Low res, High Impact; is ‘Unpolished Content’ the answer?

If you’re noticing that your social feeds are full of brand content that looks as if it’s been posted by the slip of a thumb, because it couldn’t possibly have been approved by the marketing manager (unless this happened a few rounds into after-work drinks) then you’re not alone. With seemingly spur-of-the-moment captions and lo-fi visuals fast replacing professionally produced, meticulously scripted outputs, it’s clear that an uncut approach might just be the way forward for brands aiming to make a splash on social media.

The post pandemic years have seen organisations project a more down to earth image, tapping into “perfection fatigue”, a trend which refers to millennial and Gen Z audiences veering away from traditionally edited brand uploads to those that present as if shot by individuals on iPhones. Think sped up footage of at-home meal prep replacing slick recipe demos, and conversations with makeshift microphones overshadowing curated interviews, to name a couple of popular examples.

Unpolished content promotes an authentic approach to social media marketing. This style arose predominantly during the Covid-19 lockdowns, which resulted in influencers and brands adjusting the subjects and quality of their uploads due to various social restrictions. TikTok also gained prevalence around this time as a platform prioritising speed over quality, introducing users to short-form clips that are rapid and reactive as opposed to edited and scheduled.

A 2022 study conducted by Meta found a strong corelation between unpolished video and greater audience results across technology, retail, restaurants and e-commerce. Campaigns with lower production cost behind them drove much stronger ad recall than high-cost campaigns. This learning highlights the lack of correlation between production quality and consumer impact, demonstrating that the success of a campaign is ultimately down to the connection built with the viewer through the content.

Embracing an unpolished style is particularly beneficial to businesses targeting a Gen Z audience, for whom authenticity, relatability and transparency are key purchase drivers. Below are three features many are adopting with a view to ‘roughening up’ their styles to stay relevant.

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1.????Platform-Native Features

One way that many brands are increasing the relatability of their content is by using platform-native features, which include emojis, polls, gifs and music, as well as replacing brand fonts with in-app options. Doing so adds a human element to a brand’s social media presence, increasing interactivity due to the content being more familiar and comfortable to a social-first audience.

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2.????iPhone Uploads

Content that can be captured quickly and continuously allows brands to build genuine relationships with their audiences.?Whilst stripping down the filming and editing process to achieve this has become common practice, we are also beginning to see large organisations handing autonomy of their ‘behind the scenes’ social content to employees who deal directly with customers and products. Two great examples of this are Superdrug and Waitrose, with a number of their regional TikTok accounts run entirely by store staff. Not only does giving these staff creative freedom allow brands to play to algorithms by responding rapidly to daily trends, but it also provides a glimpse into company cultures, tapping into Gen Z’s desire for transparency.

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3.???UGC

User generated content (UGC) refers to content created by social media users featuring a brand. This content is either produced organically or by means of paying individuals to provide content for usage on brand channels. UGC content depicts products/services being used in real life scenarios and presents as more relatable due to being based on experiences of individuals as opposed to those that are brand-formulated. Glossier was one of the brands to pioneer UGC on its social media channels, forfeiting some of its brand aesthetic in favour of affiliating ‘real’ people with its products. This strategy quickly became part of Glossier’s DNA, leading it to disrupt a cosmetics industry notorious for overuse of airbrushed model imagery.

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Whilst professionally shot and edited material will always play a key role in traditional marketing (blurry billboards, anyone?), it is clear that more organisations are embracing an unpolished approach in order to stay relevant in the current social landscape. This is vital in allowing them to connect with their demographics in ways that present as more human-to-human rather than brand-to-human, increasing their competitiveness in an environment where relatability can often win sales.