The role of user-generated content (UGC) in enhancing digital marketing strategies to increase Brand Awareness | ||||
| International Design Journal | ||||
| Article 11, Volume 15, Issue 4 - Serial Number 67, July and August 2025, Page 131-138 PDF (796.15 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/idj.2025.372777.1304 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Author | ||||
Omnia Ezzeldeen Mohamed  
| ||||
| Benha University | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| User-Generated Content (UGC) has revolutionized digital marketing by empowering consumers to actively participate in brand storytelling. This study examines the role of UGC in enhancing digital marketing strategies, with a particular focus on its impact on brand awareness. Consumer generated media encompasses opinions, experiences, advice and commentary about products, brands, companies and services-usually informed by personal experience-that exist in consumer-created postings on Internet discussion boards, forums and blogs. CGM can include text, images, photos, videos, podcasts and other forms of media. Despite UGC's extraordinary growth, advertisers and agencies remain hesitant to embrace this unproven media wholeheartedly, citing concerns such as fear of intruding on a "consumer" environment, a lack of understanding of UGC users and their behaviors, and lack of control over the context in which their advertising gets exhibited. In summary, advertisers' wait-and-see attitude toward this new media seems mostly due to a lack of understanding of the characteristics and functioning of this new media. The findings of this research will contribute to the growing discourse on digital marketing by providing a deeper understanding of how UGC influences brand awareness. By bridging the gap between theory and practice, this research aims to highlight the transformative power of UGC in shaping modern digital marketing landscapes. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| User-generated content; Digital marketing strategies; Brand awareness | ||||
|
Supplementary Files
|
||||
| References | ||||
|
1- Alalwan, A. A. (2018), Investigating the impact of social media advertising features on customer purchase intentions, International Journal of Information Management, 42, 65-77. 2- Bansal, H. S. & Voyer, P. A. (2000), Word-of-mouth processes within a services purchase decision context. Journal of Service Research, 3 (2), 166-177. 3- Barbosa Luis, Marcelo (2021), The “so-called” UGC: an updated definition of user-generated content in the age of social media, Online Information Review, Emerald Publishing Limited, 1468-4527. 4- Daugherty, Terry and others (2008), Exploring consumer motivations for creating user generated content, Journal of Interactive Advertising, 8 (2), 16‐25. 5- F. Huber, A. Herrmann & R. E. Morgan (2001), Gaining competitive advantage through customer value-oriented management. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 18(1), 41-53, Retrieved July 15, 2024, from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/07363760110365796/full/html 6- Flanagin, A.J. & Metzger, M.J. (2013), “Trusting expert-versus user-generated ratings online: the role of information volume, valence, and consumer characteristics”, Computers in Human Behavior, 29 (4), 1626-1634. 7- Fulgoni, G. (2007), "Plan for Advertising on UGC," Marketing News, 41(1), 16-18. 8- Girardin, F., Calabrese, F., Fiore, F.D., Ratti, C. and Blat, J. (2008), “Digital foot printing: uncovering tourists with user-generated content”, IEEE, Pervasive Computing, 7 (4), 36-43. 9- Gruber, T. (2008), “Collective knowledge systems: where the social web meets the semantic web”, Journal of Web semantics: Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web, 6 (1), 4-13. 10- Gupta, R., Kishore, N. & Verma, D. (2015), Impact of Celebrity Endorsements on Consumers’ Purchase Intention: A Study of Indian Consumers. Australian Journal of Business and Manage-ment Research. 11- Hagemann, S. & Vossen, G. (2009), “Categorizing user-generated content (extended abstract)”, Proceedings of the WebSci’09: Society On-Line, Athens, Greece. 12- Haklay, M. & Weber, P. (2008), “OpenStreetMap: user-generated street maps”, IEEE, Pervasive computing, 7 (4), 12-18. 