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New Update: Boost Social Proof with Reviews & Automation
Stacey Corrin
Stacey Corrin
John Turner
John Turner
I’ve always loved seeing how brands turn everyday customers into their best marketers. Whether it’s a creative Instagram post or a heartfelt product review, user-generated content (UGC) feels more genuine, and that’s exactly why it works.
If you’re looking for UGC campaign examples that actually made an impact, you’re in the right place. I’ve rounded up some of the best real-world UGC campaigns I’ve seen. These ideas can help you build trust, grow your audience, and turn followers into buyers, without spending a fortune on ads.
User-generated content or UGC is content created for brands by their fans and followers. UGC can be almost any content type, such as photos, videos, gifs, etc.
But UGC differs from other forms of fan-made content because you don’t pay for it. The fans creating the content haven’t received any remuneration for their reviews. Instead, their genuine and honest recommendations are from real customers.
This is what makes UGC a lot more influential than brand-generated content. People are more likely to base their purchase decisions on other customers’ experiences rather than taking a company’s word.
Now that you know what UGC is, how do you collect it so you can use those authentic testimonies to boost trust in your brand?
Gathering UGC is relatively easy, especially if you already have a presence on social media. But even if you’re just getting started with growing your social audience, you can use some of the following methods to collect UGC:
Now that you have an idea of how to collect UGC, let’s explore some fantastic examples you can try for your business.
First is a UGC campaign example from a holiday comparison site, Trivago. This business ran an Instagram photo contest using their branded hashtag #trivagofaves.
To participate, users had to share an original photo of their favorite hotel listed on Trivago and tag it using the branded hashtag. The prize was a whopping $500.
Trivago posted an Instagram video to launch their contest and generated over 37,000 views. More importantly, they generated tons of posts featuring their top hotels and promoting their partners.
Another company succeeding with user content is Lays. They ran the #DoUsAFlavor contest asking consumers to pitch their perfect Lays flavor. In return, participants could win $1 million.
To enter, users had to visit the Lays website, pitch their flavor with up to 3 ingredients, and design the bag. 3 flavors were chosen from a panel of judges and released in stores. Then customers could vote for the winning flavor via Twitter, Facebook, and text message.
The reason why this campaign works so well is that Lays involved their fans throughout the entire process.
You can replicate a similar campaign by creating an online contest using RafflePress. Then users can submit their pitch and designs directly on your website via the 1-click entry methods.
And because everything is managed in a single giveaway dashboard, you won’t have to hunt through hundreds of social media posts to find everyone’s entries.
To vote for a winner, you can run a complimentary voting contest using RafflePress’s surveys and polls action.
Then it’s merely a case of choosing the most popular submission based on the votes and announcing the winner.
Starbucks’ red cup UGC campaign is an excellent example of how you can collect user-generated content with minimal effort.
This campaign asked fans to share creative photos featuring the red Starbucks cup to win $500. Participants had to tag their submissions with #RedCupContest to be one of 9 lucky winners, and with over 302,000 likes on just a single Instagram post, it was a massive success.
You can run a similar campaign by creating an Instagram contest using RafflePress’s Instagram giveaway template on your website and including the Upload a Photo action to collect entries.
When you create the announcement post on Instagram, you can ask users to click the link in your bio to enter.
The Wanderlust Contest from National Geographic used photography’s power to improve publicity, awareness, and brand development. Users had to share their best nature shot using the #WanderlustContest hashtag to enter.
Hundreds of people took part, and the winner received a 7-day photo expedition to Yosemite national park.
This was a genius tactic on National Geographics’s part since many of their promotional material uses stunning photography.
There isn’t a rule saying you can’t raise brand awareness and support an important cause simultaneously. And Aerie’s #AerieREAL campaign is living proof of that in action.
Aerie asked their audience to post unretouched swimsuit photos on Instagram using their branded hashtag. They donated $1 for every photo to the National Eating Disorders Association.
The campaign generated over 251,801 submissions, resulting in that amount donated to the cause. And at the same time, it generated tons of awareness for the brand on social media.
A recent competition from Wilko, which partnered with the family website Netmums, offered participants the chance to win £250 worth of garden and crafting products to help kids unleash their creativity during a global pandemic.
Kids had to draw, paint, or craft the birds they spotted outside and upload their creations in the Facebook comments to enter.
