Continues Aigner, "It will take a while before UGC delivers broad markets to advertisers, but to niche-market brands targeting elusive consumer segments, advertising opportunities like online display ads, custom sponsorships and in-stream video/audio commercials in the UGC space are exciting new arrivals".
With daily advances in digital technology, anyone with a computer and a digital camera can create multimedia content, which, once on the web, can potentially be viewed by millions of people.
Within UGC, advertisers face the challenge that each individual piece of content is inclined to reach a limited niche audience.
Another sensitive issue to consider, regarding user-generated video content, is that more often that not users illegally make use of copyrighted material in their footage. This poses a potential problem of brands being linked to the content before or after the video containing illegal use of material.
Still a new media avenue, experimentation as to how to best advertise in UGC targeted communities continues.
Two key findings of a "generator motivations study" by Universal McCann in the US are that content generators particularly influence predominantly young (under 25) male visitors rather than overall visitors to host sites. Generators also create abundant content, with 57% making multiple videos each month.
"The bottom line is that if you approach the right communities with the right tone and incentives, users can be motivated to generate content featuring brands," says Aigner.
Having establishing the generator profile as young media sharp men, the generator motivations study reveals some insight into their willingness to incorporate brands in their content. Fifty seven percent either lready have, or are willing, to feature brands in their content.
"Interestingly, their main motivation [is] personal recognition (62%), with cold hard cash coming in a close second (60%). Pre-existing opinions of brands also plays a factor in generators' readiness to include them in video content," explains Aigner.
The opposite of UGC is employee-generated content (EGC). Usually authored by an individual with an informal writing style, corporate blogs stimulate community discussion and are less rigid than corporate websites.
The power of blogs is undeniable, as people trust them despite the lack of an established media brand. "It appears that word of mouth has more influence on purchase decisions than any type of paid communication," comments Aigner.
This said, while they often speak to early adopter communities, the reach of most blogs falls short of professional medial.
Aigner believes that the right commitment to UGC will result in a powerful medium with the ability to echo and amplify overall brand communication. As a result of powerful underlying forces - the human desire to share one's opinion, the ease with which capture, manipulation and distribution of media is possible and a company's ability to create a media asset without production costs - the expansion of UGC shows no sign of abating.