13- Hermida, A. & Thurman, N. (2008), “A clash of cultures: the integration of user-generated content within professional journalistic frameworks at British newspaper websites”, Journalism Practice, 2 (3), 343-356. 14- Hesmondhalgh, D. (2010), “User-generated content, free labor and the cultural industries”, Ephemera, Vol. 10 Nos 3/4, pp. 267-284. 15- Hosein, N. (2012), Measuring purchase intention of visitors to the auto show. Journal of Management and Marketing Research, 1-17. 16- Kaplan, A.M. & Haenlein, M. (2010), “Users of the world, unite! the challenges and opportunities of social media”, Business Horizons, 53 (1), 59-68. 17- Khurshid, Sakar and others. (2024, February 1), The Impact of Influencer Marketing on Consumers’ Intentions Toward Beauty Brands After the Covid-19 Pandemic. Arab Journal of Administration, 44(1), 339-348. 18- Krishnamurthy, Sandeep & Dou, Wenyu (2008), Note from special issue editors: advertising with user-generated content: a framework and research agenda, Journal of Interactive Advertising, 8 (2), 1-4. 19- Kumaresan, Chakkaravarthy & Samydoss, Chandramohan (2024), Brand Awareness: Understanding its Role in Sales, Consumer Intentions, and Decision Making. International Journal of Scientific Research and Engineering Development, 7(2), 579-585. 20- Leung, L. (2009), “User-generated content on the internet: an examination of gratifications, civic engagement and psychological empowerment”, New Media and Society, 11 (8), 1327-1347. 21- Liang, Ting-Peng, Hung-Jen Lai, and Yi-Cheng Ku (2006), "Personalized Content Recommendation, Management Information Systems, 23(3), 45-70. 22- Lou, C. & Yuan, S. (2018), Influencer marketing: how message value and credibility affect consumer trust of branded content on social media. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 19 (1), 1- 45. 23- McKenzie, P.J., Burkell, J., Wong, L., Whippey, C., Trosow, S.E. and McNally, M.B. (2012), “User generated online content 1: overview, current state and context”, First Monday, 17 (6), Retrieved from https://firstmonday.org/article/view/3912/3266. 24- Midova, V. O. (2017), Social Sciences & Humanities the Evolution of Characteristics of Gender Stereotypes in Modern Advertising as a Reflection of Consumer Demand. Journal of Social Science and Humanities . Vol.25 (S) Jul, 179-194. 25- Myers, Diana (2023, January 13), 4 Great Examples of User-Generated Content (UGC). Published Article, Retrieved from https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/how-to-use-user-generated-content-ugc-with-4-great-examples 26- Nguyen, N. (2020), The Influence of Celebrity Endorsement on Young Vietnamese Consumers’ Purchasing Intention. Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, (8) 3, 951-960. 27- Pornpitakpan, C. (2003), Validation of the celebrity endorsers’ credibility scale: Evidence from Asians. Journal of Marketing Management, 19 (1-2), 179-195. 28- Schouten, A. P. and others. (2020), Celebrity vs. influencer endorsements in advertising: The role of identification, credibility and Product-Endorser fit. International Journal of Advertising, 39 (2), 258-281. 29- Shareef, M. A., Kumar, V., Kumar, U. & Dwivedi, Y. K. (2015), Consumer online purchase behavior: Perception versus expectation. International Journal Indian Culture and Business Management, 11(3), 275-288. 30- Thomson, M. (2006), Human brands: investigating antecedents to consumers’ strong attachments to celebrities. Journal of Marketing, 70 (3), 104-119. 31- van Driel, L. & Dumitrica, D. (2020), Selling brands while staying “Authentic”: The professionalization of Instagram influencers. Convergence, 27 (1), 66-84. 32- https://brand24.com/blog/successful-creative-hashtag-campaigns-examples/ - Accessed 1/4/2025. 33- https://coschedule.com/marketing-strategy/marketing-strategy-examples/gopro-marketing-strategy Accessed 1/4/2025 34- https://cocacolaunited.com/blog/2015/05/18/share-coke-bigger-better-ever/ - Accessed 28/3/2025. 35- https://storybox.io/starbucks-white-cup-contest/- Accessed 25/3/2025. 36- https://thebrandhopper.com/2024/01/07/a-case-study-on-apples-shot-on-iphone-brand-campaign/- Accessed 31/3/2025. | ||||
|
Statistics Article View: 884 PDF Download: 345 |
||||
