Increasing External Brand Engagement with Sourced Content
Let’s talk about why brand engagement even matters but first, it’s important to know that there are two types of brand engagement: internal and external. Internal is that within the company through engaging with employees. External is engagement with the brand audience and what we will focus on in this article. External customer engagement is all about the emotional connection to the brand itself.
What is it Exactly That We Do?
To sum it all up, sourced content is a fairly new a niche field. Brands go to advertising agencies to create commercials that need user generated content. They then hire us to find that content. We find it. The ad agency decides which content they wish to use. Then, we get the rights for the content by purchasing usage for a specified term, wrap it up all nice a pretty and sent it on back to our clients.
The Continued Rise of UGC
As we are finally seeing the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel we can’t deny that this worldwide crisis changed us all in more ways than one. It shifted our mindsets and priorities in ways that most of us never saw coming. Some for the good and some for the not so good. In any case, it put most professionals from every background in a position of sink or swim. Adapt and evolve or face the consequences. This is also true for the advertising industry. As production shut down we saw a spiked increase in the use of user generated content in ads due to its accessibility and cost effectiveness. I mean, what better way to make the best of a bad situation when you can’t hire a team to shoot your next commercial. Brilliant really. Use what is already there and as an added bonus, people really resonate with content they can share an emotional response with. Think back to all of those “we’re in this together” commercials with clips of people banging pots and pans on their balconies and seeing family through the windows of their homes. All shot by someone who just wanted to capture a moment in time from their life. Every single person on the planet can relate to this content as we were all in the same boat at the same time. Let’s face it, the first time we all saw these commercials we probably all felt the same heartwarming emotions. Although, this type of content marketing was not new, it now took the spotlight. According to Forbes this sourced content marketing is now here to stay and not only that, it is on the rise. This makes sense as companies begin to reap the benefits of this type of advertising. So many in fact I’m not going to name them all here. That’s another blog all in itself. However, I will say that some of the top reasons to utilize UGC is that it is literally everywhere, it is for everyone, and it is authentic (ADAGE). This translates into an unlimited library of freshly uploaded content often. According to an article found in Hubspot, 31% of consumers actually find it more memorable than traditional forms of marketing. Finally, authentic content that is relatable will resonate with consumers. In short, UGC isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it’s the opposite. As the number of social media users continue to increase (Statista), it seems only natural that digital marketing will turn to sourced content from these platforms for their audiences.
