The 5 things we have learned from UGC working with brands like Maxibon, Flexicar and other companies

UGC is no longer simply “people filming themselves with their phones”. What we are seeing at HICARI with brands such as Maxibon, Flexicar, OCU, Davante, Yoigo… and many other companies (see HICARI success stories here) is much more interesting: UGC has become a new way of communicating on social media.

And the most important change is probably this: brands no longer use UGC just to sell products. They use it to appear more human.

One of the clearest patterns we see at HICARI is that the content that performs best is rarely direct advertising—simply talking to the camera about the product. Brands are using UGC creators to create:

• Lifestyle content
• Trends
• Everyday situations
• Humour
• POVs
• Storytelling
• Events for UGC creators to attend and film
• Content that simply entertains.

And it makes sense: people go on TikTok or Instagram to consume content, not advertising. Videos that look like ads tend to generate immediate rejection, while more natural formats achieve higher retention and engagement.

For example:

In many videos, the product only appears for a few seconds. Or it is not present at all. What usually matters is:

• The story
• The creator’s personality
• The situation being described.

In fact, many brands are realising that content performs better when it looks like a native social media post—when the brand looks like a creator rather than a traditional TV commercial.

For example:

Another very clear takeaway: the brands that achieve the best results tend to constantly test different profiles.

And the reasons are simple:

• Content (and faces) become overused quickly
• Each creator connects with the audience differently
• It allows brands to test which creator and communication style connect and perform best

That is why we are seeing more and more brands working with several profiles at the same time instead of searching for “their definitive creator” and committing from the outset to the same face or faces.

Brands that best understand social media do not publish UGC as isolated campaigns. They publish consistently.

In most cases where we see the best results, brands are working at a frequency of between 2 and 3 UGC videos per week.

Because social platforms work through:

• Repetition
• Volume
• Learning

Often, improvement does not come from producing one spectacular video, but from publishing more and learning faster which formats work. And, let’s remember that videos have an increasingly shorter lifespan.

There is a fairly widespread misconception: that UGC mainly consists of creators publishing content on their own profiles. Do UGC creators publish on their social media or simply send content to brands?.

But what we see at HICARI is different.

Approximately 80% of brands are looking for content created for them, to use on:

• Their social media
• Ads
• Paid media
• E-commerce

Only 20% are looking for UGC campaigns in which the creator publishes on their own social media.

And something interesting happens here: most of these collaborations are carried out with relatively small profiles, typically between 2,000 and 8,000 followers. Why? Because they tend to create a more authentic and natural perception than larger profiles.

Most brands have already understood something important: on social media, the winner is not the one that looks most corporate. It is the one that best integrates into the way we consume content today.

And that means appearing more human, relatable, natural and less like an ad. That is why UGC is no longer simply a trend. It is becoming one of the main forms of digital communication for brands.