Best UGC Campaign Strategy that Not Many Know

User Generated Content (UGC) is still a favorite choice for brands to promote their products. By relying on organic reviews from the audience, brands can get free exposure while building consumer trust.

UGC is content created by consumers, whether in the form of photos, videos, writing or reviews. The brand then reposted the post on its official account as a form of social validation and testimonial from customers.

This strategy is considered cost-effective because brands do not need to spend a large budget on content production. Simply by encouraging your audience to share their experiences, exposure can grow organically.

Even though it looks simple, getting your audience to participate in a UGC campaign is not that easy. In fact, not all UGCcampaigns are completely successful. So, what are the difficulties that often arise in running these campaigns?

UGC campaign That is Cheap & Effective

Many brands consider UGC campaign as a marketing strategy that is cost-effective, but can encourage audiences to participate massively and produce quality content. That way, brands can disseminate content widely without having to spend a fantastic budget on production.

At Media Buffet, we have run this type of campaign for clients several times. One of the successful ones is the #JedagJedugTangguh campaign, which was initiated by Cellos. With a total of 800 pieces of content, audiences are free to get creative using their powerful motorbikes on TikTok.

If you look back, this campaign is actually very simple. With just a pauseg-jedug template on TikTok, the audience is free to be creative in showing off their powerful motorbikes in a unique way. Moreover, TikTok has become the 'headquarters' for many motorbike communities, so it's not surprising that this campaign can be said to be successful.

Your Campaign Failed? Maybe this was the reason

There are several challenges that often arise in UGC campaigns. Firstly, not everyone is interested in creating content for brands, especially if there is no clear incentive. Because of this, many package campaigns in the form of competitions with prizes to encourage audience participation.

Secondly, not all audiences are able to produce content that meets branding standards. As a result, some UGC content can fall far short of brand expectations, even risking damaging their image. Therefore, brands must be prepared to face the possibility of inappropriate content appearing.

Have we ever failed at running a UGC campaign? Of course I have. This happened when we felt difficulties while running the UGC Motor Tangguh campaign.

We try to adapt the concept so that it can be digested more easily by the audience. We made several adjustments in the hope that the audience would be motivated to take part in this campaign. 

What makes this campaign difficult is the concept of making a UGC video with a story about the toughness of the audience's motorbike. Plus, the audience needs to buy oil products which are also quite expensive. From the concept alone, it already sounds heavy.

Strategies For UGC Campaign Run Effectively

In order for the UGC campaign to run effectively, there are several things that brands need to implement. First, the brand must determine a mature and focused concept. This is important to make it easier for interested audiences to participate in the campaign.

To attract more participants, targeting a specific community as the main audience is highly recommended. Apart from that, working with relevant influencers can also help expand the reach of the campaign. As we did for Motor Tangguh, in collaboration with several KOLs and the online motorcycle taxi community Gojek On Twitt.

Incentives such as attractive prizes can also be given to increase audience motivation to participate. With the right strategy, UGC campaigns can produce optimal impact without sacrificing brand quality or credibility.

Campaign UGC is promising, but without a mature strategy, a brand can lose momentum or even damage its own image.

Author: Sonya Prameswari