What is UGC?
User generated content is any forms of content that has been posted by online users. It is a product consumers create to disseminate information about online products or the firms that market them. User generated content can be largely seemed on social media such as Instagram, Facebook, little red book etc. User-generated content has a dual character that is a form of participatory creativity and at the same time a significant cost-effective means of generating free content by brands.
UGC’s role in Digital Economy
Digital economy is the economic activities based on Internet, resulting from billions of everyday online connections among people, businesses, devices, data, and processes. Digital economy and Web2.0 enable the emergence of collective intelligence since there’s growing interconnection between individuals, organisations and machines that results from Internet and advanced mobile technology. The digital economy is taking shape and resturing traditional notions about how businesses are structured; how firms interact; and how consumers obtain services, information, and goods.
Compared to Web1.0, Web 2.0 allows greater collaboration among Internet users. Media users can not only passively receive information but can also be information senders and actively produce their own things, enabling democratic which is known as “user generated content”. According to Freedman (2016), Web2.0 opened new market opportunities for start-up companies and give more control to customers to speak up for themselves. UGC contents is where customers can take up their rights to produce information and interact with business.
Case study: Hey tea whole-body portrait
HEYTEA is one of the most popular milk tea brands among the young in China, which is famous for its modern interior design and innovative drinks. During Chinese National Festival, HEYTEA published an activity on little red book, looking for UGC creators to produce their own designs for HEYTEA’s logo, and possibly being applied as brand’s official logo. The participation rule is to tag #HEYTEA whole body portrait via weibo or little red book and @HEYTEA official. To increase participations and praise participators, the winner of the competition can have the reward of 9999RMB and have free drinks vouchers. In this case, brand itself, creators of UGC and consumers of the brand’s products can all benefit from the content producing activities.
Brand
Promoting UGC content is a low-cost effective way to increase brand awareness and enhance brand loyalty. In this case, HEYTEA can increase brand exposure rate，make more media users seem the brand and therefore stimulate brand’s sales. Furthermore, it can renew brand’s logo, and build up a younger brand image. In addition, this “Co-branded with HEYTEA”activity can give customers the idea that the brand is contribute to innovation and praise original creativity all the time, connecting arts and drinking tea together. The theme of this activity is “drawing the situation that you are drinking HEYTEA”, aiming to make “drinking HEYTEA” a lifestyle and get closer to customers.
Creators of UGC
UGC creators can benefit from the activity as well, including gaining exposure of the posts and receive benefits from brands and media platforms. Taking part to large encouraged online activity can receive flow support from media platforms and increase click through rate. Also, if the UGC content have significant view, the creator can receive rewards from both brand and media platform.
Consumers of the brand’s products
Consumers can be the UGC creators at the same time, participating in branding competition can increase customers sense of engagement and increase brand loyalty. In this case, customers can have better usage experience and brand recognition.
Who is the winner?
Brands are the biggest beneficiaries of all UGC activities and UGC creation activities are ultimately a way for brands to achieve high returns at low cost. Compared to the high investment in advertising expenses for consumers to passively accept the input of brand value, holding UGC activities allows consumers to actively participate in building brand value in a low-cost manner. In this activity, consumers can give full play to their subjective initiative to improve the brand identity, and also promote the brand in media platform directly.