Case Study: Switch to UCG Improves Engagement

Switch to UGC and Influencers Dramatically Improves Social Engagement for Coastal City

Research shows that 85 percent of consumers find visual user generated content (UGC) more influential than brand
photos or videos. Roughly 30 percent of the time millennials (a major target audience for Virginia Beach) spend
consuming all media is spent on UGC. In 2017 and 2018, the in-house Virginia Beach CVB Marketing Communications
team took considerable steps to integrate UGC into the communications strategy, including utilizing management platform
Stackla in the redesign of VisitVirginiaBeach.com while strategically prioritizing content output on social channels to 70
percent UGC and 30 percent owned content. Additional efforts included significant investments with influencer campaign
efforts integrated into the annual PR budget. In spring 2018, contracted influencers generated 121 pieces of content
highlighting several of Virginia Beach’s lifestyle interest offerings: culinary, craft beer, outdoor adventures,
arts/entertainment and history.

Measuring Success:
UGC posts performed 63 percent better than owned content and had 8,561 more engagements than owned content
during the same time period. Influencer activation efforts during this time generated 56K engagements and 808K
Instagram Stories views. Overall, social media engagement continues to increase with this strategy: since July 2017,
followers have increased by 26.2%, engagement has increased by 146.1% and impressions have increased by 44.6%.