User-generated content (UGC) has become one of the most powerful tools in modern marketing, with 79% of people saying UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions. That makes UGC campaigns more than just a trend—they're a trust-building, conversion-driving strategy that savvy brands rely on.
A UGC campaign is a brand-led initiative that invites everyday users, customers, or fans to create and share content—photos, videos, reviews, or creative interpretations—that features or aligns with the brand. From LEGO’s Rebuild the World challenge to ASOS’s #AsSeenOnMe community and Airbnb’s guest-created travel stories, UGC campaigns allow brands to harness real voices for real impact.
These campaigns succeed by making the customer part of the brand narrative. Here, we’ll break down 7 of the best UGC campaigns that nailed authenticity and engagement—and show you the actionable lessons behind their success.
Social media is oversaturated with content that users find fake or doesn't resonate with. UGC, on the other hand, is human, realistic, and trustworthy from a consumer perspective. This is why brands are increasingly relying on this form of content to expose their products and brand to a wider audience.
Therefore, for brands, UGC is an unparalleled way to not only achieve brand awareness but also drive conversions. To achieve this, it's essential that the UGC campaign be carefully thought out and developed; nothing can be left to chance.
A successful UGC campaign doesn’t just happen by chance—it’s the result of intentional planning, strategic messaging, and a deep understanding of what motivates your audience to share.
While trends and platforms may shift, the core elements that drive UGC success remain consistent across industries. Whether you’re a household name or a growing brand, these foundational pillars can help you launch campaigns that are both engaging and impactful.
The most effective UGC doesn’t come from polished, studio-level content—it comes from real people sharing real experiences. The posts may not always be professionally edited, but they’re relatable and believable. In fact, 90% of people want the brands they support to be authentic, making raw, honest content far more impactful than perfectly curated campaigns.
Audiences can spot overly curated or brand-manipulated content from a mile away. Instead of obsessing over aesthetics, encourage users to be themselves. Showcase messy moments, honest opinions, and everyday creativity—that’s what builds trust.
A good UGC campaign isn’t a one-way broadcast—it’s a conversation. A successful campaign offers reasons for people to interact with them, whether through creativity or sparking a debate. The magic happens when followers don’t just post—they like, comment, duet, remix, and share each other’s content.
Make space for community interaction. Respond to posts, reshare the best ones, and feature creators on your website or social pages. The more your audience feels seen and appreciated, the more they’ll want to participate.
Even the most enthusiastic customers need direction. A successful campaign has a clear call-to-action: what to post, where to post it, and which hashtag to use. Without that clarity, great content can go unnoticed or get lost in the algorithm.
Campaigns with easy-to-understand hashtags work because people know exactly what to do. Keep your hashtag short, specific, and easy to remember. And make sure your call-to-action is visible everywhere—on packaging, in captions, across your website, and in every campaign-related post.
Coca-Cola is a brand that needs no introduction, having dominated its market for over a century. However, it's true that having a social media presence as a soda brand isn't necessarily easy. So, the brand's marketers knew they needed to take their game to the next level.
To achieve this, they created the multi-media campaign #ShareACoke. On the one hand, the labels on Coca-Cola bottles or cans came with a person's name. The idea was to get people to share photos of those products by tagging friends with those names and using the hashtag, or by searching for people who might have that name.
The campaign went viral across multiple platforms, generating over 1.5 million pieces of user-generated content on Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter). It not only boosted sales but also sparked global participation, with people hunting for their own names, sharing content, and even creating memes or videos when they couldn’t find them.
Coca-Cola nailed the emotional and social aspects of UGC. By tapping into the natural desire to share personal moments, they turned an everyday product into a social experience. The act of finding your name—or someone else’s—on a Coke bottle became instantly shareable. That personal touch, paired with a simple and memorable hashtag, transformed ordinary purchases into viral moments.
Asos is a popular online clothing brand targeting young people, both Gen Z and Millennials. From the beginning, their social media game was strong, but since 2014, they have launched the #AsSeenOnMe campaign, inviting customers to upload photos wearing their clothes.
The main goal of the campaign was to boost the brand’s social media mentions, and get the attention of new potential clients.
By 2025, this hashtag has more than 1 million uses across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. This hashtag represents a huge amount of UGC where people show off the different styles they give ASOS clothing, post reviews, and inspire other users to do the same.
Many people, when they buy clothes and come across models wearing the garments, think that they wouldn't look good wearing them or that it's unrealistic. With the #AsSeenOnMe campaign, Asos has turned its own customers into its models.
This way, people who wanted to buy clothes could see how real people, with all body types, rocked outfits with ASOS pieces. This generated an increase in sales, but it was also an extremely cost-effective campaign because they only invented a catchy and easy-to-replicate hashtag, generating thousands of UGC pieces.
