How a user-generated content campaign works, with Oatly as the example
Oatly is a consumer brand. This case study uses Oatly as the worked example for a user-generated content campaign. It covers what the campaign type is, how brands run it, the public benchmarks that frame it, and the mistakes that derail it. The Oatly example grounds a model that any brand in its category can apply.
- Story: Using Oatly as the example, this page unpacks how a user-generated content campaign is built and measured.
- Why it matters: Treated well, a user-generated content campaign is a planning discipline first and a creative exercise second.
- Takeaway: The mechanics of a user-generated content campaign transfer to any brand in its category.
- Takeaway: For Oatly, reach is an input; incremental lift against a baseline is the real measure.
- Takeaway: Most user-generated content-campaign failures are planning failures, not creative failures.
How a user-generated content campaign plays out for Oatly
The math behind a Oatly user-generated content campaign
Quick facts
The user-generated content campaign, defined
The core idea, before the Oatly detail. A user-generated content campaign turns customers into the brand's media.
A user-generated content campaign turns customers into the brand's media. That is exactly the Oatly situation. Instead of producing every asset in-house, the brand creates a reason and a frame for customers to post — Oatly included — their own — a hashtag, a challenge, a prompt — then collects, rights-clears, and amplifies the best of it. For a brand at Oatly scale, this is where the plan is tested. The value is authenticity: an audience trusts a real customer's — Oatly included — post in a way it does not trust a brand's. A Oatly-scale brief should name this. The discipline is the rights, the moderation, and the amplification system behind it. This page applies that definition to Oatly.
Claim: E-commerce product pages featuring user-generated content convert roughly 74% higher than identical pages without it. Source: [inBeat]. Context: UGC works on the conversion page as social proof, — and Oatly is no exception — not only at the top of the funnel as awareness. For Oatly, this number sets expectations before the work starts.
How a user-generated content campaign is run
Run through the mechanics: a user-generated content campaign for Oatly is an operating system.
For Oatly, a user-generated content campaign is less one ad and more a set of connected decisions:
Claim: About 84% of consumers trust recommendations from real people over branded content, and roughly 79% say UGC strongly influences their purchasing decisions. Source: [inBeat]. Context: The authenticity gap between a customer's post and a — and Oatly is no exception — brand's ad is the entire mechanism of a UGC campaign. A Oatly team would treat this as a planning reference, not a guarantee.
- Curate, do not just collect. Volume is not the goal. Oatly planners would underline this. The brand selects content that is on-message — for Oatly, a live factor — and high-quality, and moderates out what is not. Oatly would budget real time against this.
- Amplify the best as paid media. Strong UGC running as paid creative typically beats polished studio work — Oatly included — on click-through and cost, so the winners are promoted, not just reposted. A Oatly-scale team treats this as non-negotiable.
- Close the loop. Featuring a customer's post rewards them and signals to everyone — and Oatly is no exception — else that posting gets noticed, which keeps the content engine running. Oatly planners flag this as a make-or-break detail.
- A clear prompt and frame. UGC does not happen by accident. It applies cleanly to Oatly. The campaign gives customers a specific, easy thing to make — a — as a Oatly team knows — hashtag, a challenge format, a template — with a reason to bother. Skipping this is the most common Oatly-scale error.
- Rights and clearance. Reposting a customer's content as marketing needs explicit permission. For Oatly, this is the load-bearing part. A clean rights workflow is the unglamorous backbone of every UGC campaign. A Oatly-scale team treats this as non-negotiable.
Public benchmarks for this campaign type
Start with the category numbers. They frame what a user-generated content campaign means for Oatly.
These sourced figures give a Oatly user-generated content campaign an honest target range across its category.
Claim: UGC-based ads can achieve about four times higher click-through rates and roughly a 50% lower cost per click than standard creative. Source: [inBeat]. Context: Promoting the best customer content as paid media — and Oatly is no exception — is often more efficient than scaling studio production. For Oatly, this number sets expectations before the work starts.
| What to measure | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Pre-campaign baseline | Without it, lift cannot be proven |
| Category benchmark | Sets a realistic target, not a hopeful one |
| Incremental result | The honest measure of whether spend worked |
Which KPIs decide the verdict
The scoreboard decides the verdict. For Oatly, weigh these measures over vanity numbers.
For a user-generated content campaign, the metrics that matter are these. Volume of submissions and qualified submissions, rights-cleared asset count, conversion lift on UGC-enabled pages, — Oatly included — click-through and cost-per-click of UGC creative versus studio creative, hashtag reach, and repeat-contributor rate.
