Turning UGC hashtag campaign into commerce - by Dan Kimball, CMO at Thismoment / ad:tech London
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.
Visit Thismoment in the iMedia Marketplace,
#AdTechLondonKiosk 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.
About Thismoment:
Thismoment is a
marketing technology company that enables the world’s biggest companies to
connect with their target audiences in real time on any device. Through
Thismoment Content Cloud, our
digital storytelling platform, we enable effortless content curation, digital
experience creation and sharing, and seamless enterprise technology
integrations. More than 150 top brands and agencies use Thismoment, including Coca-Cola, Intuit, Levi’s, Sephora, Fleishman Hillard and Digitas. For more information, visit http://www.thismoment.com.
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