6 Major Trends of Content Marketing in 2016 (6)

6. Producers of content marketing: Professional UGC

UGC is one of the final targets for each social marketer, even though quite a few UGG (User Generated Grass, meaning low quality and not relevant comments from fans) are produced in the process of seeking for UGC. In 2015, we witnessed an escalation of UGC, namely "Professional UGC".

Professional UGC is different from PGC (Professionally-generated Content). UGC generators are not experts, but fans from certain vertical fields, whose content is as good as advertising materials and can be further converted into valuable assets.

Case: GoPro: transformation from selling hardware to UGC

This year, GoPro announced the launch of its video platform GoPro Licensing, on which users could upload their works shot with a GoPro and could directly sell it to brand owners or media networks. This platform has successfully opened up a new profitable channel for GoPro and its users, marking the transformation from selling hardware to UGC, from technical company to media company, from one-time transaction to long tail effect.

GoPro states that GoPro Licensing is a professional platform and videos uploaded by users are required to meet certain standard. Therefore, no matter for media or for GoPro users, any user who intends to join this platform needs to submit its application to GoPro first. GoPro’s next goal is clear: create a social content production platform.

As GoPro said, "More UGC will be combined in the future’s TV ads. It will really be a cool thing when you are watching TV and a scene created by yourself suddenly jump into your eyes. "

Case: fans’ works (text, image, music, video…)

Fans’ work: put the characters of some films or works into a new context to express fans’ special ideas which may be different from the authors’ setting in the original works.

A 3D RPG game called "Jianwang III" run by Kingsoft presents a good example of using fans’ works to promote the product. It was made possible by creating a defined strategy for ACG fans well in advance.

The official operator of the game has recognized the enthusiasm of fans to produce various game related works; moreover, the company seizes the opportunity to create a special space on Microblog, where operators will collect popular fans’ works to display and repost.