How Brands Can Inspire User Engagement and Nurture UGC Through Art
When a brand successfully sparks consumer engagement, coveted social media posts typically follow. That personal recommendation, in digital form, matters. Finding marketing strategies that nurture organic, user-generated content (online images, videos, stories and conversations involving the brand) requires a hearty dose of creativity and authenticity. In this article, Tricia Binder, co-founder and president, Muros, discusses the company’s recent consumer survey and how brands can inspire engagement through art.
When it comes to modern word-of-mouth marketing, it is no secret that social media is king. According to Adweek, more than 85% of people say user-generated content, such as photos and videos, influences their decisions more than brand-generated content. So, how can a brand naturally engage consumers and inspire that coveted Instagram post, Facebook share or TikTok moment? By getting creative.
At Muros, we conducted a survey of 1,000 consumers to understand better how murals and experiential art resonate. A big takeaway from our survey: more than 41% of all respondents (and 51% of respondents, age 18-29) say they have shared images of murals on social media. An even bigger takeaway: 73% of respondents say they are more likely to purchase from a brand that engages in creative marketing than traditional marketing, such as billboards.
Weaving murals or art activations into marketing campaigns can help brands and marketers foster engagement and organically boost user-generated content (UGC). Here are three ways brands can tap into that share-worthy art experience.
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1.Create Opportunities for Engagement (And Inspire User-generated Content)
Big art stands out.
About 67% of survey respondents say they are more likely to take notice of a brand that uses murals as a part of its marketing campaign. Murals, when done well, are at street level, unobstructed and pedestrian friendly. That purposeful positioning sets the stage for engagement. Plus, an artist at work, particularly a locally connected artist, is approachable and brings an authentic, human element to the piece.
When the creative process is underway, the art and artist create immediate points of interaction for passersby. After completion, the art itself continues to draw consumers. Beyond the surprise-and-delight aspect of folks coming across beautiful art in an unexpected location, brands can expand the mural’s appeal in more interactive ways.
For example, artist Chuck U created a mural for Noodles and Co. featuring an umbrella, designed to be the ideal spot for pedestrians to stop and pose as if holding the umbrella’s handle. Similarly, ParmCrisps’ “Unsinfully Good” mural (on the Las Vegas Strip) flooded Instagram with its hashtag-inspired posts, featuring a halo situated for Instagram poses as well as “angel” ambassadors.
Some brands strategically expand opportunities for interaction via QR codes and AR features. Fitness company Hydrow, for example, added a QR code benefitting nonprofit water.org to its mural. Augmented reality (AR) can also encourage interaction. When passersby scanned the LIFEWTR mural in Venice Beach (created in partnership with a Doja Cat album release), parts of the artwork became animated on their phones.
2. Tap Into the Power of Shared, Cultural and Authentic Experience
While art appeals broadly across generations and demographics, brand art tends to be embraced when it genuinely reflects a particular community’s vibe and culture. LA art may be beachy, while New York art tends to feel grittier. Local art, particularly murals, needs to reflect cultural differences to be authentic. Even within a smaller geographic area, a mural in downtown Atlanta may have an entirely different style than one in nearby Old Fourth Ward. A local artist knows what is iconic, what is representative, and what resonates with insiders as well as visitors.
When companies choose to create several art experiences across the country, each piece is an opportunity to differentiate the brand and show an understanding of local culture. For example, Oakley, a retail brand specializing in sports equipment, teamed up with Muros to create art installations in six cities and promote the brand’s partnership with New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor. At this time, six homegrown artist ambassadors were key to the campaign’s success. The creative, eye-catching art drew consumers into the retail locations. But even further, the brand genuinely connected with passersby thanks to those artists who translated the nuances of their communities through their work.
That sense of connection and authenticity matters when you want to encourage user sharing and engagement. According to a survey by Stackla, consumers are 2.4 times more likely to say user-generated content is authentic than brand-created content.
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3. Lean Into That Local Connection
With the right artist and location, a brand that leverages art installations and thoughtful, experiential marketing is seen as a supportive community insider instead of a corporate outsider. While the artist anchors the local connection, the location can also deliver a sense of community to the project — consider a mural painted on a beloved barber shop wall or brightening up a neighborhood restaurant.
Art installations benefit the artist, the business that owns the wall space being rented and the surrounding businesses that see more traffic as the art captures people’s attention. It is also a win for the brand. More than 85% of our survey respondents say they are more likely to purchase from a brand that supports its local community.
The Payoff
Ultimately, people want to feel inspired, not sold to by a brand. Art is the perfect backdrop for this expression, and art installations create new marketing avenues and user-generated opportunities for brands. When an individual shares content of your brand’s art on social media, that moment, and that reflection of the user’s own style and community, lead to increased awareness and credibility for your brand.
Have you used art in your campaigns? How has it contributed to user engagement and UGC? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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