Summary:
In this episode of the Engage Video Marketing Podcast, we delve into the world of User-Generated Content (UGC) and its growing importance in video marketing strategies. Our guest, Melissa Laurie, founder of Oysterly—a leading social video agency—shares her expertise in creating impactful UGC for renowned brands like UPS, 3M, RMIT University, and Luxury Escapes.
Melissa, recognized as a woman to watch in Asia and shortlisted for the Women Leading Tech Awards by Atlassian, discusses how her agency specialises in generating social videos that can be effectively reposted across all major social platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. She emphasises how this multi-platform approach maximises reach and engagement for brands.
Chapters:
[00:00:21] User Generated Content
[00:04:25] Creating Oysterly Social Video Agency
[00:08:52] Owned user-generated content.
[00:14:01] Texture of social channels.
[00:15:43] Control of brand visual style
[00:19:42] Finding UGC creators
[00:25:05] Compensation for creators
[00:27:31] Paid endorsements disclosure.
[00:31:27] Changing video hooks for impact.
[00:35:35] Microsoft Education on TikTok
[00:39:04] AI-generated avatars in UGC
[00:43:29] What’s next in social video?
[00:47:05] Embrace UGC for business
Links from the show:
If you found this episode of value I’d love for you to reach out and let me know on Instagram @engage_ben or email [email protected]
Rate the Engage Video Marketing Podcast on iTunes
Transcript of the Interview: ** Note: the following transcript was generated by AI and therefore may contain some errors and omissions.
SPEAKER_01:
Let’s talk about UGC, User Generated Content. Now, it feels like only a handful of years ago that I was saying, UGC, WTF? You see, the thing is, is that UGC, or User Generated Content, is now an important part of any brand’s video marketing strategy. And my guest today on episode 302 of the Engage Video Marketing Podcast runs an agency that specializes in this form of content creation for big brands, brands that you have heard of, let me tell you. All right, let’s dive in. Welcome back to Engage Video Marketing Podcast. It’s been a little while between episodes here, but I’m so glad you’re joining me for this one. See, my guest today is Melissa Laurie. Melissa Laurie was recognized as a woman to watch in Asia and shortlisted for the Women Leading Tech Awards by Atlassian. She’s the founder of Oysterly, a leading social video agency that specializes in creating user-generated content for well-known brands such as UPS, 3M, RMIT University, Luxury Escapes, and more. And what makes Oysterly and Melissa unique is their ability to create social videos that can be reposted across all major social platforms. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and others to maximize a brand’s reach and engagement. Now, I caught up with Melissa and as soon as we started chatting, I knew that we were aligned on so much stuff. So I had to bring her to the podcast for you guys here today because it’s a really fascinating and interesting conversation where we’re talking more about how to use UGC as a brand in 2024 and beyond in order to grow your business. So in today’s episode, Melissa will share her insights on creating user-generated content, the rise of video on all social media platforms, and why it’s crucial for brands to adapt their strategies to stay relevant. We’ll also discuss the importance of creating texture in your social media channels, and how to balance brand with creative freedom, and a whole bunch more. So grab your notebook, grab your pen, because you’re about to learn how to elevate your brand’s video strategy with UGC. Let’s dive in, and I’ll introduce you to Melissa Laurie, from Oysterly. Hey Melissa, welcome to the podcast.
SPEAKER_00:
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_01:
I’m excited to have you. I’ve just realized that most of the time when I introduce a guest I often say I’m excited and you know the thing is that I do get excited to talk to these guests on the podcast because often I’m bringing guests on who I connect with and that’s what we did when we met at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego. You’re a fellow Aussie but you’re hanging out in Singapore running your video agency, your social video agency. I just love talking about all this stuff that you love talking about too. So I think this would be a good conversation for our guests. So tell me a little bit about who you are and what you do at Oysterly.
