As people around the world have had their lives uprooted from the events of 2020, they have begun to use digital channels to create user generated content and tell their stories with others.
As consumers’ lives shift and they face new concerns around personal health, social justice and economic challenges, brands must be careful how they connect and what messages they put out into the world.
“One way that brands can connect to people is through user-generated video,” said Zach Alter, VP Strategic Account, Jukin Media at Brand Innovators’ recent Brand Storytelling for 2020 & Beyond. “Through all of this that we have gone through this year, there have been amazing moments captured and shared by real people that are documenting what their lives are like.”
“Especially when you think about how we cannot as a society connect physically in person like we are used to, we are finding new ways to connect and share our lives with our friends, our families, our followers using digital and social media,” Alter added.
As consumers have adapted their way of socializing and connected with others through events like drive-by birthday parties, performing music for neighbors on balconies and entertaining their kids with indoor slip and slides, brands have an opportunity to connect with real people, having real moments and experiencing real emotions. Brands are looking to connect to people in the terms they can understand in today’s world.
“It is a great opportunity for brands to A: speak relatably to customers and B: to avoid some of that bad news to connect with consumers around really positive uplifting moments. And C: Republican, Democrat, coastal, middle of the country, Gen Z, Boomer, old, young, Facebook, Instagram — these are the moments that democratize content,” Alter said. “There is no political slant to them, these are just pure moments in people’s lives. We think they make a huge opportunity for brands.”
For AT&T’s Gen Z sports and youth culture site House of Highlights, the pandemic created an opportunity to revise how the content hub communicated with customers for a more user-generated approach.
“Come March and April during the sports pause, there was a reset in terms of consumer’s expectations of what our social feeds would look like,” said Drew Muller, Director of Strategy and Operations, House of Highlights. “We saw larger growth than we’ve ever experienced in the history of our company, and a lot of that success is accredited to user generated content. We were focused on the packaging and selection of content, and making sure the content always stays core to House of Highlights as a platform, which is about delivering Gen Z everything they want to see from the intersection of sports and pop culture.”
Instagram knows all about the benefits of user-generated content. The company aims to build bridges between users and athlete influencers. The average sports fan on the social network follows eight athletes, illustrating that fans are interested in getting to know athletes on and off the field.
“The concept of UGC is to reinforce the connection between the brands and the fans,” said Dev Sethi, Head of Sports, Instagram. “You can create really cost-effective programming that aligns with the ethos of your brand. You can’t just broadcast to your fan base. You need to really focus on building communities. It’s about bringing those fans into the experience, whether it’s leveraging UGC, or having a two-way dialogue. There’s a niche and unique way to communicate with the next generation of fans that we’re seeing really play out on Instagram.”
Eco-friendly bottled water brand Vero has also shifted its brand storytelling strategy this year to help be a catalyst for stories being told within their community.
“Prior to the pandemic, a lot of our content was focused on in depth, intimate profiles of some of our most notable clients, resulting in some really beautiful pieces of content,” said Michelle Beauchamp, Vice President of Marketing, Vero Water. “The way we showed up as a brand was not as the focus of the content but simply a part of the story and a part of the guest experience. That is really how we authentically leaned into that story.”
As brands look to new ways to tell their stories as part of the online conversations that consumers are having, marketers should expand their horizons on where these stories are happening and how they can be told.
“It’s about constantly staying curious and in a state of learning, trying new things, meeting people with different backgrounds, and sharing stories and experiences,” said Ari Avishay, Director, Originals Marketing, Hulu.
“I am always encouraging my team to push themselves out of their comfort zone – taking meetings that may not seem relevant to you at the moment, you never know where that could take you,” he continued. “To be able to really uncover those opportunities, you need to stay hungry and persistent in your pursuit of curiosity and that’s why being in a constant state of learning is important especially with the constant state of evolution that our world is in.”
