We’re stepping into some newer territory for us here at Eightfold.
Yep, TikTok.
Like everything we do here, we make sure to do the homework before pulling out the camera. There’s merit to pointing and shooting. Just get the thing out there, but we wanted to make sure we knew what we were doing before making a buffoon of ourselves.
I came across a lot of really interesting creators making content about… well, everything.
I also found people giving a lot of meaningful advice on how to make it as a UGC creator.
Some other people were touting just how much they make a month making UGC as if they were selling the profession. Kind of weird, but ok I guess.
But then I came across something profoundly silly.
AI UGC.
Oh, Happy Dagger
Do you remember oxymorons? Words that don’t really belong together, crashing into each other to make something that feels… wrong.
“Oh, Happy Dagger.” from Romeo & Juliet is the example used in my freshman-year high school class, and for good reason. It’s timeless. Daggers can’t be happy, and it’s really unhappy how Juliet plans to use that dagger.
Oxymorons are all over the place in marketing and sales. Think: creativity at scale. That’s not creativity.
AI UGC is now the top of my list for delusional investor/tech bro illiteracy.
Let’s break this down.
What is UGC?
UGC stands for User-Generated Content. Originally, these were videos people would naturally make about a product or experience. If you invite people to a big event, they’ll likely post about it; now you have content that you can post about how awesome the event is. It’s important for credibility.
Like everything on the internet, things got a little muddy.
UGC became something businesses would pay people to make. It was no longer organic, but having an influencer or someone with a following do an ad read still provided credibility for the businesses. It’s not bad; it’s just different.
One of the really cool things I found about UGC is that the people who do it as a career seem to really enjoy it! Businesses get marketing material, creators get paid to create, and everyone is happy!
So why would someone try to make UGC with AI?
Can You Make UGC With AI?
No.
You can't.
At its core, UGC is User-Generated. If a brand generates slop videos of a human-looking, digital simulacrum of every influencer who has ever existed in the meat-space promoting their product, that’s not UGC. That’s a bad ad.
It’s even surprising that this has to be talked about, but the whole point of User-generated content is to get the product or service in the same room as people who can make content about it. The human element is the single most important thing about it.
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