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, wonderful. And it was great to meet you over in San Diego as well. So a little bit about my story, and I might just backtrack before I started Oysterly. So my background is within corporate marketing, and I used to work at TripAdvisor. So I was there for just over five years, and my role was working with larger corporations and really helping find out what their challenges were and recommend solutions on TripAdvisor. And then something happened. And it was this, COVID. And so during that time, it was really scary, if you remember. So there was a lot of doom and gloom, a lot of bad negative press. And so I really just wanted to make a bit of a change. And so I saw that there was a lot of good actually happening in the world, especially in tourism. So you might have recalled that there were things like you could go stay in a luxury hotel with your pets, or I know that there was some airlines even offering that you could order their food and eat it at home. There was just so much love for travel. And so what I did was I created this mini video series where I just spotlight what was happening in tourism just to make people feel better. And then I went on and posted these videos on LinkedIn and the response was massive. People were reaching out privately, they were commenting, and right then and there I knew that video was going to be a really powerful medium for businesses. So that sort of brings me up to when I had the idea to use my skill set and create Oysterly. So as you mentioned, we’re a social video agency. So I’m based out here in Singapore. And essentially what we do is that we work with larger organizations. And what we found is that companies are really struggling to keep up with social media, and especially the rise of video content. And if you have a look at like, I’m sure you know, like just with what’s been happening in the press and the announcements, like things like LinkedIn is now testing a TikTok style feed for video. And so it’s moving at such a rapid pace. So really where we fit in is that we work with our companies and we help create all their own user-generated content that goes on their social channels. And so that essentially is what we do. And I often think of what we do with 3Ds. So we define what the objective is going to be and the strategy. We then develop all the content and then we distribute. So we give brands massive reach across all their social channels.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, cool. Very cool. Well, we’ll dive into all of that as well, but I want to backtrack a little bit on your story back to TripAdvisor. And, you know, when you were starting to release those videos, you know, through COVID, was that done as TripAdvisor branded content or what was the plan there?
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, I just came up with the idea of just creating my own content. I just called it Travel Watch. If you go to my LinkedIn profile, you actually see all the videos there. And TripAdvisor was very much supportive. And at the time, I was just posting different videos and sharing a lot that was happening in the industry as well. So that’s sort of essentially how it sort of came about. But I think just to be clear, that really just made me realize my love for video. And I just think it’s such a beautiful platform, a beautiful medium to connect with people. So that was my first taste of video.
SPEAKER_01:
So without a background in video production as such, I’m not sure what level of skill or experience you’d had in making videos, but it sounds to me like you just went out there and just started making video content about something you’re passionate about, which is travel. And you know, so what would you say to a business owner, regardless of the industry that they work in about the idea of just, just getting started with video content in the first place?
SPEAKER_00:
Hmm. I think, I think it’s a really key point just to give you some more sort of background as well. When I was creating a lot of video content as well, I started posting some videos on YouTube and I was just sharing like different marketing advice and so forth. And I really did that just to help myself practice with speaking and doing presentation skills as well. And so I think you need to sort of have the mindset of not, expecting every video to go viral and not really worrying about what people think. It’s really easy to get sort of caught up in that. And I can tell you now, like if you look back at those LinkedIn videos, or even if you scroll all the way back on my TikTok profile, the videos were so bad. Like, oh, but you know, it’s all about just taking those first steps. And so with getting started with video, I would definitely say, just start practicing. There’s a lot of apps you can use that can make it easy for you to film video, like Cupcut is one that I use. There’s a subscription, but you can just use the free version, which is great. And just start practicing filming yourself as well. And then that will get you more upskilled in just creating videos, but everyone starts somewhere. And I didn’t have any skills. And I just said to myself, just have this goal in mind and keep creating videos. And over time you just get better.
SPEAKER_01:
And now you run a social video agency, which I think, you know, maybe if you can help us understand, you know, what is, what does that mean to you? That’s the idea of being a social video agency, as opposed to you’re not a video production company. Am I right in assuming that?