While Airbnb focuses on showcasing rentals to get people to stay during their trips, everyone knows that travelers' experiences don't stay within those four walls. So, the brand realized that if they wanted to get people to share information about their rentals on social media, they would have to broaden their horizons.
With that in mind, they launched the #Airbnbexperiences campaign, where people were welcome to share their travel adventures on social media, occasionally highlighting some rentals they saw as special.
People who share their content with the hashtag know Airbnb can use it to promote its services, so the brand garnered hundreds of thousands of extremely useful UGC pieces. This content was repurposed for other ads and campaigns, and even led to various brand collaborations that amplified the campaign's views and visibility.
Airbnb makes money if people travel and rent with them, regardless of the rentals booked. So, this UGC campaign shifts the focus away from the homes or apartments being rented, but not on Airbnb as the guarantor of those experiences.
People showcase highlights from their trips and entice others to travel. And with the hashtag, they see that the rentals were made through Airbnb, giving confidence and visibility to the brand, even if the properties aren't the main feature.
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Glossier is a makeup and skincare brand whose values are based on celebrating natural beauty. The hallmark of each product is to enhance the beauty already present in each person who uses it, not to transform you into supermodels.
To showcase this new beauty paradigm, they regularly launch campaigns aimed at generating UGC. These campaigns use hashtags like #GlosierRep and #GlosierPink, which people use to share content showing how the product looks or their routines for using it.
Glossier found the perfect way to show that a diverse audience can use its products and look good while enhancing their natural beauty. Additionally, some UGC pieces are created by beauty influencers, who offer tips to elevate makeup routines with Glossier, gaining even more engagement.
Beauty brands are often criticized for setting unrealistic or unattainable standards, so these Glossier campaigns were acclaimed by potential customers. Glossier shares posts that use this hashtag, regardless of the visual quality of the content (the fewer filters, the better).
Parachute is a brand that sells bedding and home decor products, which is a highly competitive industry and products that people don't have the urge to buy often. Therefore, since its creation in 2014, they knew they had to have a solid social media strategy to stay on top.
To stand out, they launched the #myparachutehome campaign, where they invited their customers to share how they decorated their homes with their products, to inspire future customers. In some cases, the UGC was reshared on Parachute's social media or even used in ads.
Hashtags are an invaluable tool for brands to acquire UGC and not lose it. On TikTok and Instagram, the hashtag #myparachutehome has already been used more than 50,000 times, in image and video posts, making it a great source of UGC.
Parachute achieved success because it was also strategic with its use of UGC. They didn't just let it die in their feeds, but instead gave it new life by repurposing it in newsletters, ads, and posters in their physical stores (always with the permission of the UGC creator).
In 2022, Lego was preparing to celebrate its 90th anniversary, which occurred in a post-pandemic world where children are increasingly playing with electronic devices. Do you think Lego added QR codes to its blocks or created new digital games? On the contrary, it boosted the #RebuildingTheWolrd movement.
This campaign invited children and their families to create creations outside of the instructions provided by Lego to reimagine their cities. If they shared their creations with the hashtag #RebuildingTheWolrd and tagged Lego's official social media accounts, they had opportunities to win prizes and be featured on the campaign's website.
While Lego's marketing team aimed to increase engagement and receive more mentions on social media, what stood out about this campaign was its advocacy purpose. The goal was to get children playing with their toys again (less screen time), learning more about their cities, and how they could improve them.
Besides, what family doesn't want to show off their children's artistic creations? Obtaining UGC from minors isn't always ideal, but in this case, the posts came from their parents, and the children shouldn't be in the photo, only their creations. This helped avoid any ethical or legal issues.
The convenience store brand 7-11 is primarily known for its affordable prices and easy access to food and snacks, but they wanted to reach a younger audience on social media. So, in 2015, they created "Bring Your Own Cup Day," which continues to take place annually today.
At this event, people can bring any item they have at home and use it to fill with Slurpees or 7-11 signature beverages, all for less than $2 regardless of size. People began holding challenges to see who could bring the most creative item, garnering hundreds of thousands of mentions on Instagram, X (Twitter), and TikTok.
Bring Your Own Cup Day is easy to follow, but it also encourages people to use their creativity. People brought purses, buckets, fish tanks, and anything else you can imagine. The cuter the object, the more people shared it on social media.
7-11 also allowed everyone to freely film in stores on the days of this event, even bringing professional equipment if they wanted (as it's usually against some store policies). This allowed YouTubers and influencers to jump on the trend and offer more polished UGC.
These campaigns were a success for the brands that promoted them, but they're also a source of knowledge for those looking to launch their own. Learning from those who have succeeded is always a good idea.
All of the campaigns above work so well because the content created by users isn't just “free marketing”—it's aligned with the core message of the brand. Whether it’s Glossier promoting real, filter-free beauty, or Airbnb showcasing the spirit of travel, successful UGC feels like a natural extension of the brand story.
