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How Stutterheim benefits from UGC | Case study

Stutterheim increased its conversion rate by 18% and decreased its cost per acquisition by 58.36% by showcasing User Generated Content in its ads with Flowbox.

Results in Numbers

Increase in conversion rate

18%

Lowered cost per acquisition

58.36%

The Story

The premium raincoat brand Stutterheim was founded in 2010 by Alexander Stutterheim and has since become an international phenomenon. Retailers worldwide such as Barney’s in New York are selling the famous raincoats, and from the very beginning social media has been an important part of the brand’s marketing strategy.

Challenge

The response to Stutterheim’s Instagram activity has been huge, and naturally their marketing department started asking themselves if there was any way to capitalize from the large engagement for the brand in social media.

“As soon as we realized that this probably could be used for more than just a way to show beautiful pictures on our website, we started looking for a company that could help us to integrate the Instagram feed on our product pages, and we found Flowbox.”

Philip Nabseth – E-Commerce Manager at Stutterheim

Solution

According to Guillaume de Basly, E-Commerce Manager at Stutterheim, eCommerce counts for around 55% of their revenue today, compared to 25% two years ago. Flowbox’s platform has enabled Stutterheim to work smarter and more efficiently with content marketing.

“We have a visual product which tend to appeal to creative people. A lot of our customers respond well to a certain aesthetic and also create nice things themselves, so there’s a lot of great content out there and we want to make use of that in our marketing.”

Guillaume de Basly – E-Commerce Manager at Stutterheim

While a lot of brands use User Generated Content (UGC) on their website, Stutterheim has taken the next step and now also use UGC in their social media ads.

“It’s been three months now since we started using User Generated Content in ads and we’ve already seen great results. Our cost per acquisition is 58% lower when we use UGC. It seems like the more personal the image is, the better engagement. Our statistics indicate that when it’s a studio produced image, the engagement is usually low. Best is when it’s less polished and more personal. As soon as we realized that, we started to test UGC in ads and I think it worked out pretty well.”

Guillaume de Basly – E-Commerce Manager at Stutterheim

The A/B-test, which went on for about 4 weeks with over 50,000 visitors, showed an 18% increase in the conversion rate with Flowbox integrated on the website. It also showed that visitors stayed longer on the website. From this, Stutterheim concluded that using Flowbox’s UGC platform was the logical path for the brand to take.

Results

Increase in conversion rate

18%

Lowered cost per acquisition

58.36%

Guillaume de Basly explains that although the cost per acquisition is significantly lower when using UGC in social media ads, the goal isn’t always to sell.

“Sometimes we highlight our customers’ content in our other marketing touchpoints, but not necessarily to just sell. We want to build a sense of community. Of course, the ultimate aim is to drive sales here and now, and our next step is to do so by integrating UGC in our retargeting strategy – but we think UGC will have a better long-term effect if we initially engage people.”

Guillaume de Basly – E-Commerce Manager at Stutterheim

The advertising objective when using user-generated images is prospecting and brand awareness. Retargeting, with the aim to drive conversions, will be the next step.

“Today, many brands are more humble and less polished. People today are used to seeing content that’s not directly from the brand so you don’t need to only distribute perfect branded content. We’ve used UGC as background for ad campaigns and seen great results.”

Guillaume de Basly – E-Commerce Manager at Stutterheim

Since Stutterheim Raincoats mainly only sells one product: a premium raincoat in a large variety of colors, the integration of the Instagram feed on the product pages with Flowbox has been both simple and effective.

Results in Numbers:

  • 18% increase in conversion rate
  • 58.36% lowered cost per acquisition
  • 41% lower CPM