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, that’s correct. So what we specialize in is creating owned user generated content. And are you happy if I just sort of define some terms? You might need to explain that. Exactly. Yeah. Excellent. Okay. A lot of people talk about user-generated content, often referred to as UGC. If we think about User-generated content in its traditional form, it’s when a user is talking about a product or a service on their social channels and they’re not being paid by the brand, they’re not influenced by the brand. So it’s very much just being led by the user. So that’s the traditional form of user-generated content, right? And it goes on the user’s social channels. If we hop over to influencer content, this essentially is like if a brand wants to work with an influencer to get access to their audience. So one example I could share is like with Dyson, they might want to promote their Dyson Airwrap. So they might work with an influencer who talks all about hairstyles and has a really big audience. So that influencer would post on their social channel. Let’s say it’s Instagram, right? Whereas owned user-generated content, and this is a term that we’ve defined at Oysterly, it sits in the middle. It’s kind of like the sweet spot. So basically what we do is that we work with UGC creators, and we come up with the different ideas that the videos need to be about, and then they will create the videos. And what’s really important to note is that all these videos go on to the brand’s social channels. It’s a really big distinction. The content is also paid for. The brand also approves it and signs off on it. And so if you look at some different brands on social media, you’ll see that a lot of them are going down this path of working with user-generated content creators to get different texture in the types of content that they’re creating. So that’s what we specialize in. On a second point, we also do support with influencer content. I think it’s huge. I think it’s really important. I hear a lot of brands have been burnt by influencers and I really just think it comes down to that defined stage with getting really clear on what the objective is. And then we also have gotten a lot of requests lately from larger companies that have all this video content on file and that they don’t know what to do with it. So I call it like collecting dust. And so we’re able to review all that content. We’re doing this now for a tourism body and actually refresh it so it can be pushed out across TikTok or Instagram, Facebook, et cetera.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, I love that and I’m interested in helping us understand today in 2024, which do you think, and there’s probably no correct answer here, it’s not a binary question, right, but which do you think is potentially more valuable for brands to consider investing in? Do you think it’s that owned UGC where you’re potentially the people on camera are not known faces? They’re not like well-known celebrities. They’re not someone that people are necessarily following, but they’re real people, right? Versus someone who is a recognized face in a niche, you know, who has a following, which we’d call an influencer campaign. Like, so which one’s more valuable, do you think?
SPEAKER_00:
I think they go both hand in hand. So when we work with creators, we’ve got over 4,000 different creators within our network. So that’s whether it’s UGC or influencers as well. If it is owned user generated content going on your social channels, think of it like this, like you’re not worried about what their follow account is. You’re really just looking at their style of content. Are they within your target audience? Do they show up good on camera? some of the key metrics plus a few others that you want to look for. And that’s really important because you want to build up your own community on your own social channels. It’s really important. And then essentially then you can earn the right to start marketing and drive people to your website to convert or make another conversion. Whereas if we look at influencer content, that’s where you want to be considering what their follower count is potentially, and also their audience as well, because you’re essentially paying more of a premium to the influencer to get access to their audience. And that’s going to help you maybe tell the story of your brand, build credibility. So I do think that it’s really important that you’ve got your own user generated content sorted on your own social channels, because Even if an influencer is talking about your brand, people are going to go to your social channels. I call this a social sniff. They’re going to go and have a look and see what your brand’s about. So they go hand in hand, but I would probably put a little bit more weight on owned user generated content.
SPEAKER_01:
You mentioned an interesting term before, what you referred to as the texture in a brand’s social channels, right? Can you describe that to me? Because I think I understand what you’re talking about, but I’d love to hear what are you referring to when you talk about, you know, the texture of the socials channels?
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, so often when I think about what we do when we work with brands, I often think of it like we’re creating a company’s like mini Netflix channel on social media. It’s where people can go and learn about the brand. It’s where they can laugh, they can engage, entertain, whatever aligns with the brand’s tone of voice. And so when we talk about different texture, you don’t want to have all of the same creator in all of your videos. You don’t want to have all of the same video styles. So when we think about When you’re creating short form video content in particular, you can think about how you can do sort of green screen videos versus talking to camera videos, or maybe it’s a video where someone is responding to a question. So there’s lots of different styles of videos. And so that sort of comes back to having different texture. So when you have different styles of different texture, meaning styles of videos or creators, it just means that your content will be a lot more interesting.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah. And with that texture, you know, how, how does the brand play into that? Because for some brands, particularly with larger organizations where their brand is very important to them, that control of their brands, visual style, and all of that stuff that is so valuable to a brand, how important is that? Or do you think brands need to let go more in order to create texture?
