PepsiCo’s campaign “Do Us a Flavor” for their potato chips brand, Lay’s, was a successful example of branding through user generated content. The participants were encouraged to submit a flavor idea for the brand through Facebook. Upon their submission, they would receive an image of a customized Lay’s bag, which they were encouraged to share on social media. Top three flavors were distributed as samples in the stores for public voting. The prize was $1 million for the winning flavor. The company’s goal was to receive 1.2 million submissions and increase sales by 3%. In contrast, they received 3.8 million submissions and the sales increased by 12%, which shows how successful this campaign was in generating interest for the brand.
Extracting and using data is central in the twenty-first century capitalism.
One of the biggest benefits of this campaign for the company is its ability to provide insight into consumer preferences. Since the brand is directly asking the customers about what kind of product they want, the company has the ability to collect data at a low cost. Extracting and using data is central in the twenty-first century capitalism, which makes this aspect of UGC highly valuable. Traditionally, research and development teams are paid significant amounts of money to understand consumer desires and create products according to their preferences. This type of UGC cuts down the costs associated with these processes by outsourcing these steps to the public. In addition, as the most popular social network worldwide, the data that Facebook provides is highly valuable with its ability to access large groups of consumers.
Moreover, users can create unique content for the brand, both in terms of product ideas and also for marketing approaches. Rather than working solely with a team of creatives for new ideas, focusing on UGC and social media platforms provides accessibility to a larger pool of innovative ideas. Additionally, content created by real users might be perceived as being more relatable or authentic, which makes UGC as valuable as professionally produced branded material.
Lastly, PepsiCo increases its visibility as the participants share their authentic flavors in their social media platforms. These types of activities have a tendency to become trends on social media and users are encouraged to take part in order to not miss out. With this natural behavior of social media users, PepsiCo reaches a greater public and invites more people to buy the brand’s products.
From the perspective of the UGC creator, they get a chance to win the monetary prize and have their personalized flavor of chips get manufactured. They can also boost their social media metrics and gain recognition as the winner of the competition. For example, there are multiple social media posts and articles about the winner of 2017’s contest, Ellen Sarem, on the Internet. Although it is less likely to happen for this type of UGC, participants can gain recognition even if they are not the winner of the competition. Their creative work can attract other brands, which can lead to further collaborations and work opportunities.
The consumers of the brand can also benefit from this campaign. Before the finalists of this UGC were announced, free samples of different submissions were being offered to the public. The consumers had the opportunity to taste different products and have their voices get heard with their votes. In addition, since the production development cycle is faster with UGC compared to the production model based on traditional market search, the consumers of the brand have access to newer products faster.
Although all parties benefit from UGC to some degree, on balance the brand itself benefits from this framework the most. Not all UGC creators win the contest or gain recognition for their creative skills. Also, the benefits that the brand users receive in terms of free samples or influence on the newer products are not as significant as the economic values gained by the company in their marketing and production cycles.