If your brand’s values are about sustainability, community, or creativity, make sure the prompts for user-generated content reflect those. That way, the content feels authentic and builds long-term trust with your audience—not just buzz.
While giveaways, prizes, or features can motivate people to create content, the best campaigns avoid feeling transactional. Take Lego, for example. Their campaign offered a chance to be featured and win prizes, but the purpose was bigger: kids reimagining the world around them.
Keep incentives optional or subtle. Focus on inviting people to share their own perspective, rather than doing it just for a reward. That’s how you avoid turning UGC into a contest that people forget once it's over.
The simpler it is to take part, the better. Coca-Cola succeeded because all you had to do was find a bottle with a name and take a picture. 7-11 nailed it with a one-day event that encouraged fun and creativity with everyday items.
Make it easy: a simple hashtag, a clear challenge, or even just a visual template that users can imitate. The lower the barrier to entry, the more likely your community will jump in and share. If you are focusing on obtaining videos, you can’t overlook our TikTok UGC guide.
Now that you know some examples of successful UGC campaigns, let's explore some expert tips you can apply to your brand's next campaign.
Before you launch, ask yourself: What are we trying to achieve? Is it more awareness, sales, or social engagement? This will help determine your strategy and where you should run the campaign. We also have this helpful guide for you to know how to choose the right UGC videos.
TikTok might work great for challenges or humor, while Instagram is ideal for aesthetic, visual content. If you're targeting Gen Z, prioritize short-form video. If you’re going after millennials or a niche hobbyist crowd, long-form posts or YouTube might work better.
A strong hashtag is more than just a trend—it’s how you track your campaign and build community. Look at ASOS’s #AsSeenOnMe or Parachute’s #myparachutehome. These are both easy to remember, tied directly to the brand, and open-ended enough to encourage a variety of content styles.
You can also use contests as an entry point, but keep the tone aligned with your brand. Whether it’s playful like 7-11 or cause-driven like Lego, your UGC campaign should give people a clear reason to post—without forcing it.
Once the content starts rolling in, don’t let it sit. The best brands don’t just collect UGC—they highlight it. Share it in your Stories, repost it on your feed (always with credit), include it in emails, and consider using it in ad creatives. You can also use UGC for ads, just be sure to follow each platform’s policies.
This not only makes your fans feel valued—it also creates a powerful feedback loop. When people see others being featured, they’re more likely to join in. Just make sure you get permission first and always tag the original creators.
As your brand grows, managing user-generated content (UGC) manually can become a challenge. From discovering creators to organizing content rights and measuring impact, the process requires structure. Thankfully, several tools are built specifically to streamline and scale UGC campaigns. Here are three top options:
Influencer Hero offers an all-in-one solution for brands looking to manage both influencer partnerships and UGC campaigns. You can search and filter through millions of creators, automate outreach, manage gifting or affiliate-based collaborations, and track content performance. It also includes rights management, making it easy to re-use influencer-generated content across your channels.
Best known for its social media scheduling features, Later also helps brands collect and curate UGC—especially on Instagram. Its Linkin.bio feature allows you to drive traffic from UGC posts directly to product pages, and the platform includes analytics to help track what content performs best.
Taggbox enables brands to aggregate UGC from platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, then showcase it across websites, digital displays, or emails. With moderation tools, rights management, and performance insights built in, it’s a great option for brands looking to scale UGC usage across different marketing channels.
User-generated content isn’t just a trend—it’s a powerful way to build community, boost brand visibility, and drive authentic engagement. As these seven standout UGC campaigns show, the key lies in aligning with your brand values, making participation easy, and celebrating your audience.
Whether you're just starting or scaling your efforts, a well-executed UGC campaign can turn your customers into your most influential marketers—one post at a time. Ready to inspire your audience to create? Now’s the time.
Success can be measured using metrics like hashtag usage, engagement rates (likes, shares, comments), the volume and quality of content generated, website traffic, and conversions directly tied to the campaign. Tools like Google Analytics, Brandwatch, or Sprout Social can help track performance.
Yes. Even if someone tags your brand, it's best practice to request explicit permission before reposting their content. This protects your brand legally and shows respect to the content creator. Use tools like TINT or Pixlee to streamline rights management.
Absolutely. UGC can be even more impactful for small brands, as it builds trust and authenticity without requiring large marketing budgets. A simple, well-branded hashtag and encouragement to share experiences can kickstart engagement.
Incentives like giveaways, social features (e.g. "Fan of the Week"), discounts, or chances to be featured in brand marketing materials work well. However, ensure the incentive doesn’t overshadow the authenticity of the content.
Both can work depending on your goals. Limited-time campaigns create urgency and high engagement, while always-on UGC strategies (like ASOS’s #AsSeenOnMe) keep a constant stream of fresh content flowing. Many successful brands do both.
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