SPEAKER_00:
Yes. So, we at Oysterly, we work with quite large organizations. We’ve worked with like 3M, UPS and many others, universities and so forth. And a lot of these companies have very strict brand guidelines. So, I think it’s important to have a look at your guidelines and you want to do some internal work and work out actual creator guideline that you can share with the creators. So this could be things like what you want the text on screen to look like. Also like what the do’s and don’ts are for the brand. So essentially, and quite a few other things, but essentially you’re giving the creator a bit of a light touch in terms of what the guidelines are. So that’s the first thing. The other thing that I highly recommend companies do is also do research about different ideas and come up with a script. This is so important. So again, this is what we do. We don’t just work with creators. We actually do have input in what the content needs to be about. So when you do that, it means that you’re all working to one common goal. Creators want to create great content for brands. They love creating. So by working together and having a really clear outline of what you want sort of the video to be about, it means you’re going to get a really good output. Now, I’ll just make something really clear. And this is what we mentioned when we were working with brands. The content idea or video script, it doesn’t need to be 100% matched, right? Because you’re going to stifle creativity. It’s really about having a light touch. And we know that social is becoming a really powerful search engine, right? People are turning to social media to find out more information. So you need to do the research as a brand and see what are keywords, words people are asking about when they’re thinking about your product or service. And I mean, this is just a pro tip and you want to weave those words into the script. So someone’s actually saying those words and that’s going to help you also rank organically on the social platforms.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And that idea of light touch with some guidelines, I think is a really nice way for brands to consider allowing creative freedom for the creators, but also having that control. But I think the critical thing with owned UGC is that there is an opportunity for the brand or the agency working with the brand to approve the content before it’s been posted as well, right? Which you have less control often with other methods of UGC.
SPEAKER_00:
Yes, yeah, 100% that’s correct. And what you will find, I think this is really interesting, is that you’ll find creators that just really resonate with your audience. Like we’ve worked with a creator And he doesn’t have a huge following. I think it’s less than a thousand followers. And he’s been creating content for a finance brand that we’ve been working with. And his videos get hundreds of thousands of views. And he’s just got this approach that he really connects with the brand’s audience. So I think that’s also the exciting part as well. So you want to work with some different creators and you’ll see based on you getting your, your data and seeing how the videos perform, what creators are really aligning more to your audience. And that’s when the magic happens.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah. So when you are sourcing these creators, uh, are you sourcing like micro-influencers, people who are looking to become an influencer but aren’t there yet? Or are you sourcing just real people who maybe never thought about doing this before, but they’re like open to giving it a go? What’s your approach to finding creators?
SPEAKER_00:
So the first part is the define stage. So we work out what the focus is for the brand, what the strategy is, and then we want to understand like who they want to target. And so then we will actually, we’ve got a database, we’ve got a lot of different creators on there, whether that’s UGC creators or influencers. So we refer to that. I also promote on my own TikTok profile as well. So I’ll do a call out saying that we’re looking for creators here and share a little bit about what we’re looking for. And then the third way is that we’ve got a closed group on Facebook as well for creators. It’s the Oysterly content creator group and there’s a lot of creators in there as well. So they’re probably the three main methods. But just also just to add a little bit more as well is that we don’t, if it is a UGC creator, we don’t focus too much on followers. And I know that might seem a little bit foreign, right? But you don’t, you really want to be looking at their style of content and are they getting some engagement? Are they getting some comments and likes on their videos? And do they align with your target audience? There’s some of the key metrics that you want to be looking at.
SPEAKER_01:
So I’m interested because for some of these creators, because it’s owned UGC, let’s say a creator might be, I don’t know, their personal Instagram channels and videos that they create or their own TikTok are about fishing, right? And maybe they’re personally just into fishing, but they resonate well with a finance company’s audience with their own UGC. Is there a problem that there’s a real disconnect between what they do on their personal channel versus what they are, I guess, pretending that they’re into on their own UGC. Do you see it like that or not?
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, it’s a, it’s an interesting one. So I think when we’re looking for, when we’re looking for creators, generally the creator will have that their UGC creator on their social profiles as well. So that’s sort of the first thing. I think generally it’s good to just make sure that the audience is aligned with the creator and that it does need to be somewhat authentic as well. But I think it’s just case by case, like having a look. And I often, you know, it’s essentially like the new form of working with actors as well, if that sort of helps, you know, to explain. I think it’s also important to note that you’re not really tagging the creator in the videos as well. Like you’re getting the content and it’s going on your own social channels. So that’s sort of where that partnership ends.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s an interesting dynamic. And I think that in this show, we’re really talking more to the business audience as opposed to the creator audience. And I think the advice you’d give to creators is, is, is different. We could go up to a whole episode on that. Right. But, you know, from a business’s perspective, I think what you’re saying is that you’re looking for the. the demographic, the person who potentially is going to resonate best, and they have a method and style of delivery and a way of creating content that resonates with your audience. That’s really what you’re looking for. And I guess it requires some experimentation there too, right? Not just one type of creator, but you probably want to just experiment and try a few different approaches, correct?
