--- title: Rei: a user-generated content campaign, broken down and benchmarked | RGM® url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/rei-user-generated-content-campaign/ updated: 2026-06-10 source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/case-studies/rei-user-generated-content-campaign/ --- - **Story:** Using Rei as the example, this page unpacks how a user-generated content campaign is built and measured. - **Why it matters:** A user-generated content campaign is measurable demand engineering, and public benchmarks set honest targets before any creative starts. - **Takeaway:** The mechanics of a user-generated content campaign transfer to any brand in its category. - **Takeaway:** For Rei, 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 Rei S Situation The setup A user-generated content campaign is a concentrated chance to move the Rei business in its category, with a short window and high stakes. T Task The job Turn attention into measurable demand for Rei: plan the mechanics, set targets against category benchmarks, and build in the measurement. A Action How it runs A clear prompt and frame. UGC does not happen by accident. The campaign gives customers a specific, easy thing to make — a hashtag, a challenge format, a template — with a reason to bother. For Rei, this is the anchor of the plan. R Result The verdict On incremental lift against a baseline for Rei, not reach and not impressions. That is the honest scoreboard for a user-generated content campaign. ## The math behind a Rei user-generated content campaign 0% Benchmark a Rei plan should cite E-commerce product pages featuring user-generated content convert roughly 74% higher than identical pages without it. Source: [inBeat](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics) 0% What the public data tells a Rei team About 84% of consumers trust recommendations from real people over branded content Source: [inBeat](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics) 0% A reference point for Rei forecasting UGC-based ads can achieve about four times higher click-through rates and roughly a 50% lower cost per click than stan Source: [inBeat](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics) Linked A planning anchor for Rei Every figure on this page links to its publisher. Source: [inBeat — user-generated content statistics](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics) #### Quick facts BrandRei IndustryIts Category Campaign typeUser-Generated Content Primary channelsPaid, owned, earned Planning horizonMonths ahead of launch Core measureIncremental lift, not reach Source basisPublic benchmarks, linked RGM useWorked example, not a recipe **Honest note** There is limited public campaign detail specific to Rei, so the depth here comes from the user-generated content-campaign discipline itself, with sourced benchmarks and named example campaigns. No Rei figure is fabricated. ## What a user-generated content campaign is Here is the short version for Rei. A user-generated content campaign turns customers into the brand's media. A user-generated content campaign turns customers into the brand's media. A Rei-scale brief should name this. Instead of producing every asset in-house, the brand creates a reason and a frame for customers to post — for Rei, a live factor — their own — a hashtag, a challenge, a prompt — then collects, rights-clears, and amplifies the best of it. A Rei team reads this closely. The value is authenticity: an audience trusts a real customer's — and Rei is no exception — post in a way it does not trust a brand's. That holds directly for Rei. The discipline is the rights, the moderation, and the amplification system behind it. With Rei as the example, the rest of the page makes it concrete. **Claim:** E-commerce product pages featuring user-generated content convert roughly 74% higher than identical pages without it. **Source:** [[inBeat]](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics). **Context:** UGC works on the conversion page as social proof, — and Rei is no exception — not only at the top of the funnel as awareness. It is the sort of benchmark a Rei brief should cite. ## Running a user-generated content campaign, step by step A user-generated content campaign has working parts. For Rei, they all have to mesh. A user-generated content campaign at Rei scale runs on coordinated parts, listed here: **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]](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics). **Context:** The authenticity gap between a customer's post and a — and Rei is no exception — brand's ad is the entire mechanism of a UGC campaign. For Rei, this number sets expectations before the work starts. 1. **Curate, do not just collect.** Volume is not the goal. For Rei, this is the load-bearing part. The brand selects content that is on-message — and Rei is no exception — and high-quality, and moderates out what is not. Skipping this is the most common Rei-scale error. 2. **Amplify the best as paid media.** Strong UGC running as paid creative typically beats polished studio work — and Rei is no exception — on click-through and cost, so the winners are promoted, not just reposted. This step decides how the rest of the Rei plan holds up. 3. **Close the loop.** Featuring a customer's post rewards them and signals to everyone — and Rei is no exception — else that posting gets noticed, which keeps the content engine running. For a brand like Rei, getting this wrong is expensive. 4. **A clear prompt and frame.** UGC does not happen by accident. For Rei, this is the load-bearing part. The campaign gives customers a specific, easy thing to make — a — and Rei is no exception — hashtag, a challenge format, a template — with a reason to bother. Skipping this is the most common Rei-scale error. 5. **Rights and clearance.** Reposting a customer's content as marketing needs explicit permission. For Rei, the detail is not optional. A clean rights workflow is the unglamorous backbone of every UGC campaign. A Rei-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 Rei. A Rei team setting user-generated content campaign targets needs the category data first. The numbers below are public and linked. **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]](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics). **Context:** Promoting the best customer content as paid media — and Rei is no exception — is often more efficient than scaling studio production. It is the sort of benchmark a Rei brief should cite. Table: the three numbers that decide whether a Rei user-generated content campaign is judged honestly. | 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 Measure what matters. For Rei, these KPIs show whether a user-generated content campaign actually worked. 