No more typical pain points of UGC projects

August 20, 2020

You have been asked to create a film to support an internal campaign. It needs to be global, featuring a diverse number of employees from around the world. The film needs to demonstrate a cross-section of the organisation. It needs to inspire. Showcase the different cultures, people, regions and markets that the company operates in. It should focus on the front-line heroes. The can-do attitude of the people. Those who go above and beyond. It has to be real, human and authentic. It has to feature real employees. A film of the people, for the people!

But, there’s a catch. The budget… it’s modest. It’s $5k.

There is only really one thing for it and that’s user-generated content (UGC). Employees telling their story through their smartphones. Easy, right?

UGC projects have their limitations. They should not compete with glossy, high-end, professionally shot films and they are not supposed to. But they can be powerful and authentic and in certain situations be very impactful and provide a great return on investment against levels of engagement.

But UGC projects can be tricky. They can be time-consuming and frustrating – especially for the commissioner – because the success of the project is in the hands of the employee filming, literally! Bad experiences can leave lingering negative feelings. Are they worth the hassle? Are they worth the time spent? The answer is yes if they are done properly and approached in the right way.

No matter the amount of pre-production planning, there will always be inevitable pain points if the approach to UGC projects is not improved.

Issues you often experience managing UGC video projects

  1. Time-consuming. Separate briefing/coaching sessions with the employees filming the content can soak up the hours. It’s easy to spend an hour on each contributor. If you have fifteen contributors, then that’s fifteen of your precious working hours consumed. If it involves different time-zones then it’s even worse! And, you still have your day job to do!
  2. The right content. Even when you manage to persuade colleagues to film, there is no guarantee they will capture the right answers containing the correct messages.
  3. Inconsistent, unflattering and low-quality footage. Unusable footage is the most common and biggest issue. Whether it be unflattering, poorly lit, containing bad audio, or sometimes no audio at all!
  4. Content transfer. Once it’s been filmed, the fun really begins! Transferring content across a secure business IT network is always challenging. Firewalls often block content and force alternative methods that result in compression and most certainly delays to the project.

That’s why we developed CREWSTUDIO – a smart platform that supports the quality control, collation and creation of professional UGC video. The well-defined features and functionality are based on years of experience and knowledge, and the product has been carefully designed to address the typical pain-points above.

  1. The emailable set-up guide and simple user experience remove the need to individually brief users, enabling them to follow clear and concise instructions.
  2. The predefined task list and helpful hints and tips systematically break down the user requirements into easy, manageable chunks, ensuring all the right questions are asked and the right content is captured.
  3. Smart in-camera features, such as spirit-level, framing guide, audio level and light reader, ensure all content is consistent and high quality.
  4. The automatic upload function – that works via wifi or data – uploads the footage straight away to a secure server.

CREWSTUDIO is an effective and efficient way of creating UGC content. It’s like putting a film director in the palm of the user’s hand, literally!

 

Give CREWSTUDIO a try today. Book a short demonstration.

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