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, that’s correct. Yeah, and like to give you a little bit more depth on that as well.
SPEAKER_01:
One of the things that I’m thinking about here is To be a good, say, short form video creator or a UGC creator, it obviously requires some creative. How much creative do you need from the creator, from the UGC creator, as in coming up with the ideas for shots or for transitions or for, you know, text overlays and things that they might use? Or how much do you kind of tell them this is what you need to do?
SPEAKER_00:
Hmm. So what we, what we do is we will write out a script as well. So we’ve got that light touch, but then we also, and this is really good question. We actually include a video link as well of the style of video. And that goes back to the initial question that you had about the different texture in the content. So we don’t want all videos coming back and it’s just. or green screen videos, for example. So it’s really important that you add a little bit of guidance about how you think the video should be filmed. And that’s all we do. And if the creator comes back and says, no, we want to film it a different way, that’s fine. It’s just to make sure that we’re getting different styles of content back. So that’s really important, but we never go into detail about transitions and Furthermore, we leave it to the creator. They love to create and they’re very much experienced in this. So that’s where great content is created.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, yeah. So I guess it’s pretty varied as far as compensation for creators and I guess that would vary a lot depending on the experience and the budget of the client and all of that. But are you, for example, sending free product to the creator? which they may need to do the shoot and then they get to keep it and then maybe there’s a small amount of compensation or typically what’s that look like as far as you know what you need to be paying these creators?
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, so we pay the creators and then in some instances like we’re working with a pharmaceutical brand and we’re also sending out some of the product as well so it’s a product that’s targeting mums and expectant moms as well. And so that’s how we would do that. So I also think that it’s really important to pay the creator. You can’t expect content to be just created for free just because. And even if you are sending out product, You might even want to just include like a small amount. You know, it could be anywhere from $50. It could be up to a few hundred dollars. It really does depend. It’s case by case with the brand. But I am a big believer of just not expecting free content.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah. And how much do you expect or, uh, how much does the creators that you work with expect to be able to vouch for the brand? You know what I mean? Like if, if they have never used the service before, if it’s a service or they’ve only just received the product and they’re told now you got to say all these like incredible things about the product. Do you think that there’s a. a moral obligation to, you know, vouch for the product in some way, or do you think that that, because they’re effectively acting, that that doesn’t factor?
SPEAKER_00:
I think we will always send out the product and give them time to try the product or service. It’s really important so they can get familiar. And it’s always, we’re always very clear that we’re like we work closely with lots of different creators, that there’s an understanding that if they do not want to move forward, and we’ve had this, they don’t want to move forward with a brand. That’s completely fine. I think it’s all about having great relationships and then also having great relationships with the companies that we work with. So we’re kind of, we sit in the middle essentially, but yeah, it’s a good question. And I think it just comes with experience and having a good network of careers that you work with.
SPEAKER_01:
Do you think when brands are publishing this content, whether it be in paid ads or in organic content, that there’s some sort of obligation that they need to say, you know, this person was paid for this endorsement, or is there any legislation that you come across that insists that?
SPEAKER_00:
No, not at this stage. If it’s going on the brand, it’s different, right? So just to recap. So if the, the content is going on someone else’s channel, like the influencers channel, then yeah, it needs to be disclosed. It’s very important. But if it’s on the brand’s actual channel, it is quite clear that there is a collaboration happening. It’s on the brand social media channel.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, that makes sense. Do you think that UGC, I’m using air quotes here, that UGC, because it’s a style of content as well as an actual thing as well, right? But you can create UGC style content without it being UGC, right? So brands will often… film in a way that feels like it’s user generated content, even though there was a whole production crew there to do it, you know. But do you think that works? Do you think you can manufacture UGC content or do you think it genuinely needs to be created by the creator for it to work?
SPEAKER_00:
I think if you’re trying to manufacture it, it would just end up costing a lot more. And I see this a lot, you know, working across the Asia Pacific as well, but it takes a lot to try and manufacture that. It’s probably working with some expensive creative agency, longer lead times, lots of approvals, whereas it’s in your best interest to work with creators who do this day after day. I don’t think it’s in the best interest for a brand. And I’ve seen this on social channels as well, where a brand’s trying to sort of do that style. I think you’re better off finding creators to work with and just going down the route of creating or end user generated content if that’s what you’re looking for and posting that on your social channels.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, cool. I love it. So how much of the content that you handle and manage at Oysterly is posted organically versus paid campaigns?
