UGC Created New Holiday Traditions in 2021

Editor’s note: This piece is part of our Columnist Network series, which explores the tactical thoughts and actions from Adweek’s community of high-level experts. Whether it’s movies, candy or gifts, holidays like Christmas, Halloween or Valentine’s Day can seem to focus on consumption. But the rise of short-form video platforms has recently turned the holidays into an opportunity for creation, bringing friends and families together to produce their own content. Seasonal and cultural moments throughout the calendar year have long served as inspiration for marketers looking for ways to drive engagement with artists’ music. Top of mind right now is how the family holiday activity of short-form video creation can help artists connect with new audiences. Will making videos together soon become a staple for the holidays, alongside board games and the annual photo? For 4th Floor Creative, this is an extension of our ongoing focus on the role of creators as a new metric for engagement with our artists’ music. We continually use a toolset to spot UGC trends on platforms and formats, such as TikTok and Instagram Stories and Reels, as early as possible. When it comes to seasonal marketing strategy, every summer our analytics team begins looking at how social and streaming behaviors evolve leading up to and during the holidays in order to facilitate strategic opportunities across the business. Meanwhile, the teams across Sony Music U.K. recognize the continued importance of having a ready-to-react approach to trends that spring up—exploring the creative characteristics of the trend alongside the engagement data. Brands Need a Data-Driven Approach to Inclusive Advertising In December, unsurprisingly, holiday chart-toppers like “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and “Last Christmas” saw spikes in UGC engagement, as users chose those songs to soundtrack the holiday moments they shared on social media. However, we identified far less predictable spikes in UGC: Songs such as Olly Murs’ “Dance With Me Tonight” (2011) and Meghan Trainor’s “Title” (2015)—while not Christmas songs per se—featured in festive trends as families took to shooting videos together. This gave us a ready-made opportunity for both artists to broaden their reach and connect with a wider, intergenerational audience through social media. Our teams worked to facilitate artist involvement, with both Trainor and Murs creating and sharing their own videos on TikTok and Instagram Reels. The digital and new tech team worked with the labels and platforms to support positioning and help drive discovery. In the case of TikTok, those efforts keyed on pitching an editorial focus on the two tracks and securing sound placements, which led to both tracks trending on the Discover page. The holidays can be as much about creation as consumption. To make the most of holiday-specific engagement, you need to balance long-term planning with a reactive approach. Keep in mind evolving individual and family behaviors and combine best practices for engaging with UGC trends and seasonal marketing—in particular, by considering how creative can appeal to an intergenerational audience. Take a look at what assets your brand may have access to that may have a previously undiscovered seasonal link.

Columnist Network

User-Generated Content Has the Power to Create New Traditions

Lessons in trending from the 2021 holiday season

Dorothy Hui

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Dorothy Hui