Revolutionizing Digital Marketing Through User Generated Content

Technological advancements have made user-generated content both compelling and high-quality. GoPro proves that a tiny camera, in the hands of the right people, can create captivating content that will gain an audience no matter where it is used: social media marketing, digital advertising, or television programming.

GoPro is just one high-profile example of this fast-growing trend. Fashion retailers and consumer-packaged goods companies are harnessing Instagram photos, Vine videos, and other forms of consumer content to spread their brand message on television, in online ads, and in marketing material.

User Generated Content (UGC) is the next marketing and advertising frontier for brands. Its wide acceptance is due to the fact that it is both powerful and affordable. But most of all, it is relatable in a way that polished, directed, and scripted advertising is not.

For the brands that are spending big advertising budgets, the ascendance of GoPro is also a reminder of an evolution in marketing that they must adapt to: the attainable and largely untapped marketing and advertising potential of user-generated content.

Brands inspire UGC by deploying purpose driven campaigns while actively engaging with consumers. Consumers need to understand why they are collecting the UGC and how it will be used. What many brands struggle to realize is that the purpose must be bi-directional. Not only must there be a purpose behind collecting UGC, the users / creators must also feel connected enough to the purpose and brand to want to create it in the first place. Brands that combine purpose and engagement not only inspire consumers to create UGC, they also turn them into fans.