Commentary

Crowd Sourced Salesmanship: UGC Product Reviews Sell the Goods

User-generated product reviews could be as persuasive and ultimately as effective a sales tool as more costly display and TV advertising, according to a new research study from comScore ARS. The company took a sample of 25 video product reviews from ordinary users across a range of product types.

What they found within these otherwise rough presentations were important professional sales elements. comScore ARS says that the UGC videos actually contained some of the primary drivers known to increase persuasiveness and memorability in advertising. The videos were culled from the EXPO site, which invites members to upload reviews of products they have used as "Videopinions."

They scored the results according to the presence of key attributes like "rational, emotional and structural attributes." They used the ARS Zipline content assessment model, which quantifies an ad's ability to be persuasive and memorable. Of the 25 videos put through the content analysis, none performed below industry averages for similar professionally produced material. In a coring system of 1-100, 68% of the videos fell in the average range of 30-50 points and 32% of the clips scored above average, 51-100 points. User-made spots for Clairol, Gain, Mr. Clean Magic eraser, LG Electronics and Apple performed best.

According to Frank Findley, VP of comScore ARS, "The results of our research suggest that user-created video is a format that not only yields promising persuasive executions, but does so in a way that complements traditional forms of media."

Curriously, the UGC spots actually were stronger in some promontional and branding areas than typical advertising. The analysts found that the users tended to communicate their positive experiences with the product and so focused on attributes and benefits like convenience and quality. ARS says that this put a greater emphasis on the rational elements that go into a purchase decision than one ordinarily would get from a crafted spot.

The research suggests that brands could leverage user-generated content as something more than curios or viral video. Apparently the consumer not only knows best about what they want. They may also know best how to sell products to one another.


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