SPEAKER_00:
It really depends. It really depends on the brand and what their objective is. So it’s really case by case. We’re really bespoke with the service that we offer to brands. So yeah, it’s really dependent. I would say that you need to be thinking about a paid strategy if you want to reach specific audiences. So for example, when we were working with a university, they wanted to reach and connect with people that are based in specific countries around Asia. So if that was you and you needed to reach specific people in certain countries, then it’s really important that you consider a paid strategy because then essentially you’re telling the the platform. So if it’s Facebook, for example, please show this content to these people here. So that’s where you need to be really thinking about it based on your audience and who you’re looking to target.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, so if you are running paid campaigns, particularly at scale, you and I both know that often to be successful with that, you need to test multiple iterations of things. Maybe it’s like one idea with like three or four different hooks or you need to try different calls to action. But in order to do that as a clear split test in a way, you kind of need variations of the same content. So are you in like instructing your UGC creators to, hey, go out and make this idea, but do it with like send us back a version with four different hooks, for example. Is that the approach you take?
SPEAKER_00:
It depends. Like sometimes we do that, like we will change the hook of the video. The hook is extremely powerful. It’s the first, if just for the listeners, it’s the first few seconds of the video. So there could be different styles of hooks. It could be someone saying something. It could be the text on screen. It could be the first frame. When we created a video once for a organization, we had a kangaroo at the start of the frame. So that’s what you need to be considering. But yes, we often sometimes will change the hook and it gives us more opportunity to see what’s working well and what’s resonating with the audience. We also have a lot of tracking and reporting. So we are tracking every single piece of content. and seeing how it performs as well, which is really important. So it’s not, you know, just don’t get into the habit of just creating and posting content. You also want to have like a bit of a feedback loop to see what worked, what didn’t, everything down to a creator, or maybe it’s the hook. You found that there’s a really powerful hook that you should be using. And what’s exciting is that that can inform your wider marketing strategy as well.
SPEAKER_01:
So with that in mind, do you, at your agency, do you re-edit some content so that you can make those iterative changes, those small changes, or are you going back to the creator and saying, hey, can you try re-editing this to do something different in the hook, for example, or how does that work for you guys?
SPEAKER_00:
We would, it would be in the initial brief to the creator. We would be really upfront that if we wanted two different styles of hooks, so we would do that at the initial stage. And then when we get the content back, we will review everything. We’ve got a really high quality control to make sure there’s no spelling mistakes that the text. is in the right position, if it’s text on screen, but there’s no glitches in the video, there’s, we’ve got a whole checklist that we go through. And then if there’s something that needs to be changed, then we’ll circle back to the creator. But I think it’s just important. You just have good, good relationships with, uh, creators and also, um, like the companies that we work with as well. Um, and you work collaboratively together, but we’re very upfront when we first start the briefing process.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah. Okay, cool. So I hope you take this question the right way, Melissa, because this is your bread and butter. But there is some people, particularly in performance creative spaces and, you know, the DTC or e-commerce brands where they’re really scaling ad creative, that in my understanding anyway, that they feel that UGC content kind of used to be a much more impactful than it is today, particularly in paid ads. And I think part of the argument, and I’m not saying that I necessarily agree, right? But part of their argument is that as consumers, there’s so much UGC, paid UGC content that we kind of see through it. We know that that’s not a real person, that’s not really their thing. So I think the impact of that UGC creative is maybe, you know, lessening over time. What’s your take on that?
SPEAKER_00:
Well, I think for me, are you talking about own UGC or UGC?
SPEAKER_01:
I would say it’s probably both in a way, like for brands that are using UGC as their paid strategy, so probably would be owning UGC.
