Recently, a friend shared these terms with me, PGC and UGC and I stared at him blankly. Apparently, these terms are used regularly in the Chinese market, and it is time we start to understand what they mean. If anything, they provide a roadmap on how to plan your branding strategy.

First off in my research, I added an additional BGC to the mix, and these are acronyms to the following :-

BGC - Business Generated Content

PGC - Professionally Generated Content

UGC - User Generated Content.

With these, let me give quick examples and what they are used for.

BGC - Business Generated Content
BGC - Business Generated Content

Business Generated Content is the long game. In the west, BGC is also known as Content Marketing. Mainly, this is content created by your business and this tends to be a long game. This include videos that reside on your website and on your social media pages.

If your business is in car servicing and repairs, for example, you could create some videos with content like “Top 3 Habits to a Better Running Car” or “5 Simple Things You Can Do Before Sending Your Car in”.

With BGC, your customers will be looking for authenticity. Establish your brand personality and how you stand out from the rest of your competitors.

How do you create this content? Get your phones out, do some Insta Stories, create some quick Instagram videos, or even hold a live stream where you answer frequently asked questions! You may even hire professionals, but do remember to communicate what you are doing. There is a difference between BGC and PGC, and we will illustrate further later.

PGC - Professionally Generated Content
PGC - Professionally Generated Content

Professionally Generated Content are your advertisements, your sponsored documentaries and testimonial videos. These can be for lead generation, a video about your upcoming promotion, for example. These can also be for branding, just like Nike’s ads featuring Tiger Woods and LeBron James, for example.

With PGC, you are essentially able to craft what your brand is aspiring to. This is the professional front to your business, while BGC and UGC tends to ‘keep it real’. With a professional team handling production, you are able to craft a clearer message with a polished looking video for your audience.

That said, to have that kind of production value, you typically have to set aside a bigger budget and a lot more time for the entire production. Take your time with this, but get started early.

UGC - User Generated Content
UGC - User Generated Content

Of course, you would know what this is. This is a big one that has not really existed until social media was created. User Generated Content refers to videos created and shared by users on social media and online platforms that are supposed to be ‘fans’ to the brand.

UGC helps to create social proof. If the content feels genuine, your customers would trust your brand more.

So what can you do to create UGC? You can sponsor influencers to help with content creation. Therein lies the contradiction. Companies can, and do pay users to help them share positive content, hence the inverted commas placed around ‘fans’.

One thing to note when working with influencers is their personal branding. Do research on the influencers you want to engage to make sure that their branding and their voice is aligned with your brand’s image too. If an influencer is quirky and fun while your brand is serious and professional, it would not help your brand much to have that person represent your brand.

Another thing you can do to encourage UGC would be to run promotions and competitions. You could run promotions encouraging content from your customers and fans. Giveaways, and collaborations are just some of the formats you can run your campaign on.

So we hope these definitions work! It is time to figure a good mix of all 3 kinds of content that best suit your brand and your market. Do feel free to comment or drop me a message if you would like some ideas on how to start! （Published on August 16, 2019 by Why Keen Tham）