It\u2019s the most authentic of endorsements, and it typically is the least expensive from a talent engagement perspective.<\/p>\n
It’s tough to identify what brands are really leading the pack in customer-led storytelling because there are so many \u2014 but for this post, I\u2019ve rounded up some examples of brands that are making great content across various industries and distribution platforms.<\/p>\n
8 brands that crush customer-led storytelling<\/h2>\n
![\"customer-led](\"https:\/\/www.clearvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Go-Pro-Users.png\")
<\/p>\n
1. GoPro turned UGC adventures into a billion-dollar brand.<\/h3>\n
In its early years, this company built its brand off\u00a0customer-led video storytelling<\/a>. The founder, famously, had only conceived of the original inexpensive waterproof mountain camera as a way to capture and share his POV while surfing \u2014 but it turned out that all types of athletes, daredevils and creative folk had ideas of how to capture and share their action.<\/p>\n GoPro began to collect and curate\u00a0the best of it, and in that process not only viral-marketed its way to a billion-dollar brand but democratized adventure sport content.<\/p>\n Convincing small merchants and entrepreneurs to switch from conventional transaction processing to a new, cloud-based system with minimal hardware involved is not necessarily difficult \u2014 after all, all small businesses are always looking for ways to make more sales and pay less in overhead.<\/p>\n However, data security and ease of implementation are two major concerns that never really go away. Small businesses may be wonderfully creative, and they may have superior products, but they aren\u2019t always tech-minded.<\/p>\n The beauty of Square\u2019s\u00a0\u201cFor Every Kind of Dream\u201d<\/a>\u00a0video series is that it shows how Square users are able to pursue professional dreams thanks to Square technology. Their stories may not ever mention the Square product directly, but they don\u2019t need to \u2014 by sharing their story via Square, it\u2019s implicit that the software was essential to success.<\/p>\n More than just an eyewear brand, this direct-to-consumer giant pioneered the \u201ctry it before you buy it\u201d e-commerce model for accessories.<\/p>\n Ten years ago, people couldn\u2019t comprehend an eyeglass shopping experience that wasn\u2019t handheld by optometrists and salespeople but instead took place in the comfort of home. In order to educate more people about how the shopping process works, the company encourages customers to share their try-on sessions on social media.<\/p>\n They share using the hashtag #warbyhometryon, which, at last count, was up to nearly 25,000 posts \u2014 and is no doubt getting a boost with the brand’s foray into\u00a0AR try-on sessions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, for stories of Warby Parker customers who are getting out of their homes and onto an IRL stage, there\u2019s the\u00a0Wearing Warby<\/a>\u00a0section on the main website, which showcases inspiring personalities in the arts and humanities.<\/p>\n While this publisher uses the best professional nature and adventure photographers and writers in the business, it knows \u2014 and has used for years \u2014 the passion, access and high-level skills that many of its readers possess.<\/p>\n Every year, nature-lovers and regular readers of the National Geographic universe manage to capture photos that dazzle and engage a mass audience on par with the professional photo series commissioned.<\/p>\n User-generated content<\/a> contests, such as the annual National Geographic Photo Contest (always a social media shared favorite in the Wildlife category) and the more niche Wanderlust (for travel photography) generate thousands of submissions.<\/p>\n That translates to massive engagement for the brand and a bonanza of content they can use for free \u2014 with the creators\u2019 enthusiastic permission.<\/p>\n This outdoor wear brand and outdoor equipment company has such an inspirational and adventurous customer base, its Instagram feed is practically on par with National Geographic at times.<\/p>\n While the brand sponsors elite athletes and explorers, many of the jaw-dropping moments on its social feed are brought to you by regular folks who climb mountains or go on expeditions just for the thrill of it.<\/p>\n The brand is also actively making inroads in diversity and inclusion, with new campaigns that showcase women athletes in non-moneymaking sports (jiu-jitsu, ultra-running).<\/p>\n As part of its NeverStop Community initiative, the company\u00a0announced that it will collaborate with 1600 young women from urban areas who typically don\u2019t get a lot of exposure to outdoor pursuits.