The Rise of UGC: How User-Generated Content Is Reshaping Marketing

Marketing is changing faster than most businesses can keep up. The channels that worked five years ago are increasingly ineffective. TV ads get skipped. Banner ads get blocked. Social media organic reach has cratered.

But one channel is exploding: user-generated content (UGC).

And no recent example demonstrates this better than Chili’s remarkable turnaround.

The Chili’s Comeback Story

In 2024, Chili’s was struggling. The casual dining chain faced the same headwinds as the rest of the industry—rising costs, changing consumer habits, and fierce competition from fast-casual restaurants.

Then they made a bold move: they shifted significant marketing dollars away from traditional advertising and into influencer partnerships and UGC campaigns on TikTok.

The results were staggering.

What Chili’s Did Differently

Instead of creating polished, corporate-feeling content, Chili’s leaned into authenticity. They partnered with food influencers who genuinely loved their menu. They encouraged customers to share their own experiences. They embraced the messy, real moments that traditional marketing would have sanitized.

The Triple Dipper and Big Smasher Burger became viral sensations—not because Chili’s told people they were great, but because real customers showed them being great.

Key tactics included:

• Partnering with micro-influencers who had engaged, trusting audiences rather than just celebrities with massive follower counts
• Encouraging authentic reviews rather than scripted endorsements
• Responding to and resharing customer content, making customers feel like part of the brand
• Leaning into TikTok trends rather than fighting the platform’s culture

The payoff? Chili’s reported significant same-store sales growth while many competitors continued to struggle. Their social media engagement skyrocketed. They reached younger demographics that traditional advertising couldn’t touch.

Why UGC Works So Well

User-generated content isn’t just a trend—it’s a fundamental shift in how consumers make decisions. Here’s why it’s so effective:

1. Trust Has Migrated

Consumers don’t trust brands the way they used to. According to multiple studies, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from other people—even strangers—over branded content.

When a brand says “our product is great,” it’s advertising. When a customer says “this product is great,” it’s a testimonial. The difference in perceived credibility is massive.

2. Authenticity Over Polish

The most successful content on platforms like TikTok isn’t highly produced. It’s real, raw, and relatable. A shaky phone video of someone genuinely enjoying a meal is more compelling than a $50,000 commercial shoot.

This is counterintuitive for marketers trained in the era of high production values. But today’s consumers—especially Gen Z and Millennials—have developed sophisticated radar for detecting inauthenticity. Overly polished content often triggers skepticism rather than desire.

3. Social Proof at Scale

UGC provides social proof in a way that traditional advertising never could. When potential customers see dozens or hundreds of real people enjoying a product or service, it creates a powerful “everyone’s doing it” effect.

This is especially true on platforms with strong recommendation algorithms. TikTok’s For You Page means that viral UGC can reach millions of potential customers organically—no ad spend required.

4. Cost Efficiency

Traditional advertising is expensive. A national TV campaign can cost millions. Even digital ads on major platforms have become increasingly costly as competition for attention intensifies.

UGC campaigns, by contrast, can deliver enormous reach at a fraction of the cost. Micro-influencer partnerships often cost a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Customer-created content costs nothing but requires creating experiences worth sharing.

How Businesses Can Leverage UGC

The good news: you don’t need Chili’s budget to benefit from UGC. Here’s how businesses of any size can tap into this channel:

Create Share-Worthy Experiences

The foundation of any UGC strategy is having something worth sharing. Ask yourself:

• What moment in our customer experience would someone want to capture and share?
• What’s visually interesting or unique about our product or service?
• What would make a customer feel special enough to post about us?

For a restaurant, it might be a dramatic presentation or an Instagram-worthy dish. For a service business, it might be a before-and-after transformation. For a retail store, it might be an unboxing experience.

