For years, a brand's social proof rested on a simple concept: Google reviews. Seeing "500 reviews with an average of 4.6/5" was enough to reassure. Today, this dynamic has changed. The "Review 2.0" is no longer read, it's watched. This is the realm of UGC (User Generated Content).
UGC is content created with the codes of creators, not with the advertising codes of brands. It's immersive, it allows the consumer to project themselves instantly, and it's brutally effective.
Yet the majority of brands use it poorly. In episode 6 of The Feed, Chris and Frans (Creative Strategist at Socialsky) break down the fatal mistake that destroys UGC campaign ROI, and how to regain control by... letting go.
Let's start with what you should no longer do. Many brands approach UGC with the reflexes of television advertising: they want to control everything. They select a creator, then send them a meticulously written script.
The result? Videos where you literally see the creator reading text they didn't write, their eyes scanning the screen.
In the episode, Chris tells an absurd anecdote from his previous agency life: an influencer copy-pasted and read his script out loud, including the stage direction "(show your three favorite products)". This is what's called the "Walking Groupon" effect. The audience isn't naive. It knows how to recognize sponsored content being read mechanically, and it scrolls past instantly.
The more a UGC is controlled by the brand, the less chance it has of being seen.
How do you brief a UGC creator if you can't give them a script? Frans' answer is clear: A creative person shouldn't have rules, they should have a framework.
Creators know their audience and the codes of platforms (TikTok, Instagram) much better than you do. The perfect brief from a brand should fit in two sentences:
After that? Let them do their thing. Let them use their Tone of Voice. If they've been selected in your "Talent Pool" (your pre-vetted creator roster), it's because their DNA matches yours. Trust them to translate your arguments in the language of their community.
This is where traditional brands often panic. When validating a UGC video, the client scrutinizes details: "The necklace is on wrong", "There's an open water bottle in the background", "They used a word that's a bit colloquial".
This is a marketer's view, not a consumer's. On TikTok, users scroll for 10 minutes and see dozens of videos. What catches their attention is precisely the imperfection, the realness, the rawness.
Case study "French Grammar Mistake": In The Feed, Frans shares a recent Socialsky example. A creator made a small French grammar mistake in the first seconds of their video ("Ca vous dérange si je puisse..."). The client wanted to block the video. The agency pushed to publish it. The result? The video generated about fifty comments pointing out the mistake, which over-stimulated the algorithm and exploded the Reach. Ultimately, hundreds of people saw the video and retained the main message, all thanks to a micro-imperfection!
If you search for a restaurant on Google and it only has ultra-glowing 5-star reviews, you doubt their authenticity. It's the same with UGC.
Content that's too uniform, where the product "saves your life" and "has no flaws whatsoever", screams advertising lie. The best UGC is content that brings nuance and objections. Let your creators say: "I love these 3 products, but the 4th isn't for my skin type at all." or "It's delicious, but since it's sweet, I save it for my Sunday treat."
These small objections massively boost the credibility of the rest of your message. Established brands often fear confronting their weaknesses. Yet consumers are educated: they know no product is perfect. Honesty sells much more than perfection.
If you want to launch a high-performing UGC strategy in 2026, don't bet everything on one horse. Go for the hybrid system:
UGC isn't just a "trend" or a video format. It's delegating your brand voice to those who know best how to speak to your future customers. As long as you let them speak.
The boundary is sometimes blurred, but broadly: Influencing involves paying to access the audience (reach) and image of a public figure. UGC (User Generated Content) involves using an individual's content creation talent (often more "average") to get authentic videos, which can then be posted on the brand's own account or boosted as Ads.
The price varies greatly depending on whether the UGC is unsolicited (the customer posts themselves, it's free), "Incentivised" (in exchange for a free product in a contest), or produced by a professional UGC creator (paid for their shooting and editing time, with or without advertising rights transfer).
No. It's the main mistake brands make. You should provide a "framework" (key product information, brand values, legal elements to respect) and let the creator write their own script. It's their tone of voice that will make the video authentic and effective.
Yes, and it's strongly recommended. This is called "Whitelisting" or amplification. If a video performs naturally well, you can (with the creator's contractual agreement) inject media budget to broadcast it to a much larger target audience.
