Why User-Generated Content Works and How To Encourage More of It: A Case Study on Drake
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Nothing Was the Same, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, Views — all of the album artworks for these albums were meme sensations. Oh and of course you can’t forget the GIFs poking fun at the Hotline Bling music video. Why does everything Drake touch become an internet sensation? Let’s delve into it…
Remixing and User-Generated Content
First, it is important to understand that the Internet has changed the manner in which people consume content. Gregg Gills, of the band Girl Talk, proclaims, “[…] Every single Top 40 hit that comes on the radio, so many young kids are just grabbing it and doing a remix of it. The software is going to become more and more easy to use.” Lawrence Lessig, media and political academic, describes this state as a “Read/Write” (RW) culture; one in which
“people add to the culture they read by creating and re-creating the culture around them.”
This is contrasted to a Read/Only (RO) culture; one that is “[…] more comfortable with simple consumption.” By way of understanding and utilizing this RW culture, Drake has skyrocketed to worldwide popularity and fame. Drake has not only cultivated a RW culture with his fans but actively works to promote it, leveraging the free content and publicity that emerges from user-generated content (UGC). From simple artwork to funny dancing, Drake understands how his consumers share his content and makes it easy for them to do so.
There are three main psychological reasons why UGC works well; by understanding these three elements, anyone can more easily come up with ways to encourage their consumers to create, and thereby leverage the promotion from UGC.
Social Currency
First, UGC creates a sense of community, a group of “insiders,” where participating brings one social currency (a term explained by Jonah Berger in his book “Contagious”). For example, if you create a funny Drake meme, you are “in-the-know” and may be retweeted, shared, and liked for your contribution. Therefore, marketers must look to provide consumers with a manner to gain social currency — give consumers an easy opportunity to be liked and shared. The key element here is the opportunity — the consumer does not know if his/her content will be liked or shared; that unknown variable plays on a concept called variable reinforcement.
Variable Reinforcement
One does not know if his or her content will be rewarded (ie., liked/shared) or not. It is the anticipation of perhaps getting a like or being shared that pushes one to participate in creating content. Drake further stimulated this variable reward and subsequent activity by posting some of the best fan artwork of “Hotline Bling” memes and GIFs on his Instagram. The anticipation of potentially having the opportunity to be rewarded by the “leader” of the community creates more incentive to contribute to the community.
Increase the anticipation of likes/shares, increase the amount of UGC.
Belonging
Lastly, when one participates in the Drake “economy” of UGC, one feels a sense of belonging when creating and sharing content. If one gets “rewarded” for his or her contribution (in the form of likes and shares), one is automatically regarded as part of a community. Lessig discusses the importance of creating this community, stating, “remixes happen with a community of remixers. In the digital age, that community can be spread around the world.” By asking something of people, those who participate (either by creating their own or sharing/liking others) become part of something bigger.
The ROI of UGC
User-generated content (UGC) has a significant impact on the brand of an artist or company. In a study of close to 900 millennials, it was found that UGC is 35% more memorable than other media and 20% more influential than other media types. Free access to content and the ability to remix it also gives an artist or company valuable data about their audience that can translate into much more effective advertising techniques. For example, by incorporating a hashtag, one could track all users who participated and remarket to them with later marketing campaigns. Lessig states that “[…] the economic value in this consumption [RO] is tiny compared with the economic potential of consumer-generated content.”
Actionable Takeaways:
• Give away your content — whether it be through an official contest or putting stems out into the public
• Keep your artwork and videos simple: allow the Internet to manipulate it easily; perhaps you can create a website to remix the artwork (like this or this)
• Ensure your videos and photos are appropriate dimensions for smartphone sharing and specific to each social platform (in Hotline Bling, Drake is dancing in a box that can be cropped and shared on socials perfectly. That music video was directed by Director X, the same person who directed Kendrick Lamar’s “King Kunta,” which was shot in a 4:3 dimension — perfect for smartphones)
• Run competitions where you can reward your fans and post some of the best remixed content on your social channels (e.g., competition where the winner gets to be the artwork for one of your curated Spotify playlists)
• Ask fans to be a part of your work (e.g., Coldplay did this with the music video to their song “Amazing Day (also shot in vertical video format);” Justin Bieber did something similar for his song with Jack Ü, “Where Are U Now,” by compiling fan art into the music video)
• Music companies: Enable users to create on your platform and highlight some of the top performing content from users(in a DSP’s case (e.g., Apple Music, Spotify, etc.), perhaps playlists)
