CHAPTER 4

USER-GENERATED CONTENT

The human-centered approach to innovation is not limited to the creation of new products. We can apply the same principles to the world of branding as well.

In their brand-building projects, marketers the world over have spent years following a specific and consolidated playbook: you define the brand positioning, create a message, think up a story, build a campaign around it, and then you impose it on the end user through traditional media channels, with television crowned as the indisputable ruler for reach and impact. This was a communication flow that went in one direction: a brand would speak to the audience without any chance for reply, frequently interrupting the rhythm of content that for the viewer was much more interesting (such as a movie or a show). There was no way to avoid that communication except by switching channels while waiting for it to end. To be clear, sometimes those communications were appreciated for their informative content or for their level of entertainment. There were even some eagerly awaited moments, as with Carosello, a ten-minute advertising slot of sponsored entertainment that appeared on TV daily before the evening news in my own beloved Italy in the 1960s and 1970s—and there still are some today, such as the hyper-produced ads for the US Super Bowl. But that wasn’t the norm, and it certainly isn’t today. I remember my anxiety as a child when watching TV with my parents, when my dad kept changing the channel with irritation as soon as there was a réclame (which is what we called the ads back in the 1980s); I was always scared that he wouldn’t zap back in time for the movie we were watching and that we would miss precious minutes of the show. In general, people resented the intrusion of publicity, but they had no choice except to endure it.

This was the case until new platforms began to emerge, first taking the form of very simple internet sites and then gradually taking the shape of what we have come to call social media and content on demand. In this way, the entire context has been completely overturned in the space of a very few years.

In today’s digital world, brands are no longer the sole senders of product messaging that is then passively received. Sometimes brands are engaged in a two-way conversation with active interlocutors who are often informed, frequently critical, and certainly interested in sharing their own point of view. Most of the time, though, brands are not even involved in a dialogue but instead become the passive object of conversation in an exchange that takes place between people dispersed across the global forum of social media.

Sometimes this conversation takes on positive tones, when the brand is admired, shared, even celebrated for its vision and behaviors. At other times, though, the conversation is tinged with a negative tone, and the brand is criticized, attacked, and censured. These exchanges and dialogues on the virtual stages of the web have an incredible potential impact: if the argument becomes fiery and people with the right network decide to amplify it, in the span of a few hours these messages can take on the dimensions of an uncontrollable planetary media tsunami, for better or for worse, reaching hundreds of millions of human beings in the blink of an eye.

Every brand in the world has had to evolve over recent years from the privileged condition of being the only actor in a one-way conversation, perfectly planned and carefully designed up front, to becoming the object of an exchange of ideas that is completely free and unpredictable instead. They have had to shift from a comfortable, controllable context in which they could simply buy the right to speak to an audience by acquiring media space, to the new current situation in which they have to earn the chance, not so much to speak to someone, but rather to become the topic of a conversation between free and autonomous beings. If the brand’s content isn’t relevant, interesting, current, and meaningful for the target audience, then it simply won’t be taken into consideration. It won’t be appreciated, it won’t be discussed, and it certainly won’t be shared and amplified. That kind of content will fail to inspire other content. It will be sterile and, as such, will die.

Either a specific audience is understood on a deep level, in terms of what is intellectually and emotionally interesting to that audience, in a process of monitoring and reacting to how those interests change on a daily basis—or the content is progressively condemned to the trash can. For sure, media space can still be bought; you can still pay to be present, to shout, to make yourself heard, and this is certainly an important lever. But if the messages that you’re shouting aren’t relevant, that content simply becomes irritating noise to be blocked out or even fought against. And now, viewers have a greater ability to make themselves be respected than they did in the past.

This generates a strikingly obvious consequence for any business: if our brands are able to engage their users in a good way, to the point of inspiring users to generate positive content on the brands’ behalf, then we possess an extraordinary asset. The other clear consequence is that users do not react solely to content brought to them through traditional communication platforms—whether TV, print, or digital. We can reach users wherever they are, through their daily experiences: when they acquire a product, when they use it, when they practice a sport, when they walk in the street, when they go to a concert, when they dine at a restaurant. If these experiences with our brands are relevant, unique, and meaningful, then there is a greater chance that users will be disposed to share these experiences, creating their own content and becoming spontaneous brand ambassadors. This is “user-generated content.” Our role as brand leaders is to understand how to inspire it!

