Nowadays, the whole production system has transformed from Fordism to Post-Fordism era. Manufacturers no longer focus on standardised products but see consumers as producers. UGC (User Generated Content) campaign is a new trend in the free economy market. In the Spring of 2020, Converse launched its creative All-star series of sneakers in London, featuring Converse Pro leather. Using Converse’s iconic products as a canvas, giving converse fans the opportunity to create their unique Converse product, the collection cemented converse’s position as a street staple in London and beyond. Converse decided to launch their campaign on TikTok, the hottest start-up platform. TikTok always exports creative content with rich UGC to enhance user stickiness. This novel form of advertising and content could attract users’ attention at the first time. Meanwhile, an unexpected theme can form explosive styles and stimulate users’ desire to imitate and create.
Converse is taking a multi-level approach to marketing gameplay on TikTok. The first is using a hashtag challenge, #ConverseAllStar, to engage the TikTok community. The campaign invited users to use a pair of Converse shoes as their “creative canvas” with their imagination to create a special, unique pair of shoes. Each creator is asked to create a custom music track to accompany the creative piece, then released them on TikTok using the hashtag #ConverseAllStar. In order to encourage more users to participate, Converse set up a special reward for this event. If the user participates in the event will have a chance to win tickets to Converse London All-star Creative activities. Eventually, converse consumers and followers uploaded thousands of videos capturing the process they paint, draw and recreate the All-star trainers.
Benefits and Opportunities
From the perspective of brand, this campaign increased the exposure and discourse of new launched products and brands itself. According to TiktokForBusiness, Converse branding Challenge generated more than 24 million video views, 29.7 million presentations, and brought together 2,900 talented Converse creators over the course of six days. In total, 16.86 million views and 1.8 million hits were delivered to the challenge page. The event had a 9.22 percent participation rate, with many users also commenting in hopes of owning a new pair of Converse Leather Pro shoes. The brand attached a wider potential buyer through this campaign. In the new economy system, sharing culture emerges, people are willing to show themselves on the network. From the perspective of Creators of UGC, users’ needs of interaction and be seen has been satisfied in this campaign, as humans need to feel connectivity and socialised. From the material aspect, all the participants have opportunities to win the tickets to Converse London All-star activity for free. As Converse consumers, it is a way to obtain connectivity between the product and online community. The exposure of the products they owned encourage them to buy it once again and satisfied their vanity in the material world.
In my opinion, Converse benefits the most in this campaign. Although the publishers and consumers got part of their psychological needs fulfilled during the event, while gaining the possibility of material rewards. However, the participation and interaction between the publisher and the audience sparked a buzz in the online community and accelerated the exposure of the brand’s new product launch. This will attract more potential users with purchase intentions and bring greater revenue for the brand and new product sales. Furthermore, the rise of digital economy with platform capitalism exacerbates the dominance of brands over social ideology and consumer behavioural insights. The digital information and data generated from this campaign could benefit to reshape the next commercial or execution.