How CREATE benefits from UGC | Case study

This case study explores CREATE’s implementation process of a UGC marketing strategy, as well as their use of the Flowbox platform for managing user generated content.

The brand has implemented UGC flows in different locations across their website (homepage, community page, and product pages), benefiting from more than 350 high-quality user generated posts in the first 6 months of using the platform. This content has been shared both in these flows and on their social media channels.

Additionally, an average of 10.7% of users who interacted with product-linked UGC (also over 6 months) ended up clicking the “See Product” button, directing them to the product page.

This demonstrates how UGC galleries and carousels are an excellent way to drive traffic to the most important pages of an eCommerce site: the product pages.

Numbers

The Story

CREATE is a Spanish home appliance design brand founded in 2019. The company offers a catalog of over 300 products that combine design and functionality, including kitchen robots, coffee makers, ceiling fans, and refrigerators with both vintage and modern designs.

CREATE sells its products in more than 10 European countries and has two physical stores, both in Madrid: one in La Vaguada Shopping Centre and a temporary store at 76 Gran Vía.

As the brand states in their social media profiles:

“CREATE is many things, but above all, it’s a young company created by young people passionate about design, innovation, and technology, with the goal of improving and simplifying our customers’ daily lives through unique products accessible to everyone”

Thanks to their vertical business model, which allows them to control the entire value chain, the company can offer their extensive catalog of functional design products at accessible prices, with excellent value for money.

Additionally, CREATE has launched sustainability-focused collections, such as the Raw & New Collection made with organic materials, and has collaborated with well-known brands like Barbie to offer unique products.

The Challenge

In a market as competitive as home appliances, CREATE needed to connect with their users in a more direct, personal way and build a loyal community to differentiate themselves from competitors.

For a brand like CREATE, with design in its DNA and a special focus on shopping experience, it was obvious that their next strategic step was to leverage user-generated content.

“The design of our products and our brand ecosystem naturally encourages our community to tag us, without needing incentives. We sell design products that our customers want to display, not hide in a closet”
Pedro Salazar, Digital Director of CREATE

With this premise, the brand decided to implement a user-generated content marketing strategy that would allow them to showcase customer satisfaction through organically generated content, which they consider more reliable and authentic, providing social proof.

“The flows with content generated by our customers are the most reliable reviews. They allow other users to confirm that real people are sharing this information and not a bot creating fake reviews”
Pedro Salazar, Digital Director of CREATE

CREATE chose the Flowbox UGC platform as their technology partner for this task. Flowbox would allow the brand to collect, moderate, and share content generated by users, as well as their own content, across different channels such as their website, social media profiles, and email marketing campaigns.

The Solution

The brand uses #createsociety, along with mentioning photo tags on their Instagram profiles to promote content creation among their followers. This allows them to receive large quantities of photos, videos, and reviews from satisfied consumers with their products, which they can easily manage with the Flowbox UGC platform.

“User generated content is increasingly valuable because it’s considered more authentic than brand generated content. Grouping this content gives great reliability to our product, our brand, and inspires users”
Pedro Salazar, Digital Director of CREATE

Consumers vs Influencers

CREATE considers UGC a reliable, authentic, and inspiring source of reviews in various formats. Most of their content comes from satisfied consumers rather than influencer collaborations. However, they encourage their users to create organic content closer to professional quality standards while maintaining the authenticity and social proof that user-generated content provides.

“Most of the content in our flows is generated by satisfied customers sharing their experiences. We also have, to a lesser extent, content generated by influencers, who generally stand out for having more reach and standards closer to professional content. Between both, we manage to receive a large amount of content daily”
Pedro Salazar, Digital Director of CREATE

Best-performing implemented UGC flows

The brand has embedded UGC flows on their website’s homepage and product pages. They’ve also created a community page showcasing user-generated content shared with #createsociety and their other established content sources on the platform.
CREATE’s goal in implementing a user-generated content flow on the community page is for users to find inspiration, usage ideas, and new products they might not know about yet.

However, the CREATE team considers the most valuable flows to be those located on product pages, as they not only inspire users browsing their website but are also strategically placed at a point in the customer journey closer to purchase.

“The flows implemented on product pages give us the best results. These pages have high traffic, and users can see specific content about the product they’re interested in. Additionally, it’s the flow closest to purchase, while the Homepage flow works as an entry point that invites consumers to create content and get to know our brand”
Pedro Salazar, Digital Director of CREATE

UGC Management with the Platform

Despite the large amount of content users generate daily by tagging and/or mentioning the brand, Alejandra considers this volume manageable thanks to the features provided by Flowbox’s UGC platform.

“We receive a lot of user content daily because they tag our brand. My work with the Flowbox platform focuses on collecting and moderating this content, as well as requesting media rights. The platform helps me manage content from Instagram thanks to its ability to automate and more efficiently manage day-to-day manual processes”
Alejandra Sánchez, Community Manager of CREATE

The Flowbox Experience