the campaign reached over seven million YouTube viewers.
Pampers
VIDEO: Pampers | Love, Sleep & Play
The marketing team at Pampers turned to UGC to highlight the many different forms of love, sleep and play. The campaign was based on its philosophy of “recognizing the unique and joyful ways each baby delights in their own experiences”. To demonstrate this, it created some emotive branded content by stitching together a range of videos uploaded by parents.
Pepsi
The iconic “Pepsi Challenge” is a blind taste test in which participants are asked whether they prefer the flavour of Pepsi or Coke [spoiler alert - Pepsi always wins]. It began back in 1975 and over the years it’s morphed through various guises. In 2013, it asked its superfans to explain the reasons why Pepsi Max is tastier than Coke.
Vodafone
To help new incumbents to settle in, Vodafone put together a welcome video featuring hundreds of its employees from all over the world. The result is a fresh, energetic and cheerful biopic, which is quite a departure from the usual corporate fare.
Lego
Endorsements from brand evangelists are way more powerful than any form of traditional advertising. In this review by EvanTube, a Lego Tie Fighter is unboxed and built with time lapse photography.
National Geographic
When NatGeo asked its followers to record their activities on a specific day, it received over 80’000 submissions. From the resulting 4’500 hours of footage, producer Ridley Scott and oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald pieced together a touching documentary. Life in a Day still stands out as one of the most epic UGC campaigns of all time.
UGC video can have exceptional results, but often marketers can’t find the time or budget to piece anything together. At Lobster, we’ve made it easy to find and license UGC directly from the creators. So rather than trawling through social media feeds manually, you can quickly find what you need in a single search. Consumers no longer trust brands, but they’re learning to trust each other.
Learn more about UGC and how Artificial Intelligence is facilitating creativity on 13th June at Lobster’s Social Media Week event in Los Angeles. For more info and free tickets, please click here.