• by Larissa Faw , September 30, 2015

With the decline of traditional media and proliferation of new media, brands are increasingly turning to user-generated content (UGC) to build relationships with their consumers. Yet this engagement is likely to be short-term or superficial if there isn't a deeper story underneath it, according to panelists at an Advertising Week session. 

"If you don't have a point of view you are going nowhere fast," says T-Mobile's Andrew Sherrard. "It's not selling to them or brazenly screaming about the benefits of your brand. The way we think about engagement is to be super active socially."  

Too many brands believe a UGC wall of tweets is the solution. "If a brand says 'here are all of the interesting tweets during the Met Gala' no one is going to share," says RebelMouse's Paul Berry. "But people are going to share if they put out the three most outrageous dresses during the Met Gala." 

Although it is important to tap into contributors, don't confuse that with story-telling. "Content creators as users, at that level, are not profound, well-constructed or set to go viral," says Berry. "You really need a great editor storyteller” to shape that content. 

There are brands doing it right. Red Bull was cited by panelists as being "directionally ahead" for supporting its tagline “To Give You Wings” by developing content that reinforces and builds on the tagline message in a way that is regularly deemed worth sharing.  "It's people sharing not the brand sharing," says Berry. 

Above all, seeking engagement is critical since no one trusts ads. "It used to be that we just ignored ad banners, but what we are noticing now is worse than that," says Berry. "Now we are sure you are tracking us. Media companies are greatly hampered to grow when that box is no longer trusted." 

Berry added that he believes the continued embrace of ad blocking by consumers is "moving [the] conversation [over banner ads] from not even seeing ads” to being mad at brands for even using them.