From a business owner’s success story to the co-founder and CEO’s innovative strategies, eight industry leaders share how user-generated content can transform a brand. Discover how leveraging customer creativity, from influencers elevating a Flagstaff hotel’s brand to Duolingo’s user-created language courses, has led to significant brand image boosts. This article compiles the firsthand experiences of founders, CEOs, and other critical players in harnessing the power of UGC.
1. Influencers Elevate Flagstaff Hotel’s Brand
Utilizing user-generated content with our client, Americana Motor Hotel, helped establish the brand’s image and credibility as a new competitor in their market.
As a new local business with a specific vibe in the Flagstaff area, we needed to help the brand showcase its unique offerings to its target audience in a relatable and approachable way. UGC allowed us to do just that.
We worked with several local influencers to coordinate stays for them and their families, where they documented their experience and the Americana atmosphere.
Many of these influencers are deemed local Arizona experts. Having Americana Motor Hotel featured on their pages lets their audiences know that the hotel is a must-see for locals and visitors alike. If they want to spend their time there, their audience will likely consider the hotel for their next stay in Flagstaff.
Influencers with larger audiences allow us to reach new pools of people we might not have reached otherwise as a new business.
Chelsea Evans-Flower, Owner, Scott Social
2. Customer Photos Enhance Interactive Reviews
We use Stamped on our websites, allowing customers to leave reviews and enable them to post photos. Many users will post before-and-after pictures or progress pictures showing what a particular product or supplement did for them.
It also allows for Q&A between us and between customers, where they can ask questions and share stories. It’s helpful to the customers and is great for getting us content we can reuse on social media or use to recommend products that are a good fit for other customers.
John Frigo, E-commerce Manager, Best Price Nutrition
3. North Face’s Helicopter Jacket Replacement
I just saw an example of this today with the clothing manufacturer North Face. A hiker was complaining on social media that she bought a North Face jacket that was supposed to be waterproof, but she still got wet when she went out in the rain.
So, she asked the company to bring her a new waterproof jacket, and they sent a helicopter out to the mountain where she was hiking to deliver the replacement jacket.
Eric Novinson, Founder, This Is Accounting Automation
4. Social Media Posts Drive Referrals
Customers submit pictures of the products they purchase from us, and when they post them on their social network accounts, we share them on ours. This leads to referrals or new customers. It’s a direct example of social proof in action.
Derek Capo, COO, Starquix.com
5. Adobe’s UGC Campaign Spurs Creativity
A well-implemented UGC requires minimal investment while increasing your authenticity. By leveraging user-generated content in its Art Maker Series, Adobe boosted its brand image. The company urged designers to publish artwork while tagging it with #AdobeArtMaker.
Many of these fast-paced videos were great user recommendations and simultaneously demonstrated what Adobe’s design software was capable of. To further spread the campaign, Adobe used the #AdobePerspective hashtag to share inventive posts.
User-generated content also made it easier for Adobe to demonstrate the product’s capabilities to new users. Adobe could create a genuine brand attachment among consumers by spotlighting end-user creativity. The campaign resulted in better brand equity and leadership for the company as a creator of design software.
Therefore, Adobe’s inclusion of UGC in these campaigns illustrated the benefits of its products and created a community that contributed to its success.
Faizan Khan, Public Relations and Content Marketing Specialist, Ubuy UK
6. Canva’s Weekly Design Challenges Engage Users
The #CanvaDesignChallenge was a successful way for Canva to get more attention for their brand. Canva, which is all about creativity, works to get its users involved by setting up weekly design challenges. Every week, they choose a theme and ask users to make unique designs based on it. Users can join the challenge by posting their designs on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #CanvaDesignChallenge.
Canva then picks its favorite designs and showcases them to its community in weekly email campaigns. Participants also have a chance to win a prize pack from Canva. This kind of campaign, where users create content, is a great way to engage your community and encourage them to interact more with your brand and its products.
Alan Redondo, Founder, Ardoz Digital
7. Coca-Cola’s Personalized Bottles Unite Consumers
In 2011, Coca-Cola took a bold step and replaced its iconic logo on one side of the bottles with the phrase “Share a Coke with…,” followed by famous names. It was simple yet ingenious—they transformed their product into a part of personal and social experiences.
People loved it! They started sharing pictures of their personalized Coke bottles on their social media platforms—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter—you name it. The more people shared, the more visibility Coca-Cola received. It felt like everyone was engaged in this massive, global advertising campaign for Coke, and they were doing it for free!
This user-generated content led to a significant spike in Coca-Cola’s sales and created a sense of unity among consumers. The campaign was a spectacular display of how a brand can resonate with its audience on a personal level.
Meena Sehgal, Software Developer, Gleexa
8. Duolingo’s User-Created Language Courses
One striking instance of leveraging user-generated content was by Duolingo. They saw a gap in user engagement and decided to fill it by creating a platform for users to build and share their own language courses.
This highlighted their users’ diversity in languages and cultures, turning everyday users into teachers and brand ambassadors. Users shared their courses on social media, furthering Duolingo’s brand reach and reinforcing its image as a global community for language learning.
Nooran Zafarmand, Co-Founder and CEO, Japamana
