UCG at Strategic

User Generated

Content

The old new story

Bogdana

SSP McCann

Google: bogdana butnar

David Verklin

"The best brands are not those that tell the best stories, but those whose customers have the best stories to tell”

Someone with ownership of a medium was the sole producer of content for that medium; in time, the users of the medium begin to produce content as well and use the medium to disseminate it

Depending on the recipient of the content, user generated messaging may appear in various media and take

various forms…

• Consumer feedback via online letters and email• Video sharing (youtube.com, sharkle.com, reever.com) • Pictures (flickr.com) • Discussion boards• Blogs• Social networking sites (myspace.com, facebook)• News Sites• Trip planners• Customer review sites• Any other website that offers the opportunity for the

consumer to share their knowledge and familiarity with a product or experience

• Games

Basically anything…

UGC or CGM can take various forms from

reviews, to complaints, to confessions, to

information, pieces of art

To keep a bird’s eye view

User generated content that makes use of brand assets and is not aimed at the

brand owner itself

• Made by users of your brand• Comment on your brand• Makes use of your available brand elements• Expressed a person’s opinion• Influences other people’s opinions of your brands• Is not commercially meant• Palimpsestic• CGM is original (insofar as there can be originality) • Not aimed at the company but at other users

It’s impossible to control thus

sometimes it may damage

It’s hard to provoke

It’s more believable

It’s free

Control and/or provoke

• In theory once you do your job right you do not need to control it

• In theory if you do your brand right you do not need to provoke it

• In practice you should not try to control it, but you should do everything you can to provoke it

If you do either

wrong, the consumer will piss all over you

HOW?

I have three ways

1. Trick them into it2. Bribe them into it3. Charm them into it

Become a tool

Generally make your brand more readily available because it’s about what they want, what they can do with it, you are a tool

but make sure they have nothing to complain about

iPods for everyone!

Put the making of one project in the hands of your consumers…

but make sure they have nothing to complain about

Branded utility

Generally try to make a good job of running your brand and always give them something useful to play with

but make sure they have nothing to complain about

Me :-)

“No one can tell a good story about a brand unless that brand has given them a good reason to do so”