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, — for Rei, a real factor — click-through and cost-per-click of UGC creative versus studio creative, hashtag reach, and repeat-contributor rate. For Rei, reach is the start of the measurement question, not the answer. Incremental lift is the answer. ## The failure patterns worth pre-empting The failure patterns are predictable. A Rei team can design each of them out in advance. The user-generated content campaign mistakes worth naming for Rei: - Reposting customer content without explicit rights clearance, creating legal exposure. - 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 — Rei included — customers do not know what to make or why. **The pattern**Notice the shape. None of these is a creative failure. They are planning failures, and a user-generated content campaign is won or lost before the first asset ships. ## How RGM reads the Rei example If a Rei team keeps one thing: borrow the user-generated content campaign structure, not the specific execution. From the audits we run, the brands that get user-generated content campaigns right share one habit: they treat the work as measurable demand engineering, not a seasonal ritual. Read it as a blueprint. For Rei and for its category, a user-generated content campaign becomes an investment once baseline, benchmark, and incremental result are in place. ## Quick answers on this case study Is this user-generated content case study based on Rei's own reported results? : No. Every statistic is a public, linked benchmark for the user-generated content campaign type, applied to Rei as the example. Where a figure cannot be sourced publicly, it is omitted rather than guessed. What is the practical takeaway from the Rei user-generated content write-up? : Treat it as a structural template. Borrow the planning logic and the measurement approach for a user-generated content campaign; design the creative for the specific brand. How are the benchmarks here verified? : Each figure carries a fact-atom linking its publisher. Sources include Adobe Analytics, Nielsen, the Association of National Advertisers, and major business press, so every claim can be checked. **Keep reading** Foundational concepts and channels behind this case: - [how performance marketing works](/learn/what-is-performance-marketing/) - [incrementality testing](/learn/incrementality-testing/) - [audience arbitrage](/learn/audience-arbitrage/) - [performance marketing services](/services/performance-marketing/) - [advertising platforms](/platforms/) ## Frequently asked questions How do brands get the rights to use customer content? Here is how this applies to Rei. Explicitly. For Rei, the detail is not optional. Reposting a customer's photo or video as marketing needs — Rei included — documented permission, usually a reply-to-consent or a rights-management tool. Rei planners would underline this. A clean clearance workflow is the unglamorous backbone of every — as a Rei team knows — UGC campaign and the part that protects the brand legally. For Rei, that is the practical takeaway. Is UGC cheaper than producing content in-house for a brand like Rei? For a brand like Rei, the short answer is direct. Often, and frequently more effective. For Rei, the detail is not optional. UGC-based ads can reach about four times the click-through rate — Rei included — of standard creative at roughly half the cost per click. Rei planners would underline this. The brand still invests in the prompt, the rights system, — as a Rei team knows — and curation, but it does not carry the full studio-production cost. For Rei, that is the practical takeaway. How does a brand keep a UGC campaign going for a brand like Rei? For a brand like Rei, the short answer is direct. By closing the loop. For Rei, the detail is not optional. Featuring a customer's post rewards that contributor and — Rei included — signals to everyone else that posting gets noticed. Rei planners would underline this. A campaign that collects content but never showcases contributors kills — and Rei is no exception — the incentive, and the submission flow dries up within weeks. For Rei, that is the practical takeaway. Does user-generated content actually improve conversion? Yes, measurably. For a brand at Rei scale, this is where the plan is tested. E-commerce product pages with UGC convert roughly 74% higher than identical pages without it, because — for Rei, a live factor — a real customer's photo or review works as social proof at the point of decision. Rei planners would underline this. UGC is a conversion-page asset, not only a top-of-funnel awareness play. Why do consumers trust UGC more than brand content for a brand like Rei? Here is how this applies to Rei. About 84% of consumers trust recommendations from real people over — and Rei is no exception — branded content, and roughly 79% say UGC strongly sways their purchasing. That holds directly for Rei. The post comes from someone with no obvious incentive to sell, so the audience — Rei included — reads it as honest in a way it does not read a brand's own ad. For Rei, this is the point worth acting on. What makes Rei a useful example for this campaign type? Rei 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; Rei is the lens, not the limit. The sourced figures hold for any comparable brand. ### Sources & references - [inBeat — user-generated content statistics](https://inbeat.agency/blog/ugc-statistics) — Conversion, trust, and ad-performance data for UGC. - [Flowbox — UGC statistics compilation](https://getflowbox.com/blog/user-generated-content-statistics/) — Independent compilation of UGC performance benchmarks. - [HubSpot 2026 marketing statistics](https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics) — Broader content-marketing and UGC adoption data. - [Archive.com — UGC engagement statistics](https://archive.com/blog/user-generated-content) — Engagement and time-on-site data for UGC. ## Related [#### All case studies The full RGM case-study library.](/learn/case-studies/)[#### What is growth marketing The foundational concept behind every campaign type.](/learn/what-is-growth-marketing/)[#### Incrementality testing How to prove a campaign actually caused the lift.](/learn/incrementality-testing/)