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, if that’s the case, they would have had like some sort of partnership, I think, because you can’t just use, you know, someone’s content as an ad. So I think, but yeah, going back to like owing UGC, I think You know, what we’ve seen is that people want to connect with relatable people. And what the power is with ONGDC is that that unlocks characterization. It means that you can work with lots of different people in your target audience. A great example to check out is Microsoft Education on TikTok. They work with lots of different creators within their target audience from different backgrounds, diversity, age demographics as well. So I think that you’re more inclusive. And I do think marketing’s changed, like shifted away from airbrushing. You know, we don’t like creators that we work with to use any beauty filters. We’re completely against that. We like them to show up and be raw and honest. So that’s one big part of it. The next part is content as well. So with the power of Orange UGC is that you’re getting like such fresh content and storytelling. And I think that’s really important because creators aren’t getting tied to a marketing objective or they need to think about business objectives and so forth. They want to create and create really good content. And that’s where Orange UGC is extremely powerful. And if you just have a look, a lot of the major brands around the world, a lot of them are tapping into Orange UGC as well. So I think that it’s only going to get bigger this year. And also just the power of video, video being such an engaging format for storytelling, for Q&A and so forth. So that’s where I see a lot of value for this type of medium.
SPEAKER_01:
I think the impact of this type of content is really not going to change significantly because people buy from people. That’s at the end of the day, people are influenced by people in their buying journey. And I think the difference is and potentially the creative fatigue that might have spurred this question on for me was more around this, this idea of UGC testimonials, right? So I think that’s something that potentially a consumer can see through much more easier today, where it’s like, you know, they’ve just someone’s just been sent something or they’re paid paid a small amount to just make a video as a testimonial and talk about how good this product is. But I think that, you know, you guys at Oysterly and Good Owned UGC is not just a testimonial. It’s storytelling. It’s creative. It’s creating content for a brand in a with personality, but it’s not just someone face to camera just saying, I love using this product, you should use it too, right?
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. And I think it’s a really interesting point that you mentioned about testimonials. So we wouldn’t We wouldn’t do that at Oysterly. The only way we would do sort of a testimonial video is if it’s an actual customer of the brand. I think it’s really important. You can’t, yeah, you can’t lie about that. So yeah, you would want to just do an outreach. One way you could do this is if you actually have a look at people are using hashtags for your brand or already talking, you know, talking about your product or service that they’ve used it, that would be a good way to reach out and see if they’re open to sharing more about your brand. But it really needs to be real if it is a testimonial.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, yeah, cool. I agree. So I think when we talk about UGC, particularly now, we can’t ignore the power of AI or the impact of AI as well. So I don’t know if it’s in the news in your world, it probably is, but certainly there’s been some news here in Australia recently of you know, creators, UGC creators having their digital avatar created and then used in some cases without them knowing by brands, which is obviously very dodgy. Yeah, and unethical. Unethical. But the reality is, is the technology is here where we can have very realistic AI generated avatars, which can do the job of UGC creators. What’s your take on AI and the impact in this space?
SPEAKER_00:
Okay, I think this is so interesting because Meta just came out and said that they’re updating their AI policy. It’s their content policy. It hasn’t been updated for many, many years. And they’re doing this because of feedback from their community, also their board as well, just in terms of people wanting to know if something is made with AI. And this is certainly the start of it. AI-generated images or videos, it’s just going to get so much better and look so much more real. So what Meta has said is that if you’re creating content that’s been made by AI, you’re posting it on Facebook, Instagram, or threads, that you will need to disclose that. And you’re going to, you’ll have to, there’ll be a tag added to your content, which is visible for the viewer, which says made with AI. And then Meta will have other ways to detect if it has been, made with AI, if you haven’t disclosed it. So that’s the important thing. Just going back, and that is the first one to really come out and make a stand. So this, and I do think other platforms will follow suit. Going back to your question about sort of AI-generated creators, I think it’s really unethical to just create something like that without the individual’s approval, firstly. And then second to that is that I think I do think it’s an interesting one. I know that a lot of luxury brands have sort of dabbled in this, but that was before Meta came out with this policy that they’re in the midst of rolling out. I don’t know, I can see it just not being as effective and I think that people maybe have just been caught up with sort of AI generated content. I think, you know, going back to what you said that there’s so much value in just seeing real humans, right? And I think back to something I heard ages ago at a conference. And it was this, that, you know, if you see a hotel room and it looks all, you know, nice and clean, look at, you know, a hotel room online, for example, that’s one option. Or maybe you see a hotel room and it’s sort of got, you know, a person there, or maybe they’re lying on a sun deck chair or something, you know, that generally is more engaging because people like to see people in the content. So I always just sort of think back to that as well. People want to engage with people.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, I think it’s a fascinating and interesting space and I align with your perspective on that as well. But then the other side of me thinks like as AI becomes more accepted and everywhere, potentially, even though you’ll need to disclose that this is generated with AI or this is an AI generated avatar, you know, potentially people will still be like, that’s cool. I know it’s AI, but I’m still interested in your message and I still want to buy that product. It could be a really interesting thing.
