Consumers share an estimated 1.8 billion photos every day across social media and upload 300 hours of YouTube video every minute. The good news for brands is that large audiences naturally tend to congregate around social and visual content so it’s no wonder that brands seek to embrace and engage with visual content in a creative way.
One of the best examples of this was seen in last year’s #IceBucketChallenge, where what started out as a local relatively small scale internet challenge quickly turned into a global viral phenomenon. Participants would film themselves throwing a bucket of iced water over their head and nominate friends to carry on the chain. More than 17 million people got involved to support ALS and other causes, in total raising $220m. Even brands like Samsung got in on the action resulting in positive earned media value.
But why did it work so well? Well, timing was everything. It all kicked off in summer (imagine asking people to immerse themselves in ice cold water in winter) and it resulted in some genuinely humorous content, which people then wanted to share. It was also something that participants could get involved in with their family and friends.
Flip to the other end of the scale and the latest teen social media craze #DontJudgeChallenge has been welcomed with much less fanfare. The campaign involves teens filming themselves looking “unattractive” and posting snaps to Twitter and Instagram – all in an effort to combat body shaming. In just two weeks, two million teens were on board. However for all the positivity it is supposed to convey, many have dubbed it a “vanity dare posing as an anti-body shaming campaign”.
This sort of activity is driving the visualisation of the web in a positive way but as more and more users upload their own content and share it, this brings fresh challenges as internet companies can no longer manually control and classify their content – particularly images and video.
Before brands consider jumping on board with trends like this – or starting their own campaigns – there are some important factors to consider when it comes to dealing with user-generated content.
Brands who encourage users to contribute content as part of their marketing need to ensure that their brand stays protected by deploying technology that can understand the images that are being shared. Brands are quickly judged by their visual content on the web and you don’t want to get tangled up with inappropriate or even illegal content that could be damaging for your brand.
It’s essential that user-generated visual content is carefully monitored, curated and partitioned to avoid any unwanted reputational fallout. But if accurately verified, due to its word-of-mouth potential, it can be one of the most powerful marketing tools around.
Adrian Moxley, co-Founder and chief visionary officer, WeSEE
Originally posted WallBlog 20 July 2015