Have you ever “liked” a company or product on Facebook? Participated in a compan

Question

Have you ever “liked” a company or product on Facebook? Participated in a company’s blog or posted pictures on their website? Do you and your friends have the next great commercial for Doritos? The snack food firm has turned user generated content into an advertising phenomenon. Their customer created ads are frequently among the most popular during the Super Bowl, and in many cases, have gone viral. User generated content is exactly what it sounds like, content such as blogs, videos, pictures, and tweets (among many other types) that are created and shared by ordinary customers.

Check out this ad that turned into an entire storyline for the firm that developed it and now has not only millions of views, but a following that waits for the next “episode” as if it were a TV series. Thousands have posted their comments, photos and shared the ad with other potential customers – the original in the series has hundreds of thousands “likes”. Not bad for stuff in a can…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Sn91t1V4g

OK, your turn. Conduct a web search for examples of firms that have successfully employed user generated content; there are lots of great ones to choose from. If they can do it, so can you! How would you employ user generated content to promote, brand, and sell the product you are using in your marketing plan? Is mommy blogging for you? Photo contests? How will you create the “buzz” you need to launch your product? Describe your user generated content plan and why you selected one type of content over another. How will you get your customers to participate? What’s in it for them? Be specific and share at least one example of a firm that has used a similar strategy.

Your opening post should be at least 350 words and feel free to include photos and samples of the content. As always, college level writing and grammar are expected.

In your responses, critique the examples your classmates have selected and add your ideas for the product or brand.

Explanation / Answer

With the spread of social media in every walk of life, firms are drifting towards promoting their brand through user-generated content. Firms are aware of the fact that there are billions of contents being shared over the internet and if this content is used for brand promotion, it can lead to a lot more engagements than traditional methods.

Having users contribute to your content creation efforts has another interesting advantage, as consumers are more interested in hearing the views of their peers than reading cleverly written sales messages.

For past 10-15 years, many big firms like Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Heineken, Puma, Snapdeal, etc have been engaged in such type of campaigns where they directly or indirectly involve customers in their campaign by creating huge social media buzz.

Coca-Cola

To boost top-of-mind awareness, Coca-Cola created the “Share a Coke” campaign, throughout which the company produced Coke bottles with customers’ names on the labels and handed them out throughout different cities, in order to increase its exposure on Twitter. Customers were then asked to share the pictures of their personalized coke bottle on Twitter and other social media platforms.

Coca-Cola first launched the campaign in Australia in 2011 but expanded it to the United States, United Kingdom, and other regions across the world. The company attributes the campaign to a 2% increase in U.S. sales after over a decade of declining revenues.

Snapdeal

In 2015, Snapdeal launched such type of campaign in India called "Dil ki deal" targetting emotional aspect of Indian customers.

The campaign comprises of short and crisp videos of Aamir Khan as a viewer, as well as a consumer himself. He observes how wishes of people around him are being fulfilled through Snapdeal Purchases. The campaign was launched with a series of curiosity invoking posts on Social Media, followed by emotional photographs and other visuals.

The campaign has been extended to various social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc. Conversations have been built around the campaign #DilKiDealOnSnapdeal with the help of many simple contests that helps in driving video views to higher numbers.

Snapdeal’s Facebook and Twitter pages were flooded with pictures of the Dil Ki Deal logo creating curiosity around the new campaign and was followed by sharing the new TVC and related visuals.

Snapdeal also launched a blogging contest where people were invited and encouraged to share their own life experiences where they have listened to their heart and have done something special to make their loved ones feel special.

Implementing User-generated content for our product.

The product chose: Fitness/ Running shoes

Now to create the social media buzz of this product, the initiation could be done by identifying the target customers which would be young fitness freak population. With the spreading awareness about health and fitness, the target population includes a huge proportion.

Next step can be is to employ a celebrity known for his fitness like Akshay Kumar (Bollywood actor), Virat Kohli (Indian cricket team captain), Ronaldo, etc. By employing them for the campaign, the benefit would be that people would easily idealize them and this will trigger their willingness to join the campaign.

In this campaign, people will be encouraged by the employed celebrity to share their short exercise video on social media following the hashtag of the brand that will increase the brand engagement and will create a huge buzz on facebook, twitter, and Instagram. The more the sharing of the videos the more the customers will be nearer to win the campaign competition and hence meet the celebrity.

A similar campaign is used by Puma recently (2017-18). They employed Virat Kohli for the same and started "Come Out and Play" movement. This movement created buzz on social media where customers were encouraged to come out and play any sport since in India, nowadays, very few people engaged themselves in any physical activity. The movement became a hit and Puma got benefitted from the same.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse H
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.