What is UGC? Definition, examples and what AI changes

UGC is one of the most searched marketing terms of recent years, and most pages that answer it are written for people who want to become creators. This one is written for the other side: the shop owner, the coach, the e-commerce founder or the agency that keeps hearing "UGC" in meetings and wants to know what it is, what the ads made from it look like, and what changes now that part of it can be generated.

UGC, the short definition

UGC stands for user-generated content. In its original sense, documented on Wikipedia, it is any content made and published by the users of a platform rather than by the platform or a company: a review on a product page, a photo tagged with a brand, a comment, a forum answer, an unboxing video on someone's personal account.

The defining feature is who made it and why. A brand's product photo is made by the brand to sell. A customer's photo of the same product is made by a person to share. Readers treat the two differently, and that difference is the whole reason the word left the platform-design world and entered advertising.

The three things people mean by "UGC" in marketing

In marketing conversations the word covers three quite different objects, and confusing them is where most of the muddle comes from.

Organic UGC. A real customer posts about a product on their own account, unpaid and unasked. This is the original meaning. Brands can ask permission to repost it, and it is the most credible of the three precisely because nobody arranged it.

Creator UGC, or UGC-style content. A brand hires a creator to make a video that looks like organic UGC: filmed on a phone, spoken to camera, no studio. The brand then runs it as an ad on its own account. The creator often has no audience of their own; they are paid for the production, not for distribution. This is what most agencies mean when they say "we do UGC".

Brand-collected UGC. Reviews, testimonials and photos a brand gathers through its own channels, a review widget or a hashtag campaign, and reuses in ads and on product pages.

When a "UGC ad" is discussed in a paid-social context, it almost always means the second kind. The video is not made by a user at all. It is made to look as if it were.

Why advertisers want the UGC style

A vertical video of a person talking to their phone looks like everything else in a TikTok or Reels feed. A studio commercial does not. When the ad matches the feed, it gets watched a little longer before the viewer recognises it as an ad, and that first second is where most of the difference between a working creative and a dead one is decided.

The style also solves a practical problem. Paid social is a numbers game of hooks: the same offer said ten different ways, tested against each other, the winner scaled and the losers dropped. A studio shoot produces one polished film. A phone and a person produce ten rough takes in an afternoon, and rough is what the feed expects.

What the style does not do is change the rules. A UGC-style ad is an ad. The person on screen is a presenter, and everything below about claims and disclosure applies to them exactly as it applies to a television spot.

What a UGC-style ad actually contains

Most follow the same skeleton, because it works and because platforms reward it:

1. A hook in the first two seconds, spoken or on-screen, that names the problem or the surprising thing.
2. The person and the product in the same frame, usually a hand holding it, a phone screen, or the product in use.
3. One claim, demonstrated rather than stated. The coffee is poured, the app is opened, the before and the after are shown.
4. A plain call to action, spoken, not a graphic.

The whole thing runs fifteen to thirty seconds. Longer is usually two ads stuck together.

What "AI UGC" means

The newest term in the family, and the one this site exists for. AI UGC is a video in the UGC style where the person on screen was generated rather than filmed.

Under that label sit two very different techniques, and the difference matters when you buy.

Script-to-avatar. You type a script, pick a synthetic presenter, and a model produces the voice and moves the mouth to match. Fast, and it needs no camera at all. The trade-off is that everything human in the performance, the timing, the emphasis, the hands, the pause before the punchline, is invented by the model, and that is usually where it shows.

Performance capture. You record the take yourself, on a phone, and a model transfers your performance onto a different presenter: your voice, your timing, your expressions and your gestures, on someone else's face. This is what Sosie does, built on Runway's Act-Two performance-capture model. The result is a real performance by a real person, delivered by a presenter who is not you.

Neither technique produces organic UGC. Both produce creator-style content without the creator. That is the honest way to describe it, and the way your ads should treat it.

The rules that do not change

Three sets of rules apply to any UGC-style ad, generated or not, and a generated presenter makes them easier to break by accident.

Endorsements must be truthful. The FTC's Endorsement Guides require that an endorsement reflect the honest opinion of the endorser, and that a material connection between the speaker and the brand be disclosed. A presenter reading a script is not a customer, and an ad must not present them as one.

Fake testimonials are banned outright. In 2024 the FTC adopted a rule banning fake reviews and testimonials, including testimonials by people who do not exist or who never used the product. A generated presenter saying "I lost ten pounds with this" is exactly the case it was written for. Presenter-and-demo style ("here is the product, here is what it does") stays on the right side of that line; fabricated first-person testimony does not.

Synthetic media has disclosure rules in the EU. Article 50 of the EU AI Act sets transparency obligations for AI-generated or manipulated content, with obligations phasing in on the Act's timetable. If you advertise in Europe, plan to label generated presenters as generated.

And one that is not a marketing rule at all: the face you use must be yours to use. A real person's likeness needs their written consent, and public figures are off limits on any serious tool.

How Sosie fits

Sosie makes creator-style video without the creator, by performance capture rather than by script. You record up to forty seconds on your phone, saying your script, in any room. You choose a presenter from the catalogue, describe one in words and Sosie generates them, or upload an image of someone whose likeness you have the rights to. Sosie keeps your voice, your timing, your expressions and your gestures and puts them on that presenter. By default the presenter is placed in your own room, with the same walls, floor and light as your recording; you can switch to the presenter's own backdrop instead.

Output is a vertical 1080p MP4 with no watermark, cleared for commercial use including paid ads. One credit renders a video of up to twenty seconds; twenty-one to forty seconds costs two. Credits come as monthly subscriptions or as one-time packs that never expire, starting at €39 for five videos, and there is no plan without payment. A render that fails is refunded automatically. Your own audio drives the video, so the presenter speaks whatever language you spoke, with your accent.

The terms require that you upload only yourself or people who gave written consent, and they prohibit public figures and deceptive use. The product's own guidance is the presenter-and-demo style described above, never a fabricated testimonial.

Where to start

If you have never made a UGC-style ad, the cheapest first step is not a tool at all. Write three hooks for one offer, film each one on your phone in a single take, and watch them back. Most of what makes the style work is in the writing and the delivery, and both of those stay yours whichever face ends up on screen.