Lawrence Lessig’s take on User Generated Content; 10 Great UGC Campaigns
Lawrence Lessig starts out his Ted Talk with discussing how we open user-generated content up for business. He begins to inform the audience about a man named John Philip Sousa. John Philip Sousa traveled to the United States Capitol to talk about technology known as “talking machines”. Lessig emphasizes that Sousa was not overly enthusiastic to discuss “talking machines” while at the United States Capitol as he did not favor them. Sousa believed the following:
These talking machines are going to ruin artistic development of music in this country. When I was a boy, in front of every house in the summer evenings, you would find young people together singing the songs of the day, or the old songs. Today, you hear these infernal machines going night and day. We will not have a vocal chord left. The vocal chords will be eliminated by a process of evolution as was the tail of man when he came from the ape (Lessig).
After explaining to the audience what Sousa philosophized about user generated content, Lessig switches the topic of conversation to this following. He posts a picture of culture that he wants the audience to visualize. He states, “We could describe it using modern computer terminology as a kind of read-write culture. It's a culture where people participate in the creation and the re-creation of their culture” (Lessig). Lessig argues that Sousa feared that we as a culture would lose that capacity because of these, quote, "infernal machines." Infernal machines would take away the read-write culture. As a result, we'd have the opposite of read-write culture, what we could call read-only culture. Our culture would then mainly consist of creativity being consumed but not by the consumer who would be the creator. As a result, he argues that Sousa would argue “A culture which is top-down, owned, where the vocal chords of the millions have been lost” (Lessig).
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10 Great Examples of User Generated Content Campaigns
1. BELKIN – LEGO IPHONE CASE
In 2014, Belkin created one of the coolest, most customizable iPhone cases in a partnership with Lego that had Lego studs on the back of the case. Belkin asked their customers to showoff their creativity and how each one personalized their case by tagging their Instagram photos with #LEGOxBelkin. Integrating User Generated Content onto a product page as a way to help sell a product was a brilliant idea for Belkin in 2014. It allowed Belkin to let its customers do the selling for them, which showed potential customers how customizable the case could be in a very authentic and organic manner.
2. T-MOBILE – BREAKUP LETTER
T-Mobile offered to pay the contract cancellation fees of any person who “broke up” with their existing cell phone service and switched to T-Mobile. This was a strategy integrated in order to convince customers to switch from T-Mobile’s competitors. They launched an ‘Un-Valentines Day’ with a Facebook app that let people create a custom break up letter to their carrier and print it out or share it on their social networks.This type of user generated content was great because T-Mobile has made a very friction-less way to generate the content and still maintained some control of the messaging through the Facebook app.
3. ESTÉE LAUDER – BREAST CANCER ACTION, NOT AWARENESS
Estee Lauder took a proactive approach to their global breast cancer awareness campaign in 2013. The brand wanted not to just promote breast cancer awareness, but to get people to start prevention today. The theme of the campaign was “Stronger Together,” encouraging women to create a ‘Circle of Strength’ with their friends and make commitments to schedule mammograms, eat healthy food, go on daily walks, and support each other in their efforts.
4. INDEPENDENT LENS – DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’
Independent Lens launched a User Generated Content campaign for the premiere of the film Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey, which follows the real life rock ‘n’ roll fairy tale of Filipino Arnel Pineda, who was plucked from YouTube to become the front man for iconic American rock band Journey. According to postano, “Independent Lens did a fantastic job with this contest, making it very fun, engaging, and something everyone could participate in. I bet we will see more and more of similar contests like this as musicians and artists take even more interest and control in their social media marketing”.
5. TEDXPORTLAND – WHAT IS PERFECT?
The Ted Talks organizers worked with digital agency Instrument to develop an app that overlaid the word ‘Perfect’ over user-generated photos that were shared to Instagram and Twitter. The “Perfect” photos were brilliant marketing for the conference that helped build social buzz as everyone wanted to know what the “Perfect” photos were about. The organizers for the Ted Talks didn’t let those photos go to waste either, projecting all the photos on an 80ft tall honeycomb stage design.
6. WARBY PARKER – HOME TRY-ON
Warby Parker decided to take the clever approach of integrating user-generated content into the purchasing process when they introduced their Home Try-On service in 2012. The free service ships five pairs to a person’s home to try on for five days, where they are encouraged to take pictures of themselves with the different glasses on and share it to their social accounts with the hashtag #WarbyHomeTryOn.
7. TARGET – ACCEPTANCE LETTER
Target asked for videos of high school seniors opening and reading letters from colleges and then packaging up the best ones into a compelling commercial. Postano.com stated:
Target coupled the commercial with a commitment to education, announcing huge increases in educational funding and donations to K-12 education. Target, having already pledged to donate $500 million by the summer of 2010, promised to double it in upcoming years, culminating in a cool billion by the end of 2015 (Postano).
8. NISSAN – #VERSAVID VINES
Nissan took advantage of the popularity of stop-motion photography on Vine with their VersaVid campaign, asking Nissan fans to print out a 3D picture of the car, cut, fold and assemble it, and then create a short video of an adventure in a Versa. According to postano.com, “Nissan incentivized participation in the contest by offering $1,000 Amazon gift cards to six contestants and a chance for their Vine to be featured in a Nissan commercial. They promoted the contest through their microsite YourDoortoMore.com as well as partnerships with Mashable”.
9. CHOBANI – REAL LOVE STORIES
Chobani asked its fans to show support for the brand by creating videos. Real fans made original videos like the ones above, creative photos, and left praise on social media channels about their favorite Greek yogurt, supplying Chobani with an impressive amount of UGC to use for marketing purposes. Tweets were put on billboards, videos were featured on their website, and others were sent out to their social media followers.
10. PEPSI MAX – MAX IT NOW COMPETITION
Pepsi MAX put out a challenge in honor of their partnership with NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon: 24 of of them in fact. Pictures, posts, videos and drawings came in droves to Pepsi MAX on Facebook and Twitter, hoping to win Pepsi Max and Jeff Gordon fan items. The campaign was a success, with more than 7,300 entrants and over 700 images of Pepsi MAX cans posted to social sites. a grand prize winner was selected to attend a race during the Chase for the Cup, where the winner managed Pepsi Max social media, blogged, and got to meet and interview Gordon himself.