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah. And yeah. And also just to add on to that, if you’ve got sort of FAQs, like questions that people ask as well. So you might, you know, I think what could be good for brands is if you’ve got sort of an AI sort of employee, maybe, you know, and you, you could actually bring that and answer just FAQ questions. So. Yeah, things like that. I think that could be a very interesting space. So yeah, I agree with you there.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, well, we’ll just see what happens and see where it goes. But obviously, you know, staying ethical and remembering that people are always going to need humanity around them as well, I think. Yes, exactly. Very fascinating. So let me ask you, you know, we talked about AI there, but just to wrap up here, Melissa, what do you think, what do you think is next in social video? Obviously short forms become a real big thing. Will it continue? Long forms still dominating as well. Long form content still absolutely has a place. Yeah, definitely. What’s next in social video do you think?
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah. Okay. So I think that there’s going to be more of a focus on social videos, you know, as I mentioned, sort of at the top of this, um, LinkedIn testing out a TikTok style feed, you know, it does sound foreign to a lot of us, right? If we’re the sort of that older sort of generation, but if you go into platforms like TikTok, there’s a lot of content, which is all about how to write your resume, how to find a job. And so it makes sense that LinkedIn wants to tap into this, audience, right? And create a different sort of way that people can get content from their platform. Also Elon Musk came out and said the other month that X is going to be more of a video first platform and so forth. So I do think social videos are going to get a lot more prevalent this year, especially short form videos. And there’s definitely a lot of value in longer form videos as well. So that’s sort of the first thing. And then just To add on to that, I think that social commerce will just continue to grow. So what that is, is that people seeing a video and then they’re converting or buying afterwards. And I was reading a really interesting study from Facebook and they were talking a lot about how they’re launching a lot of different products for Facebook where you can actually create these products and then drive sales for your business. So I think that’s going to be a really big one. To add on to that, you know, there’s been so many times where you go into a store and the shop assistant maybe ignores you or you can’t find what you need and it’s just not a good experience. So just having that in the back of your mind and being able to just easily shop online or learn about a product through social media and then having that simple button where you can click and purchase straight away. I just, I just think that’s going to be a big one, a really big one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, interesting and interesting to watch this space and maybe we’ll get you back on the show in 12 months time and see what’s changed.
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, great stuff. Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_01:
Awesome. So for people who are interested in learning more about Oysterly, potentially working with you or just learning more from you or connecting further, what’s the best place for people to come and hang out with you?
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, there’s a few different places. You can visit myself on LinkedIn, so Melissa Laurie, and there you will see the Oysterly details as well, so you can go straight there. and also on TikTok or YouTube. So just search my name and you’ll see me there. And then finally, if you want to go to the website, it’s oysterly.co. So a few different ways there. And I look forward to hearing from anyone that decides to reach out.
SPEAKER_01:
Awesome, cool. We’ll have links in the show notes, guys, so stick around and I’ll shout out the link for that. And Melissa, I just want to thank you for coming on. And, you know, to me, I’ve got questions written down on the screen here, but I kind of didn’t ask any of the questions I was going to because it was just a fascinating, interesting conversation. So I really enjoyed it. Lots of fun.
SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, thank you. And good questions. Good questions as well.
SPEAKER_01:
Awesome. Hopefully it’s valuable for everyone listening and watching today as well. So Melissa, we’ll get you back on the show real soon. Yeah, thank you. All right, my friends, I hope that episode inspired you to start to adapt and embrace UGC for your brand or business. Or if you’re a creator working with brands or businesses on their video strategies, then consider how UGC can fit into the video strategies that you’re consulting with them on. Let me know what you thought of this episode. Reach out to me anytime, podcast at engagevideomarketing.com. And I will be back with you very soon with another episode of the Engage Video Marketing Podcast. And make sure to hit subscribe if you’re watching here on YouTube. Hit follow if you’ve enjoyed this episode and you’re not following the podcast on your favorite podcast player of choice. Once again, I’m Ben Amos from Engage Video Marketing, and it’s my role to help you build confidence as a video strategist. I’ll see you real soon.