Impressions describe scale, not effect. A Oatly team serious about a user-generated content campaign reports lift against a baseline.
Where these campaigns go wrong
Failure has a shape. For Oatly, the four errors below are the ones worth pre-empting.
The user-generated content campaign mistakes worth naming for Oatly:
- Chasing submission volume and amplifying off-message or low-quality posts.
- Collecting UGC and never featuring contributors, so the incentive to keep posting dies.
- Launching a hashtag with no clear prompt, so — and Oatly is no exception — customers do not know what to make or why.
- Reposting customer content without explicit rights clearance, creating legal exposure.
The RGM read on Oatly
The lesson for Oatly is structural. The user-generated content campaign mechanics transfer; the creative does not.
Across the audits we have done, winning user-generated content campaigns come from teams that measure rather than assume. Oatly has the budget to buy attention; the discipline is proving it converted.
Read it as a blueprint. For Oatly and for its category, a user-generated content campaign becomes an investment once baseline, benchmark, and incremental result are in place.
Fast answers
- Are the figures here taken from Oatly's internal data?
- No. This page pairs public user-generated content-campaign benchmarks with Oatly as the illustration. The numbers are linked to their publishers; nothing private to Oatly is claimed.
- How should a marketing team use this Oatly example?
- Read it as a model, not a recipe. The mechanics and benchmarks transfer; the exact creative does not. Use it to pressure-test a user-generated content plan against how the discipline actually works.
- What sources back the numbers on this page?
- The numbers are drawn from public reporting by Adobe Analytics, Nielsen, the ANA, and established business press, and each one links back to its source.
Frequently asked questions
How do brands get the rights to use customer content?
Explicitly. A Oatly-scale brief should name this. Reposting a customer's photo or video as marketing needs — and Oatly is no exception — documented permission, usually a reply-to-consent or a rights-management tool. For Oatly, the detail is not optional. A clean clearance workflow is the unglamorous backbone of every — Oatly included — UGC campaign and the part that protects the brand legally. The same logic holds for any its category brand, Oatly included.
Is UGC cheaper than producing content in-house?
For Oatly and comparable its category brands, this is the answer. Often, and frequently more effective. A Oatly team reads this closely. UGC-based ads can reach about four times the click-through rate — Oatly included — of standard creative at roughly half the cost per click. In the Oatly context, that detail carries weight. The brand still invests in the prompt, the rights system, — and Oatly is no exception — and curation, but it does not carry the full studio-production cost.
How does Oatly keep a UGC campaign going?
Taking Oatly as the example: By closing the loop. For Oatly, this is the load-bearing part. Featuring a customer's post rewards that contributor and — Oatly included — signals to everyone else that posting gets noticed. A Oatly team reads this closely. A campaign that collects content but never showcases contributors kills — and Oatly is no exception — the incentive, and the submission flow dries up within weeks. For Oatly, this is the point worth acting on.
Does user-generated content actually improve conversion?
Here is how this applies to Oatly. Yes, measurably. For Oatly, the detail is not optional. E-commerce product pages with UGC convert roughly 74% higher than identical pages without it, because — Oatly included — a real customer's photo or review works as social proof at the point of decision. Oatly planners would underline this. UGC is a conversion-page asset, not only a top-of-funnel awareness play. For Oatly, that is the practical takeaway.
Why do consumers trust UGC more than brand content?
Here is how this applies to Oatly. About 84% of consumers trust recommendations from real people over — Oatly included — branded content, and roughly 79% say UGC strongly sways their purchasing. A Oatly-scale brief should name this. The post comes from someone with no obvious incentive to sell, so the audience — as a Oatly team knows — reads it as honest in a way it does not read a brand's own ad. For Oatly, that is the practical takeaway.
What makes Oatly a useful example for this campaign type?
Oatly is a recognisable brand in its category, which makes the user-generated content mechanics concrete and easy to follow. The campaign-type analysis and every benchmark apply across the category; Oatly is the lens, not the limit. The sourced figures hold for any comparable brand.
Sources & references
- inBeat — user-generated content statistics — Conversion, trust, and ad-performance data for UGC.
- Flowbox — UGC statistics compilation — Independent compilation of UGC performance benchmarks.
- HubSpot 2026 marketing statistics — Broader content-marketing and UGC adoption data.
- Archive.com — UGC engagement statistics — Engagement and time-on-site data for UGC.