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“Advertising is the mother

of graphic design & modern graphic design is the result of the transition in the late nineteenth

century from a product to a consumer

culture...” - Steven Heller

By now we are all probably familiar with the trend that has been sweeping the web by storm for

the past decade or so - User Generated Content. As the consumer-driven marketing trend has risen in popularity, so has it’s sophistication. If your company has decent products or services on offer - then one of the best ways to sell it could be through integrous User Generated Content.

User Generated Content, which can be abbreviated to “UGC”, can be defined as “any form of content such as blogs, wikis, discussion forums, posts, chats, tweets, podcasts, digital images, video, audio files, advertisements and other forms of media that were created by users of an online system or service, often made available via social media websites” (Moens, Li and Chua, n.d.).

Of course with great power comes great responsibility. With the power to create user-created reviews to further market a product, therein

Friday, April 8th 2016

lies the opportunity for fake advertisements - either in favour or in disservice for the company involved. This possibility certainly cannot be ignored, as The University of Illinois determined in 2012 that up to 34% of all UGC web reviews are false. There is a positive and negative side to many facets of modern marketing in the digital age. On the other hand, there is such a rich tapestry of information on the World Wide Web, and the average consumer is becoming more vigilant on how to find a quality product, as well as how to spot a phoney! The Millennial Generation, as in those born early 1980s to early 2000s, are generally savvy shoppers. Statistically, Millennials are also happy to purchase products at a higher cost price if they know the product to be of an excellent standard.

The Millennials’ On-Going Rise of User Generated Content via Social Media...End users are getting more picky with how they like companies to advertise their products and services. User Generated Content lets the supporting consumer be the marketers of your brand.

[TREND]SETTING\\

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Social Media is the “big kahuna” of the UGC advertising circuit at the moment. The Boston Consulting Group released an article about their studies on the influence of the younger generation on advertising and marketing trends (Barton, Koslow and Beauchamp, 2014). Their studies found that 52% of millennials are using social media to stay in touch and engage with a brand. Studies also showed that young people are influenced by friends, family and even strangers to make their purchasing choices, versus the traditional expert advice or being persuaded simply by advertisements created with unknown actors reading scripted material. Therefore, millennials are steering

well away from traditional advertising as their go-to source of information on how

to find a product or service best suited to them as an individual.

There is a seemingly contradictory message that

may need an explanation - on top of millennials being

influenced by the people surrounding them versus some top level

“expert” they feel they cannot trust anymore, they

are still affected by celebrities more so than the other upcoming

power generation of our present day - the people that fall into the category

of Generation X (those born from the mid-1960s to late 1970s). In the digital age, to become someone of fame, you no longer have to be an actor, athlete, politician or musician. Through Social Media, current trending as well as growing platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and the like, people are able to achieve their Warhol-esque “fifteen minutes of fame” through their calculated use of the web. Even the video streaming website YouTube, which arguably is not a social media platform, is giving a voice to the everyday person and transforming many people into new age, digital celebrities.

“Participate: Designing with User-Generated Content” by Helen Armstrong and Zvezdana Stojmirovic

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So it is easy to see how many brands are relying on UGC via their own customers on social media to further achieve market awareness. As UGC grows, so will advertising campaigns that rely solely on graphic design morphed with end user created content dominating the layout. A great example of this is the “Perfect” application by TEDxPortland (shown above), which generated a lot of content created by end users. The method of using of the app gave the producers power to keep artwork made within the “Perfect” campaign branding.

In the graphic design world, this could mean that design frameworks will be more and more filled with user created content, thus putting more emphasis on design concepts to be clear, precise and straight to the point or the message could be lost or confused by the vast plethora of individuality that

TEDxPortland’s “Perfect” App - user generated images to display individuality and the subjectivity of ‘perfection’, 2014

can be shown by an end user’s sincere contribution, that may or may not be at a professional graphic design standard. On the other hand, nothing is more important to the brand’s image and awareness than the clients themselves, and as a graphic designer, we are not to design for other designers - but to the target audience - the customer.

“As non-designers busily create, designers too must get creative. Prime players in contemporary culture, designers understand that major paradigms of production and distribution are shifting. More and more they are asked to create tools, templates and resources for their clients and other users to implement. They need ideas for harnessing user-generated content while maintaining their own status as professional designers” - (Armstrong and Stojmirovic, 2011)

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Thanks to the continuing of the Industrial Revolution into the Digital Revolution, the Web Age is completing what the Print Age begun and filling holes that the print industry could not fill. The end user is being reached instantaneously, and thus has more of an influence over graphic design trends than ever before.

User Generated Content transforms the consumer into the designer, helping the communication process between them and the brand become more organic and fluid. The graphic designer is the middle-man who is communicating each side’s messages. UGC opens the web to a constant ebb and flow of the distribution of media and content between everyone able to see it via smart phones, tablets, computers and the like.

With this information, there is no doubt in my mind that UGC will dominate the advertising industry for a while.

The Millennial Generation and beyond seem to be at the forefront of this self-manifested revolution, rejecting the domination by marketing giants telling them what to buy. “Get Story Box” claim that 92% percent of the population they surveyed believe in the power of word-of-mouth between peers, and the web continues to connect people from all walks of life, all over the globe.

“Graphic design is the mere act of arranging information...” - Willem Hendrik “Wim” Crouwel

As we continue to dive further into the world of User Generated Content, graphic designers will need to continue to adapt in order to survive. This is true in any industry, but is especially relevant in today’s age as technology is advancing further than most can keep up. As I type this, there could be a new application start-up company ready to blow the present UGC “rules” out of the water. In this age of marketing, driven more and more by the consumer every day, it is certainly an exciting time to be a designer and an individual in general.

“Shocking Stats About User-Generated Content” - Get Story Box

Written by Stacie Ferguson

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More about the author: Stacie L. Ferguson b. 1991Student @ CATC Design School

bit.do/staciewww.staciedesign.com.au

Further Links:

1) Moens, M., Li, J. and Chua, T. (n.d.). Mining user generated content.

2) Barton, C., Koslow, L. and Beauchamp, C. (2014). How Millennials Are Changing the Face of Marketing Forever. [online] www.bcgperspectives.com. Available at: https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/marketing_center_consumer_customer_insight_how_millennials_changing_marketing_forever/ [Accessed 4 Apr. 2016].

3) Armstrong, H. and Stojmirovic, Z. (2011). Participate. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

4) Reissman, H. (2014). 5 ways TEDx teams are getting creative with Instagram. [online] TEDx Innovations Blog. Available at: http://tedxinnovations.ted.com/2014/09/19/5-ways-tedx-teams-are-getting-creative-with-instagram/ [Accessed 4 Apr. 2016].

5) Topp, N. (2016). User Generated Graphic Design —. [online] Multitude.nu. Available at: http://multitude.nu/words/user-generated-graphic-design/ [Accessed 5 Apr. 2016].