Facebook comments can get pretty messy and unorganized, so if you’re replicating this example, we suggest using RafflePress to manage competition entries all in one place.
Joules’ photo contest is another example of a successful UGC campaign.
For this contest, participants had to take photos of their family and friends, including a recent Joules purchase. Then they could submit the photo through the brand’s website or share it on Instagram using the #Joules hashtag.
The prize was £500 worth of Joules clothing and a lifetime supply of Jude’s ice cream.
Although it’s a relatively simple campaign, it was successful because it correctly targeted its audience with a fun seasonal task.
Similar to the example above is Swizzle’s Squashies contest.
Participants had to take a photo or video showing what they were up to during the summer and upload it to the contest website. The winner could receive £1000 and a year’s supply of Squashies for them and a friend.
To create a similar summer contest, check out our step-by-step guide to run a photo contest.
The great thing about UGC is that you can get your fans to be creative, resulting in some stunning contest entries.
This is what Aldis did with their home bar photo contest.
They ran a giveaway for the chance to win a year’s supply of shopping vouchers. To enter, all users had to do was like the Facebook post and share a photo of their DIY home bar using the #AldisBarHunt hashtag.
The result was over 11,000 comments, 1,900 shares, and 12,000 reactions. That and tons of photos to use in future promotional messages.
You can run a UGC campaign even if you’re not an eCommerce business. All it takes is a little creative thinking.
Here’s a great example from the PopUp Business School.
They asked business owners, self-employed people, and people considering starting a business to join in for their campaign. The photo challenge asked those people to share a photo illustrating what they do (or want to do).
The winner would receive a £200 Amazon gift voucher, with a £50 voucher for 4 runners-up.
With a global pandemic hitting tourist destinations pretty hard, it’s a challenge to think of ways to promote those businesses. You can use Cornish Horizons’s campaign as inspiration if you’re in that situation.
They ran a photo contest asking participants to share a photo of their adventures with the company, using the #mycornishhorizon hashtag. Users also had to mention which of the brand’s properties they stayed in.
This was a great way to raise awareness of the brand so that people planning their next vacation could keep them top-of-mind.
Another fun UGC campaign is this photo competition from food retailer Lidl.
They were looking for a name for their range of fun-size bananas and ran a competition asking users for their ideas and designs. The winner would see their design and name on the banana’s packaging.
3 designs would be chosen based on creativity, and then those submissions would be posted on their Facebook page for users to vote on their favorite.
Why not try this type of campaign yourself by running a Facebook photo contest.
Art supplies retailer Pegasus used UGC to run a creative artwork contest.
To enter, users had to submit their art portfolio plus a portrait. In return, they could be featured as “Artwork of the Month” and receive a £50 voucher for their website.
This example demonstrates that you don’t need a huge budget to create a successful UGC contest.
By offering a prize directly linked to their brand, they can target their ideal audience while celebrating their fans’ work.
Painters Online ran a similar campaign where users had to submit their best cupcake painting for the chance to win. The winner could receive a digital magazine subscription to their magazine of choice.
To increase the contest’s reach, they could have used the Viral Refer-a-Friend action alongside the upload a photo action in RafflPress.
This would have improved their chances of securing tons of entries with word-of-mouth marketing.
Our final example is a UGC campaign that’s super easy for anyone to enter. Olive oil brand Filippo Berio ran a coloring contest with the chance to win a bundle of pesto goodies.
To participate, users had to download and color the pesto line drawing and upload the results to Twitter or Instagram. They also had to tag Filippo Berio and use the hashtag #colouringwithberio.
If you were to run a similar campaign, why not feature the submissions in a stunning Instagram gallery on your website?
You know what a UGC campaign is and have seen some examples. Now you probably want to know how to create one. RafflePress is the easiest way to create a UGC campaign if you’re a WordPress website owner.
It lets you create any giveaway campaign, including photo contests, to collect user-generated content engagingly. It takes minutes to get started, and the drag-and-drop giveaway builder includes everything you need to make your campaign successful, including:
It’s also light, fast, and bloat-free, helping boost engagement, traffic, and leads without slowing down your site.
Get Started with RafflePress Today!
I hope this article’s UGC campaign examples helped you find the inspiration you need to run your next UGC contest.
Why not check out our guide to creating a viral giveaway to get more social media followers for your brand while you’re here?
And don’t forget to follow us on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook for more great tips to grow your business.
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