Dive Brief:
- Polaroid tapped the Social Native platform for user-generated content (UGC) used in a new corporate website launching today, per a press release made available to Marketing Dive. The site features all user-generated content and Polaroid is using the content in all its corporate marketing channels including packaging, print, display, social, paid, Amazon, in store and point of sale.
- The partnership includes ongoing content curation by Social Native for product updates, inventory/seasonal updates, new product lines and ongoing content creation for popular product lines. Social Native will also integrate with Pinterest and Instagram to collect live content as its created.
- Polaroid found value in UGC after recognizing that digital marketing requires a storytelling mindset and that brands have to build communities with customers beyond the purchase, explained Aaron Paine, director of social media and digital strategy for Polaroid, in the press release.
Dive Insight:
User-generated content can be powerful when used in content marketing, and it’s the foundation of social media experiences such as Instagram and Snapchat. Often marketers will repurpose reviews and testimonials in UGC efforts. Because Polaroid is a visually-oriented brand, user-generated images are a natural fit, but it’s interesting that it has gone all-in by turning its corporate website into an all UGC experience, as well as making UGC the centerpiece of all of its corporate marketing and merchandising channels.
The new strategy comes as Polaroid looks to reinvigorate its brand now that smartphone cameras are a leading way that consumers take pictures. The brand is hoping to build a community through authentic content that can help tell a story. Polaroid is looking beyond simply curated content and instead to leveraging UGC on-demand to easily create unique content specifically for each product.
A study released in February from Mavrk found UGC drove a 6.9x higher engagement level on Facebook than brand-generated content with the difference attributed to Facebook’s news feed algorithm that emphasized content from friends and family. Efforts like Polaroids could encourage people to share their own branded UGC knowing their content might end up repurposed by the brand.