The great ‘authenticity’ illusion inside modern UGC spectrum

New Delhi: User-generated content (UGC) was once the purest form of brand love. a digital pat on the back from real consumers who created posts, videos, or reviews because they genuinely cared. It was spontaneous, unscripted, and voluntary, driven by emotion rather than incentives. 

That authenticity made UGC a marketer’s dream, an organic endorsement that money couldn’t buy. But as social media has matured and attention has become currency, the soul of UGC has shifted. What was once “for the love of the brand” is now often “for the algorithm, affiliate, or payout.” 

From small cash rewards to product seeding and even AI-generated participation, UGC today has multiple faces: organic, engineered, systemic, and aspirational. It is no longer simply user-generated; it is ecosystem-generated.  

This transformation raises an important question: when everyone from micro-influencers to AI tools can mimic user behaviour, what really counts as authentic content anymore?

The evolution of UGC

“The origins of UGC go back a decade or more,” said Kalyan Kumar, Co-founder and CEO, KlugKlug, setting the stage for this evolution. 

He added, “By definition, user-generated content meant that consumers were creating content for brands, organically. Brands could find ways to trigger or incentivise it, but fundamentally, it was content made by users themselves.”

He illustrated the contrast through campaigns from earlier days. A paint brand’s Stain Reaction contest, which invited spontaneous consumer videos, and Adidas’ Shoefie idea, which went viral on Twitter long before influencer marketing was formalised. “People participated out of genuine interest. That was true UGC. End-user generated, unscripted, and unpaid,” Kumar said. 

Now, the line between user and influencer has thinned beyond recognition. Kumar describes UGC today through three lenses:  end-user content, inspired content, and transactional content. The first is truly user-born; the second is sparked by brand narratives but still authentic; and the third, increasingly common, is engineered through payment or product barter.

He pointed to structured ecosystems such as Meesho’s affiliate model or Shein’s global content loop, where users earn points, rewards, or discounts for tagging brands. “That’s a systemised form of incentivised UGC. It’s still called UGC, but it’s really a transactional ecosystem,” Kumar told BuzzInContent.com. 

The rise of “fake” UGC

This new normal has also given rise to interesting grey zones. Some users create “fake UGC,” tagging brands like L’Oréal, Lakmé, or Mamaearth to appear as collaborators and attract brand attention. 

“It’s a growth hack for aspiring influencers. They tag brands hoping to get discovered. Big brands benefit from free mentions; small creators benefit by looking credible. It’s an ecosystem that feeds itself,” Kumar observed. 

Intent over format

For Samriddhi Katyal, Founder and CEO of Influns, authenticity hasn’t died; it has evolved. “You don’t look at the post, you look at the intent. Organic UGC happens when people talk because they care. Arranged UGC happens when people talk because they’re paid. The difference is in language, tone, and effort. Real users talk like they’re recommending a product to a friend. Paid ones sound like they’re reading a script with emojis,” Katyal said. 

Her agency measures Trust Signals, the quality of comments, speed of engagement, and audience overlap to separate genuine chatter from manufactured buzz. “You can fake numbers, but you can’t fake authentic conversation patterns,” she added.

Katyal argues that consumers are more aware than ever and more forgiving too. She noted, “We’ve hit a stage where people know a post is paid, and they don’t mind. What they hate is pretence. The future of authenticity isn’t hiding sponsorship; it’s showing it and still sounding human.”

Commissioned UGC, she said, is “word of mouth 2.0.” According to her, it is no longer about who said it but how real it felt. “Brands that script less and trust creators more will win,” Katyal highlighted. 

Still, Katyal draws a clear ethical boundary. She explained, “Using UGC means amplifying real voices. Manipulating it means manufacturing emotion. Once you start editing out imperfections, you’ve lost authenticity. The most powerful UGC today isn’t polished; it’s relatable chaos. Consumers reward honesty over production value. The job of a brand is not to control the story but to curate the truth.”

From a performance lens, she believes UGC and influencer marketing serve different purposes. “UGC builds trust; influencer content builds reach. But trust converts; reach doesn’t always,” she said. 

Influns even quantifies this through a metric called Cost per Trust Point (CPTP), which blends engagement authenticity with purchase intent. “A 10K creator with genuine chatter can outperform a 500K creator with hollow likes,” Katyal added.

Brands building UGC

That philosophy resonates with Smit Shukla, Head of Philips Personal Health – India Subcontinent, who views UGC as a crucial content engine rather than a vanity play. Philips churns out more than 300-400 content pieces every month, many of which stem from everyday creators. 

“For us, UGC isn’t about running after top-end influencers. With OneBlade, for example, we talk to boys who are 18–19 years old, who are exploring and trying to be creative, and who may not have more than 30-40 thousand followers, sometimes even 10,000, and we’re okay with that,” Shukla said.

The brand’s approach, he added, is non-transactional and experience-led. He stated, “We give them the product experience and tell them that if they love it, we’d love their point of view. But we do it very organically. The larger ecosystem, which is invisible to many brands, is something we’ve been able to tap into very deeply and successfully.” 

Yet, for Arvind Hangal, Director-Marketing and Special Accounts, ABD Maestro, true UGC cannot be forced; it emerges naturally once brands reach a certain maturity. “True user-generated content is the organic content that consumers willingly post on their own handles while naturally incorporating the brand. That’s genuine UGC; anything else falls under influencer content,” he said.

“Organic content can only emerge when a brand has enough scale and depth—when consumer usage and experience are both strong. Newer or emerging brands may not have that foundation yet,” Hangal explained, adding that Maestro currently allocates only about 2–3% of its brand budget to influencer marketing and roughly 5% for Maestro-specific initiatives.

Hangal explained that organic content can only emerge when a brand has sufficient scale and depth, when both consumer usage and experience are well established. He added that newer or emerging brands may not yet have that foundation. 

The many faces of modern UGC

UGC today sits at the crossroads of creativity, commerce, and credibility. What started as an honest consumer impulse has evolved into a layered ecosystem of intent, incentives, and imitation. There’s still authenticity in it, just not the kind that’s entirely free from influence.

As Kalyan Kumar summed it up, “Everyone’s both a user and a creator now.” The boundaries between consumers, creators, and micro-influencers are increasingly porous. Organic spontaneity exists, but it is now interwoven with engineered campaigns, affiliate programs, and incentivised activity.

This evolution raises urgent questions for brands, regulators, and consumers alike. What does authenticity mean in a world where even unpaid posts can be strategically orchestrated? How do disclosure norms adapt when sponsored and organic content look almost identical? And how should brands balance reach and trust when “UGC” may no longer be purely user-driven?

UGC has transformed from a pure expression of consumer voice into a multi-faceted marketing ecosystem. Its promise, credibility, trust, and relatability remain, but they now come wrapped in layers of strategy, reward, and algorithmic influence. 

For marketers, the challenge is no longer simply generating content; it is navigating this new reality where the user in UGC is part of a much larger, more complex ecosystem.

The era of effortless authenticity is over. What remains is a spectrum, from genuinely user-led voices to fully engineered posts, and understanding that spectrum is now central to effective brand storytelling.