At this point we should all know what user-generated content is but for those of you that may not… UGC is any content created by consumers and brand advocates in a natural and organic way that typically has nothing to do with the brand in particular. It can be video, photos, music, art, and even blogs. The benefits of using UGC in advertising is paramount and extremely effective in creating emotional connections with brand audiences. It creates trust through transparency. So, what is the difference between UGC and stock footage. Stock footage is produced content that was created for the sole purpose of reuse in advertising, marketing, film, etc. UGC is organically created and unproduced. Stock footage is produced and people can see the differences between the two if you set them side by side. There are tons of stock footage libraries online and we work with some of them on particular briefs for our partners. However, since the audience can tell an obvious difference, we only pursue stock footage for briefs that call for it... There is a place for stock footage, but we prefer organically sourced user-generated content in order to create strengthened trust from audience to brand.
