Abstract
This article examines the changing role of User-Generated Content (UGC) in brand storytelling and innovation in both global and Indian contexts. The article draws on case-based insights into the ways in which consumer stories expand brand identity, how memes, hashtags and viral challenges help develop trust and engagement with brands. The article identifies two specific roles of UGC where in first, as a cultural storytelling platform to embed brands into any consumer’s everyday experience with the brand, and second, as a mechanism to stimulate innovation by drawing on consumer ideas, experiential feedback loops and festival-based product adaptations. Using examples from global brands including Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign and Starbucks’ TikTok inspired menu hacks alongside examples from India including Paper Boat’s nostalgia-led campaigns and Chumbak’s consumer-led design initiatives to demonstrate the versatility of UGC content across markets. The article also identifies three new theoretical extensions of cultural context sensitivity, algorithmic mediation and identity signalling, to extend traditional theoretical lenses of consumer engagement co-creation and innovation diffusion. Finally, the virtue of UGC is further complicated by the introduction of ethical concerns about intellectual property, fake reviews and cultural misalignment, making policy implications necessary. By re-framing UGC as a trust-building and innovation stimulus, this article builds a conceptual framework and direction for future empirical research to examine its implications for emerging and global markets.
Keywords: Brand Storytelling, Co-creation, Cultural Context Sensitivity, Innovation, User-Generated Content (UGC).