Turning UGC hashtag campaign into commerce - by Dan Kimball, CMO at Thismoment

TURNING UGC HASHTAG CAMPAIGN INTO COMMERCE

Is user-generated content (UGC) just a trend? Are marketers piling on the UGC hashtag bandwagon because it has the “cool factor”? And if so, does that mean that at some point the next shiny object will simply replace it? Certainly, it means there is a growing perceived value. But, how does that translate into enterprise return on investment (ROI)?

UGC, It’s More Than a Phase

UGC is a very powerful tool to incorporate authentic user-voice elements into your marketing and brand storytelling initiatives. With 59% of Millennials nowadays trust UGC more than the brand-produced content, this type of brand advocacy should not be overlooked. Here’s the tricky part, while some of these efforts yield great value for brands looking to create fun, engaging and unique campaigns as well, other times the ROI opportunity is missed.

Finding ROI in UGC

No doubt brands will continue to want to leverage UGC hashtags in their brand marketing campaigns. It helps to tell the story they want in a more fun, engaging and overall authentic manner. But, without proof that UGC is actually producing sustained value, it will soon enter a phase where UGC ROI is questioned. And rightly so.

A few companies indeed are considering the direct ROI of their UGC campaigns. They’re using UGC, which is traditionally considered to provide only ephemeral value, as a more “green field” and essential part of their marketing and merchandising strategy. For example is Sephora:

Sephora’s Beauty Board leverages the power of UGC to create a whole new merchandising opportunity for the company, and a totally unique shopping experience for customers. Because the UGC is tagged with product information through a seamless connection with Sephora’s Ecommerce systems, product sales can be directly attributed to individual pieces of UGC. Now, that’s direct ROI.

What started out as mostly experimental and loosely defined enterprise value, UGC is now proving to be much more than a fad. But, like any other marketing channel, technology platform or tactic, if not applied strategically – with specific KPIs in mind – it can very well be a wasted effort. If treated as a strategic tool with more evergreen applications and enterprise benefits, UGC could very well be one of the most important arrows in your quiver.

Read the full article HERE

Visit Thismoment in the iMedia Marketplace, Kiosk M during ad:tech London on 21 - 22nd October 2014. Paul McCann, MD - EMEA, at Thismoment will be holding a keynote titled ‘Sephora Beauty Board - Turning selfies into sales’ at 16.20pm on 21st October in the Platform & Devices stream; diving deeper into the Sephora implementation of ThismomentContent Cloud and looking at how they have built a model for turning selfies into sales.