The facility of user-generated content material (UGC) in advertising is nothing new, however the lightbulb went on for a lot of manufacturers in 2020 when Nathan Apodaca’s truck broke down on the way in which to work.

He grabbed a longboard and recorded a 23-second TikTok video of himself skateboarding to work whereas listening to Goals from Fleetwood Mac and ingesting from a bottle of Ocean Spray.

The video went viral, spawned a Goals Problem hashtag, despatched Goals to the Billboard charts for the primary time since 1977, and triggered supermarkets to promote out of Ocean Spray. The model thanked Nathan Apodaca with a brand new truck crammed with their merchandise.

The second after all sparked quite a lot of curiosity from advertising groups attempting to chase the identical lightning in a bottle for his or her manufacturers.

It additionally illustrated half a longer-term shift in focus from influencer content material to user-generated content material. In a Digiday ballot, 59% of individuals reported that UGC was essentially the most genuine type of content material (solely 10% mentioned that influencer content material was genuine). They mentioned that UGC was 8.7x extra impactful in making buying choices than influencer content material.

And but, there’s a high quality line between pushing for user-generated content material and asking individuals to do work for manufacturers without spending a dime.

These days I’ve seen “UGC creep,” the place manufacturers ask for conventional advertising belongings to be created as UGC seemingly as a technique to get out of paying for them. Calling one thing UGC has turn into shorthand for asking to not must pay for it. I believe there’s a backlash threat. UGC or not, I believe entrepreneurs have to be sure that the worth change is there in a roundabout way to reward individuals for his or her work.

As Danielle Wiley, founding father of Sway Group, put it: “Creators should be compensated (and compensated pretty) for the work they do on behalf of manufacturers.”

Daniel additionally reminded entrepreneurs of one of many dangers of UGC: “Creators can publish no matter they like and tag the model, and there’s no recourse if messaging is off or inappropriate.”

Listed below are a number of associated cartoons I’ve drawn through the years: