Across the digital marketing landscape, marketers have different perspectives on the risks, opportunities, rewards and responsibilities of user generated content.

Three companies have done an outstanding job of leveraging user generated content include Bjorn Borg, Charlie by Mathew Zink, and Herschel Supply Co.

Bjorn Borg’s “Become a Swedish Export” Campaign

Platform: Facebook App (329,938 likes/4,191 talking about this)

The packaging of underwear encourages consumers to send in their photos to be selected and featured as a Swedish Underwear Model and win free underwear.

 Charlie by Matthew Zink #charliebymz #charliefan Campaign

Platform: Instagram @charliebymz (34,991 Followers)

This elite bikini brand has gone viral by having “fans”, post photos on Instagram of themselves in the swimwear in hopes to be featured on the @Charliebymz account. 

Herschel Supply Co. #wellpacked #welltraveled Campaign

Platform: Instagram @herschelsupplyco (153,654 followers)

This campaign connects a timeless appreciation of travel with the Herschel brand.  Users have adopted Herschel’s #WellPacked concept and layout, and users post these similar photos to craft their own online identity in line with the Herschel brand personality.  They could be featured on @HerschelSupplyCo.

Key Points of these User Generated Social Media Marketing Campaigns:

• They all are photos that people would want to share on their own accounts, that help craft their identity to their own followers
• They all emphasize the core brand identity
  • Bjorn Borg = Swedish
  • Charlie = Elite & Sexy
  • Herschel = Well traveled

 One Common Trend: A key success factor across all three of these platforms is that they all have a certain level of control.  All campaigns focus on what the main account publishes.  This way the social media managers can be the true authors of the brand, and if a user tries to share content that does not fit with the brand promise, it will not dilute the brands.

The main take away: If digital marketers want to use user generated content to build their brand, they need to have a barrier in check to control what associations the brand builds around their online presence.

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Chatroulette is probably the creepiest website, and digital marketers chose to make it even creepier.

For those of you that are unaware of Chatroulette, you should be proud that you haven’t been exposed to it.  It is a site that pairs two random people from around the world to chat via webcam.  It was made by a 17 year old Russian kid.

As you can imagine, people take advantage of the site for there – um – pleasure.

One can imagine what people sitting home alone have started using Chatroulette for. I know – inappropriate.

E-marketers wanted to tap into this opportunity, and I admit that they did it “on-brand” for Chatroulette’s core customer – guys perv-ing on girls.

 A certain campaign caught my attention.  The campaign was launched with a girl who was broadcasting her own webcam, and would connect with other people.  Except, when she was about to take-off her shirt, her eyes rolled in her head, or her neck snapped in half, and the other Chatroulette user watched this girl be possessed.

Then the words flash the screen:  thelastexorcist.com

Brilliant.  It even fits with the theme of horror movies that the promiscuous one always die first.

BUT, what was the reach?  This comes across as much for of an experiential marketing campaign – and the reach would therefore be extremely limited.  Sure, they chose the right channel of communication, and the execution was incredible, but how far did this campaign reach past the Chatroulette user?

The numbers of impressions must be pretty high actually, the youtube post has 8,448,009 views since being uploaded in 2010.  Sounds like the sharing went viral.

To apply an A,B,C,D model to evaluate creative work:

• A – Attention : This ad definitely caught my attention when I watched the recap of it.  And she is gorgeous, so I am sure she caught the attention of every perv that she was exposed to.
• B – Branding:  The end of the advertisement definitely branded The Last Exorcist ( a movie).
• C – Communication: Does this advertisement get the key message across.  Despite a call of a call to action, the communication is extremely effective in the context.  The target market of both Chatroulette and The Last Exorcist overall lap nicely.
• D- Desired Effect: If people know about Chatroulette’s reputation, they will be entertained by the approach that the marketers have used to communicate that The Last Exorcist is coming out.

Overal, the message (and the channel that they sent it through) creeped me out.

Personally, I’m not going to rush out to see this scary movie, but hey – I’m not the target market for Chatroulette – so its still a job well done.

Other online marketers that have tried to use Chatroulette (yet not as effectively) include:

–Fancy Feet

–Travelocity

–Buzz Spain

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