7 Inspiring Examples of User Generated Content Marketing Campaigns

The British fashion company Burberry designed the UGC campaign wherein it built a website Art Of The Trench in the year 2009 that showcased people wearing a Burberry trench coat in any color and style and shot in any season. Men and women who were proud owners of a Burberry trench coat were invited to share photographs of them wearing it and the best of the shots were added to the website. Users could furthermore comment on pictures where people were sporting a Burberry trench. Burberry’s e-commerce sales swelled 50% year after year following the launch of their website.

In a venture to attract more tourists to the Queensland islands, Tourism Queensland came out with their user-generated content campaign that read “best job in the world” – to be a caretaker of a tropical island in the Great Barrier Reef back in 2009. A remarkably effective campaign, over 34,000 people from over 200 countries submitted video entries to win a six-month caretaker job that paid 150,000 AUD and experience one of the most beautiful tourist destinations in the world!

The campaign #AerieReal has been called more than just good marketing and it’s all for the right reasons. In the year 2014, the women’s clothing company began with the simple yet powerful campaign where it refused to use photo editing software’s to retouch the photos of models clad in swimsuits. For every time a user posted an unedited picture of them in a swimsuit, Aerie donated $1 to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA).

It’s crucial to understand that people wish to make a purchase and be associated with brands that are constantly working towards societal causes. There has always been a debate over the excessive use of photo editing applications in marketing and advertising and its impact on the average woman who binges on the images of models seeming god-like and perfect in magazines and its direct impact on the woman’s self-esteem and her dietary lifestyle. Authentic and resonating by design, Aerie’s consumer generated marketing shot their sales up by 20% coupled with the new stores that the brand launched.

The fame came by the UGC marketing campaign #BurnSelfie where Doritos asked its customers in Canada to post pictures of their ‘burn selfies’ taken while eating the newest flavor from their range, Doritos Roulette. The packet of chips is filled with insanely spicy tortilla chips hidden amongst a bunch of normal nachos cheese Doritos. Having been called as a ‘solid slap in the face’, people took the challenge and posted pictures and videos of them eating Doritos and burning their tongue. Painfully hot and spicy chips in the packet took people to further take the challenge on YouTube as part of the Doritos giveaway. A number of entries by Canadians who took the spice challenge where Doritos got success their way by successfully introducing the product in the market and making it famous.

The software and technical giant IBM took to social media to give the world an insight of the IBM world. Their product or service difficult to display creatively, IBM took to sharing the interiors and give the world glimpses of its inside by the hashtag #IBM requesting posts from its customers and employees. Isn’t it intriguing to get a peek into the tech giant and the life there of people? Humans working, the cafeteria, the conferences rooms and a whole lot more just like the everyday affair. Showcasing the human facet of the brand, IBM took to visualize itself through its very own people. What a thoughtful and classic approach to user-generated content marketing!

First things first, whatever be said of the pictures on the National Geographic handle would amount to be less. The pictures on the handle are beyond words can describe and are taken by photographers from every part of the world. Keeping the game up, National Geographic devised its consumer generated marketing campaign valuing user-generated content and #wanderlustcontest came into form. The contest requested people to capture people, places, and experiences from their travel and share them with the hashtag and out came millennial of pictures from people bit by the travel bug. Travel fans were promised a reward of a National Geographic expedition to the Yosemite National Park.

Because who doesn’t live the sweat life and burns out those carbs? Out came Lululemon’s #thesweatlife campaign asking customers to share pictures of their Lululemon activewear. The brand is a maker of yoga and activewear and people getting into their garbs were asked to share snaps on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag. A section on Lululemon’s website specially displays user-generated content photos being pulled from #thesweatlife campaign magnetizing potential customers and allowing them to click through. The large follower base was utilized by the brand fantastically. Furthermore, the display of the feed on the website acts as a visual user review of the yoga and activewear telling people what the products look like in action.