User-generated content is made by individuals who communicate, either directly or indirectly, with other individuals. One of the most powerful forms of such content is that generated spontaneously, as a reaction to an experience and without commercial ends. For this kind of communication to have an impact, it’s important that the receiver trusts the sender and that the sender doesn’t betray that trust. This means that content commissioned and paid for by brands always poses a certain risk, both for the brand and for the creator. Creators can assume different forms: they might be a renowned influencer, a close friend, or a trusted colleague. They become creators when they tell a story about something they have discovered, used, or appreciated personally. We are then the receivers. Every one of us is surrounded by people who share messages of this kind every single day. And each one of us, in turn, can be that dear friend, trusted colleague, or even far-off influencer for someone else.

By pure chance, while I was writing these words something happened that took me almost by surprise, leaving me speechless for its striking relevance to this topic. I had just finished typing the last words of the previous paragraph and was taking a coffee break; while I sipped my drink (it wasn’t my typical espresso; it was an American coffee and thus sippable), I started to write one of my usual daily posts on my social media channels, without even thinking about it. These posts are a sort of public journal, through which I share my thoughts, reflections, and emotions, day after day. And then they are also a way to detach and relax; this is how I found myself writing something even when I was supposed to be taking a break from writing.

A few moments before, with my cup of coffee in my hand, I had been leafing through a digital photo album on my cell phone, and I came across a particular image, snapped a few days earlier by my wife, Carlotta, in our house in the Hamptons. It showed me seated on a couch next to a series of rag dolls representing different famous figures from the history of world culture, from literature to science, from art to religion, from politics to philosophy and more: from Frida Kahlo to Sigmund Freud, from Abraham Lincoln to Edgar Allan Poe, from Albert Einstein to Andy Warhol. The dolls are called the Little Thinkers and make a wonderful gift for any child, offering the magic of a toy mixed with a history lesson and a life story. Entertainment meets with education, and it’s a joy for both the eyes and the mind. And from personal experience, I can assure you that anyone who has an inner child, whatever that person’s outer age, will greatly appreciate the dolls, too.

It was Tony Chambers—back then editor in chief at the magazine Wallpaper—who first showed me these dolls, one evening some years ago in a pub in Singapore. We were enjoying a Japanese beer and some unidentified starters when he told me about his daughter, Olive, who, at only four years old, held long conversations during dinner parties about Picasso, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Shakespeare (whom she called Shakey!). Obviously she wasn’t talking about the real historical figures; she was just sharing tales about her dolls. But thanks to those puppets, the small girl was learning about these timeless creators of culture and had begun to fall in love with them, considering them to be her “friends.”

Inspired by my wife’s photo, I decided to share the memory online. Thousands of people appreciated it; hundreds of them took the time to write positive comments; and, above all, dozens of people decided to tell me that they had immediately bought one of those dolls as soon as they had read the post. One person in particular wrote me something that caught my curiosity: he was thanking me because, while looking at the Little Thinkers website, he had found a unique watch, with a quadrant depicting the face of the artist Salvador Dalí. I went online to check it out, found the object, also liked it, and bought one for myself as well.

My spontaneous “share,” inspired by the value that those beautiful dolls had for me and for my friend Tony before me, generated value for the brand, value for the tens of thousands of people who connect with me through social media, and finally new value also for myself, inspired as I was by the inspiration kindled in my own followers. Value, value, value, multiplied to an infinite degree!

When I went back to the computer to continue writing this book, I realized that, in an entirely unconscious way, I had just experienced exactly what I was trying to describe in these pages. I had shared something with the world that had inspired me and that I hoped would inspire thousands of other people. I had done so without any commercial goal, without any personal interest, through pure gratitude for the value that I was personally enjoying and the pure desire to put that value in the hands of many other people like myself. More or less knowingly, I had become a formidable brand ambassador for those dolls. The brand had created value for me, and I was creating value for others. And in this virtuous circle, I had also given value back to the brand itself.

