Trend Spotlight: User-Generated Content

Each month, Weber Shandwick’s Trends in Two Minutes bulletin outlines three trends impacting businesses throughout Asia Pacific. With Trend Spotlight, we share some of the individual trends highlighted. Today, exploring how the pandemic has facilitated an explosion in user-generated content and the complex potential ramifications of leveraging such a development.

It’s well-documented that the circumstances of 2020 have precipitated an unprecedented explosion in content consumption. One streaming platform managed to nearly equal its subscriber growth for 2019 in just the first six months of 2020 – securing over ten million new subscribers in just three months, at one point.

However, it’s important to note that 2020 has also facilitated a similar growth in content creation – especially on social channels. On one platform, content creation has grown by approximately 60%, year-on-year. Coupled with the major growth of micro-content video platforms seen throughout 2020, it emphasises the arrival of a new content era.

Specifically, a significant expansion in user-generated content. For brands and communicators, such an era represents both risk and opportunities. With businesses moving away from traditional marketing spend toward digital and technology campaigns and freezing ad spend, leveraging user-generated content may prove a winning tactic.

However, the velocity of the current content environment and volatile unpredictability of user communities represents a plethora of risks for brands unprepared for vigilant strategic management. Recent history is littered with campaigns hijacked by users for their own amusement.

To ensure a genuine return on investment in the new content explosion, a sound digital strategy will be essential.

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