How Porsche, Goodwood & ASOS are taking the world of user-generated content by storm

User-generated content (UGC) provides marketers with a wealth of content marketing opportunity. A recent CMI report found that 78% of B2C companies are planning to use UGC in their marketing strategies this year. Last year, the practise wasn’t even included in the report. Despite this being a fairly recent phenomenon, there are a number of brands for whom UGC is already a highly established channel which is key to their overall marketing strategy. In this blog I have chosen three who are doing some really clever things...

Porsche - Porsche Live

It is of little surprise that the automotive giant were ranked highest in Auto Manufacturer Website Satisfaction in the recent annual J.D. Power 2015 Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study.  Information/content and website appearance are the two most important measures contributing to overall customer satisfaction with the sites. When it comes to UGC, Porsche nail with the Porsche Live global platform connecting the Porsche story from around the world.

Porsche Live creates a real-time connected story from the heart of the brand across markets and through to retailers.  Owners, future customers and fans are served engaging, relevant and consistent content at every offline and online interaction point, from the event screens at Le Mans, porsche.com, their Porsche mobile app right through to retail in-dealer screens.

Embedded into the homepage of their website, Porsche Live addresses the challenge of communicating with an audience that is both demanding and devouring content around the clock.  The focus is discovering and curating the very best advocacy content, be it user-generated or from key influencers, and publishing to every channel in real-time. Content is pulled in from all over the world connecting fans from every corner of the globe and allowing them to co-create Porsche’s story.

Goodwood - #EventLive

The Goodwood Estate host a number of events over the course of the year such as Festival of Speed, Revival and Glorious Goodwood, and it’s essential that the team at Goodwood deliver outstanding value to attendees, exhibitors and commercial partners. To achieve this, Goodwood has transformed its marketing with live global events, creating real-time engagement beyond the walls of the Goodwood Estate.

For each event that takes place there is an #EventLive in place, for example and most recently, #GloriousGoodwood. This simple mechanism which is well promoted around the event and across all marketing channels, allows the team to easily capture a range of content related to the event which can be pushed out with a mix of brand content ensuring that the event is a truly global event. For visitors to the event they are immediately aware that they can help co create the story of event, as soon they log on to the venue wifi they are greeted with a thank you and a call to action which says: ‘You are now being redirected to ‘Glorious Live,’ the online social hub for the Qatar Goodwood Festival. #GloriousGood.’ This creates a fantastic ‘home for the hashtag,’ which all attendees are immediately made aware of.

ASOS - #AsSeenOnMe

Last year ASOS implemented #AsSeenOnMe. Existing as a sub page on their main site #AsSeenOnMe invites members of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to contribute pictures of themselves wearing the latest clothes they have bought from ASOS. For visitors who like what they see, the brand have taken it step further by allowing them to click through to the items on the ecommerce part of the site to purchase.

This campaign is the perfect juxtaposition of UGC and branded content; utilising what brand advocates say but at the same time pushing the website visitor towards sales conversion.

By Hannah Ward, Marketing Manager, StoryStream