And my experience is certainly not an anomaly. It’s something that happens all the time, on different scales, every day, between all of us. Before social media, how many times did we find ourselves talking about a product we loved, recommending a brand that fascinated us, or criticizing an object that had let us down? Malcolm Gladwell has eloquently recounted this story in his book The Tipping Point.¹ In the past, we shared brand experiences like this one only through personal conversations, on the phone with relatives or at dinner with friends. Tony did the same thing with me at that pub in Singapore. Today, we also share our experiences in the virtual piazza of the social media world, and our conversations no longer have any boundaries of time or space.

Value is thus the prime mover for generating content. Value is what drives someone to invest time, creativity, and intellect in creating and sharing a message about a product or an experience. Every individual reacts in a positive way to an experience that is meaningful to that person—that adds some kind of value to the person’s own life.

This value can be emotional or functional; it can be a gentle gesture that touches our soul in a totally unexpected way or a major event, with very profound effects, that visibly impacts society as a whole. And value can take on many different forms: from entertainment to security, from comfort to enjoyment, from sustainability to health, from convenience to style, in our own lives and in the lives of the people surrounding us. When we come into contact with a particularly functional object that makes a task exponentially easier; when we interact with a brand that is purposefully impacting our community in an extraordinary way; when we come across beautiful limited-edition packaging that was designed for an occasion important to us; when we enjoy a memorable experience during a concert by our favorite band; when we find an unexpectedly pleasing lotion, drink, or piece of furniture in a hotel room; when we are inspired by a show put on by a brand in a shopping mall; when we walk into a marvelous pop-up store in the city—in all of these moments and many more, a spring is activated inside of us. We are inspired and excited by the experiences that touch our hearts and minds; we discover them and make them our own, both intellectually and emotionally. When that happens, there is then a good chance that this special moment will drive us to take our phone from our pocket, snap a photo or record a video, and share that experience with the rest of the world—in a spontaneous, authentic, and meaningful way.

Discovering, Owning, Sharing

What I have just described is a three-phase process that I have summarized using a simple acronym, DOS—for discovering, owning, and sharing.

We discover something we have never experienced before that is relevant to us.

That experience—in the very moment in which we live it—becomes our own and only ours; we own that experience.

We are then ready to share it, with pride, passion, and joy—or sometimes with disdain, depending on the nature of the experience.

This is a journey full of extremely important implications for any business, an alchemist’s recipe that has practical potential to transform every touchpoint of a brand into user-generated content. This is the huge novelty of the world we’re living in today as entrepreneurs, business leaders, designers, and innovators. Every object, brand, space, service, and experience can be turned into potential content created by people—content that is real, spontaneous, and difficult to tame.

This is new and partly unexplored territory, for the most part still to be developed by many organizations big and small, from recently formed start-ups to consolidated multinational corporations. This is the realm of true innovation: innovation that, instead of being applied to the invention and creation of a new product, is applied to the world of branding; innovation in channels and platforms, in codes and languages, in meaning; innovation that creates value first for people and then, as a consequence, for business. This is human-centered innovation applied to the world of branding.

Empathy + Strategy + Prototyping Applied to the World of Branding

Yet again, just as in the world of product innovation, we need the proper tools for navigating the complexities of these lands awaiting discovery. And that’s why the synergic use of empathy, strategy, and prototyping, typical of the design world, becomes a powerful approach to use in the realm of branding as well.

We need to understand our users with empathy to comprehend their needs and wants, desires and frustrations, curiosities and ideas, and to then respond with content that is passionate, informed, engaging, coherent, and ultimately relevant, across different channels, making use of nontraditional media such as packaging, interior design, licensing, and real-world experience, whether in a shop, a restaurant, a stadium, or a theater. That same user who was reached once upon a time by one-way, aggressive communication that traveled calmly, without interruption, along the highway of television, radio, and print media, now needs to be approached with relevant content on multiple platforms, made up of many roadways, alleys, and public squares, with omni-channel, 360-degree communication. Products, packaging, services, and environments, if designed in a meaningful way, will trigger an emotional and intellectual process that pushes users to share content with others. “Meaningfulness” is the keyword; the main starting point to reach that relevant meaning is the ability to listen to people every day with the heart and mind, leveraging all of the tools that technology can offer us, from data to artificial intelligence, and combining them with a strong dose of intuition and personal sensitivity.

Based on these insights, we can then build strategies and prototypes, in a repeatable process, similar to the one described earlier for a product but in this case applied to different elements: the elements of communication.