UGC: The Fine Art of Authenticity

In our “Influence in Play" series, Mobius’ Influencer Team look at the value of online fandoms and social media content creators and the rise of User Generated Content in arts marketing and PR. 

In this first instalment, Marketing Account Executive Juliet explores authenticity in UGC through campaigns from coffee shops entering the popular matcha trends to the Taylor Swift-ication of book selling and looks at how these tactics can be applied to the world of live performance. 

It started in the late 00s with content like Zoella’s Primark hauls… and now, in 2025, the line between culture and corporation grows ever thinner as UGC (User-Generated Content) has become a popular staple of many marketing campaigns. But over the past few decades UGC marketing has evolved from an opportunistic experiment into a fine art — and the real question is: how do we know when we’re hitting the mark? And what happens when brands and producers swing and miss? 

I’ve said it before: in the right circumstances, the value of UGC can’t be overstated, with a majority of consumers looking for recommendations before committing to a purchase. With over 60% of Gen Z using Instagram and TikTok as their primary search engines, it matters now more than ever for brands to be where the conversation is happening. And given that these platforms are built on social rather than purely advertising intent, UGC remains one of the few potentially authentic bridges between people, product and events.

With this in mind, it’s a no-brainer for companies to meet their audience where they are, and it’s typical now to see household names popping up in TikTok trends and comment sections as if they’re regular people, just like us! When so often we’re supposed to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain (even more ironic given the amount of UGC content coming out of the Wicked: For Good premiere from big names of stage and screen), it can be refreshing to see self-effacing humour or quirky trends in the place of cold hard sales jargon. But audiences aren’t stupid, and at its core company interaction with UGC loops back to the same goal: boosting brand perception and, of course, driving sales.

UGC works because there’s a kind of social mirroring at play — the “if you liked X, you’ll love Y” effect. It’s the same psychology that drives friendship groups, music fandoms, and even meme culture. We like to see ourselves reflected in what we consume, and UGC lets brands do that in a way that feels organic.

For this reason, when it works it’s extremely effective. And when it doesn’t? It gives ‘How do you do, fellow kids?’

Take Black Sheep Coffee’s recent campaign promoting their matcha range. It was a cheeky nod to competitors like Blank Street — the aesthetic-driven, Gen Z-favourite coffee chain and caffeine’s answer to Brandy Melville. Black Sheep flipped the narrative by featuring a rugged, leather-jacket-clad biker clutching a cup of matcha, beneath signage that read: “Not Just For The Girlies.”

It was clever because it used UGC-style language in an unexpected context, identifying their existing customer base (the matcha girlies) and actively inviting those beyond that demographic to also experience their product. The tone was recognisable, the humour subtle, and the message inclusive rather than divisive. Black Sheep wasn’t mocking the trend or exploiting its customers; it was expanding upon it all.

But for every hit, there’s a miss. According to Newton — or, depending on your cultural reference point, Thomas Jefferson — every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The same applies to marketing: when you target one demographic, you automatically un-target another.

The Culture Study podcast recently discussed a trend of marketing in publishing, where the nod to cultural fandoms has lost all subtlety. Laurie Gilmore’s novel ‘The Pumpkin Spice Cafe’ and ‘Cruel Summer’ by Morgan Elizabeth blatantly play-off the existing cultural capital of Gilmore Girls and Taylor Swift. Similarly, Waterstones recently advertised YA novel ‘A Grave Inheritance’ with a table display titled ‘Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?’ (a Taylor lyric for any Swift atheists). They may as well have printed a cardboard cutout of Taylor Swift herself shouting ‘I WANT YOU!’ 

The problem is that these strategies, as evidenced by the Culture Study’s conversation, is that overdoing it on the UGC relatability starts to look like a cash-grab, and that every time these brands decide to niche down to customers of one fanbase, they automatically exclude anyone outside that group too. Rather than authenticity cultivating brand loyalty and consistency, it feels forced and over-curated.

So how can we use UGC in the arts? The edge that our industry has is that theatre is literally supposed to be a shared experience between people, so naturally UGC marketing fits easily into an arts marketing strategy; working with theatre influencers who can share show content and an authentic audience experience gives potential audiences as trusted voice of approval and also an ‘I wish I were there’ feeling too. Our influencer marketing strategies are an effective way to both fill auditoriums and get the word out about shows in a personal, tangible way. Equally, building up organic social media followings and encouraging people to tag and share on their own personal profiles directly is a subtle and easy way to begin to promote the product in question, neatly sitting across both traditional PR and marketing. 

Authenticity and effectiveness of UGC is a more complicated line to walk now, with higher risk and higher reward. Because UGC isn’t about brands, venues and companies pretending to be people, it’s about people shaping how brands venues and companies behave, and the best campaigns respect that dynamic instead of trying to hijack it.

So, if Zoella’s Primark hauls were the birth of UGC culture, then 2025 is the era of UGC maturity, where the smartest brands aren’t just playing the social game, they’re listening, learning, and letting their audiences lead.

If you’re interested in chatting more about our theatre influencer campaigns please do get in touch.