Ever wondered how so many brands are dominating the feed with videos that are created on mobile phones?

For now, it’s an incredibly popular format of video content. But for how much longer? We’re breaking down exactly that. So, get yourself comfy, and prepare yourself. It’s going to be a hard-hitting newsletter this week 💁🏼‍♀️

Big News ⤵

A lot has happened this week at V21…

Jack finally popped the question to his partner, Lauren. Of course, she said yes!

We released the Behind The Scenes video of our latest project. You can check it out here if you want to know more about the process of how we make videos.

Our new website went live, and if you want to take a look at some of our latest work, head on over to www.vtwentyone.co.uk ⤵

Of course, there’s always more. But you’re here for this week’s newsletter, so let’s dive in.

What Is UGC?

UGC stands for ‘User Generate Content’. It’s all over social media this year due to the simplicity of creating it, its effectiveness, and the way in which it can be used to humanize a brand.

The most prominent being User-Generated-Video-Content. It’s as easy as taking out your phone, filming a very off-the-cuff video, and posting it on social media to promote your product or service.  

UGC has now become a content style in and of itself. Many big brands are jumping on the creation-train, and filming their own mobile phone videos because of the ease of use, and cheaper barrier to entry. Check out this great example by Huel ⤵

This is great, as brands can start to build tight-knit communities of brand advocates that are promoting the brand through their own content. Or, brands can start creating content that feels authentic and add personal elements to their marketing, just like the example above.

New product launch? Make a quick 15-second TikTok to promote it!

Need some user testimonials? Get them to film it themselves!

Filming this style of content is a quick, cost-effective, and efficient way to produce lots of content at scale that connects with your audience in a more transparent, truthful, and relatable way.

Who remembers the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign that Coca-Cola launched in 2013? Of course, you do! It took the internet by storm with hundreds of thousands of new customers sharing their named bottles on the internet, all for the benefit of promoting Coca-Cola.

Naturally, this was a multimillion-pound campaign, and not something as simple as a quick iPhone video. But, it’s still classed as UGC.

So, what’s not to love?

It Doesn’t Work For Everyone.

Whilst UGC content is booming right now, and we can only see it becoming increasingly popular, it does have a large downfall.

We’ve blurred out these five brands for privacy reasons, but we wonder if you can spot the difference between their five videos.

If you can’t, this is exactly our point. The one negative is that the majority of UGC content, at least on a smaller scale, looks identical.

Yes, it’s easier. Yes, it’s more efficient. Yes, it’s cheaper.

But no, it doesn’t stand out.

Unless you have the brain power and budgets of Coca-Cola’s marketing team, it’s going to be tough to create User Generated Content that doesn’t blend into every other brand doing the same.

Therefore, UGC content will not work for everybody. For big brands like Starbucks, Nike, Coca-Cola, and many more, creating more transparent, authentic, brand-humanizing content is fundamental to their success. But for the smaller brands, creating a User Generated style of content just won’t help to cut through the noise online and make the impact you want it to.

The 99%.

For the top 1% of brands, User Generated Content can be an incredibly powerful marketing tool to strengthen your brand community, reputation, memorability, and so much more.

For the other 99%, it’s incredibly tough to break through and add your uniqueness into such a mass-marketed form of content.

However, there are brands that have found their unique voice through UGC content in the form of coloured outfits, music, presenters, and more. We’d recommend checking out:

1. https://www.instagram.com/drinknice/reels/ 

2. https://www.instagram.com/huel/reels/

3. https://www.instagram.com/mojudrinks/reels/ 

4. https://www.instagram.com/canowater/reels/ 

5. https://www.instagram.com/thesolesupplier/reels/ 

A great collection of SMBs that have eye-catching, memorable UGC content that we should all use as inspiration!😊

Our Recommendation?💡

With more and more brands stepping up to the plate to create UGC content, we have no doubt that many will fall short and fail to create their own unique, personable, and authentic style of content.

After all, there are only so many ways you can skin a cat (sorry vegans). It’s only a matter of time before the average viewer gets bored of watching iPhone videos, after iPhone videos from thousands of different brands, and they start to demand something more interesting and entertaining to consume.

Our recommendation would be to create testimonials, and product reviews from real customers in a UGC style, and maybe a slight day-in-the-life, but not too much more.

It’s 2023. It’s a competitive landscape, and it’s time that you find your own unique voice. Yes, it’s quick, easy, and simple to film a quick video on your phone. But if you think like the masses, you’ll get results like the masses.

What can you do differently from everybody else?

How can you create content that stands out online?

We’ll leave you to answer those questions in your own time.

Don’t Forget About ⤵

If you want to learn how to make your own social media videos stand out from the crowd and generate impressive results, check out our course Converted. 

Use the code ‘GLITCHED20’ for 20% off today, just because you’re subscribed to the Newsletter and we appreciate your support 🙂