Make Sharing Easy

Remove friction from the sharing process:

• Create photo opportunities with good lighting and interesting backdrops
• Have a clear, memorable hashtag
• Consider QR codes that link directly to review platforms or social sharing
• Train staff to suggest sharing at the right moments (after a great experience, not before)

Partner with the Right Influencers

You don’t need celebrities. In fact, micro-influencers (1,000-100,000 followers) often deliver better results because:

• Their audiences are more engaged
• Their recommendations feel more authentic
• They’re more affordable and often more willing to work with local businesses
• They specialize in niches relevant to your business

For a CNY business, this might mean partnering with local food bloggers, Syracuse lifestyle influencers, or content creators who cover the Central New York area.

Encourage and Reward Customer Content

Simple tactics work:

• Feature customer photos on your own social media (with permission)
• Create a contest for the best customer content
• Offer small incentives for reviews or social shares
• Respond to and engage with every piece of customer content you can find

Embrace Imperfection

This is the hardest shift for many businesses. Your UGC strategy doesn’t need to look perfect. In fact, it probably shouldn’t.

The content that performs best on platforms like TikTok is:

• Genuine rather than scripted
• Personality-driven rather than corporate
• Responsive to trends rather than rigidly on-brand
• Fun rather than salesy

UGC for Local Businesses

For local businesses in Central New York, UGC offers unique advantages:

Geographic Targeting

Local influencers have local audiences. A Syracuse food blogger’s followers are primarily Syracuse-area residents—exactly the people you want to reach. This kind of geographic precision is expensive to achieve through traditional advertising.

Community Connection

Local UGC builds community in a way that corporate advertising can’t. When customers see their neighbors and friends sharing experiences at your business, it creates a sense of local pride and belonging.

Lower Competition

While national brands fight for the attention of major influencers, local micro-influencers are often underutilized. There’s less competition and more opportunity to build meaningful partnerships.

Word-of-Mouth Amplified

UGC is essentially word-of-mouth marketing made visible and scalable. In tight-knit communities like those in CNY, this can create powerful network effects. One person’s post leads to their friends visiting, who post, leading to more visits…

The ROI of UGC

How do you measure the return on user-generated content? Key metrics include:

Engagement Rates

Track likes, comments, shares, and saves on UGC versus branded content. UGC typically outperforms by 2-3x or more.

Reach and Impressions

How many people are seeing customer content about your business? Tools like social listening platforms can help track this.

Conversion Attribution

Use unique promo codes or links for influencer partnerships to track direct conversions. Ask customers how they heard about you.

Earned Media Value

Calculate what the equivalent reach would have cost through paid advertising. UGC often delivers media value 5-10x the investment.

Sentiment Analysis

Beyond numbers, what are people saying? Positive UGC builds brand equity in ways that are hard to quantify but very real.

Getting Started with UGC

If you’re new to user-generated content, here’s a simple starting framework:

Month 1: Foundation

1. Audit your current customer experience for share-worthy moments
2. Set up social listening to find existing mentions of your business
3. Create a branded hashtag
4. Start engaging with any customer content you find

Month 2: Amplification

1. Reach out to 3-5 local micro-influencers for partnerships
2. Begin featuring customer content on your own channels
3. Train staff on encouraging (not pressuring) social sharing
4. Set up a simple review incentive program

Month 3: Scale

1. Analyze what content is performing best
2. Double down on successful influencer partnerships
3. Create more opportunities for shareable moments
4. Consider a customer content contest or campaign

The Future Is User-Generated

The Chili’s story isn’t an anomaly—it’s a preview of where marketing is heading. As traditional advertising channels become more crowded and less trusted, the brands that thrive will be those that empower their customers to become advocates.

This doesn’t mean abandoning other marketing channels entirely. But it does mean recognizing that the most powerful marketing message often isn’t the one you create—it’s the one your customers create for you.

The question isn’t whether UGC should be part of your marketing strategy. It’s how quickly you can make it a priority.

---

Ready to build a digital presence worth sharing? Contact Astrochimp to discuss how we can create a website and online experience that encourages customer engagement and drives word-of-mouth marketing.