When authentic UGC outperformed polished brand video
A pet-products brand ran the head-to-head. On TikTok and Reels, JoinBrands UGC beat their own polished creative on engagement and watch time.
Polished brand video
in-house produced
Higher engagement
JoinBrands UGC
Higher
engagement vs. brand video
Higher
watch time vs. brand video
Faster
turnaround per campaign
Repeat pool
reliable creators built over time
Polished didn't win on short-form
Beloved Pets had bet on TikTok and Reels as their primary growth channels. But their own polished brand-produced videos kept getting outperformed by less-polished UGC.
They needed a way to test more angles and hooks in parallel - without long creator outreach cycles or more in-house production hours the team couldn't spare.
Three moves that unlocked short-form performance
- ( 01 )
Ran creators in parallel, not in sequence
JoinBrands campaigns get multiple creator applications per brief, so Beloved Pets could test different hooks and angles simultaneously rather than one campaign at a time.
- ( 02 )
Let the data pick the winners
Instead of pre-selecting a single "safe" creator per campaign, the team ran variants and let short-form engagement and watch time decide which to double down on.
- ( 03 )
Built a repeat-creator bench, one campaign at a time
The best creators from each campaign became repeat contributors - shortening onboarding and improving consistency for every follow-up campaign.
The content performed better in terms of engagement and watch time compared to more polished brand creatives, especially on short-form platforms like TikTok and Reels.
Example videos from the campaign
A sample of the JoinBrands creator content Beloved Pets ran on TikTok and Reels - the videos that outperformed their own polished brand creative. Swap each placeholder for a TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube embed - or an MP4.
Beat your own brand video on short-form
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