<\/p>\n Few personalities have as devoted an online following as Elon Musk, but sometimes it\u2019s hard to find an overlap between the Twitter warriors who worship Musk and the affluent futurists who own and drive Teslas.<\/p>\n Apart from in Silicon Valley and a few other privileged tech bubbles, there aren\u2019t many places where you regularly see Teslas driving down the street. So, in order to showcase the actual faces of Tesla who aren\u2019t Elon Musk, the company produced and published a series of customer stories in text-photo format (for the main site<\/a>) and video (on YouTube)<\/a>.<\/p>\n While plenty of automotive companies have utilized real-life customers in their marketing, Tesla gets this shoutout because the stories featured are so against the Tesla-driver stereotype.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an adorable family that lives off the grid in Hawaii, a fleet of Dutch taxi drivers serving airport customers and a Canadian couple who uses its Model S to road trip around towing a tiny trailer behind it. There\u2019s even a craft brewer who uses his model X for beer delivery runs.<\/p>\n Maybe those people are a few tiers above the normal household income level compared to Subaru or Leaf drivers (they definitely are), but from their stories, they\u2019re just regular folks who really appreciate a super-quiet, pup-friendly electric car.<\/p>\n Finding a fabulous new house in a dream neighborhood is a milestone achievement that people make only a few times in life. But the moving process itself is one of the most stressful life events, behind only major illness, divorce, etcetera.<\/p>\n How to continually promote one\u2019s service in the former space while also attempting to address the pain of the latter? Trulia has a blog jam-packed with real estate agent intel (and gossip) and practical info, as well as first-person home buying stories<\/a>\u00a0and quirky articles that use social media to really explore different neighborhood personalities. (\u201cNeighborhoods that Love Their Wild Turkeys\u201d<\/a>\u00a0would not exist without community Facebook groups and local news pages.)<\/p>\n Video content on YouTube also takes a neighborly approach, introducing different quirky characters and notable neighborhoods in top Trulia top markets.<\/p>\n Two beautiful blond sisters who design apparel in Alaska, based out of\u00a0a tiny boat<\/a> in the middle of a lake. A\u00a0hardworking yet stylish TV producer<\/a>\u00a0who confides to the camera (and to millions of people, because this is a primetime commercial spot) that it feels weird being on this side of the lens. Former NFL players\u00a0turned cupcake bakers<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 so big, so brawny, so adorable!<\/p>\n These are the winsome personalities that Microsoft tapped to promote its newest tablet computer. Do these people really run their entire businesses off the Surface? They say they do. And we want to believe\u2026<\/p>\n Customer-led storytelling requires some finesse. But once you get the hang of it, it can be one of the best ways to showcase your brand and build trust with your audience. If you’d rather outsource to an expert, ClearVoice has your back. Our managed content creation<\/a> services and expert strategists can help you produce emotionally engaging content that resonates with your target audience. Talk to us<\/a> to see how.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What could be more powerful \u2014 or persuasive \u2014 than customer-led storytelling? Here are eight brands that are knocking it out of the park, from Warby Parker to Tesla.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":56942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[140,141,137,139],"ppma_author":[192],"class_list":["post-42153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-b2b-content","tag-b2c-content","tag-branding","tag-content-creation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n2. Square shares how customers achieve their dreams.<\/h3>\n
![\"warby](\"https:\/\/www.clearvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Warby-Parker-Try-On.png\")
<\/h2>\n3. Warby Parker takes the “try-on session” to social media and VR.<\/h3>\n
4. National Geographic is the revered granddaddy of photo contests.<\/h3>\n
![\"how](\"https:\/\/www.clearvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/North-Face-D-and-I.png\")
<\/h2>\n5. The North Face pushed for D&I in the outdoor adventure space.<\/h3>\n
6. Tesla customers show the human face of a tech giant.<\/h3>\n
![\"customer-led](\"https:\/\/www.clearvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trulia-Homes.png\")
<\/h2>\n7. Trulia introduced homes via the neighbors.<\/h3>\n
8. Microsoft Surface Pro celebrates creative entrepreneurs in broadcast spots.<\/h3>\n
![\"Talk](\"https:\/\/www.clearvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ClearVoice_Inline-Ad_1.png\")
<\/p>\nHarnessing the power of customers<\/h2>\n