More and more brands are tapping into the benefits of user generated and co-created content. Working with your customer can build up trust and credibility and supplement the research & development budget – and it’s become a whole lot easier thanks to platform technology and social media.

Brands both big and small are keen to harness the excitement and passion of their strongest advocates to develop better marketing and improved products and services.

Procter & Gamble and Starbucks, to name just two multinational companies, have huge co-creation programmes that have helped strengthen that sought after “conversation” between brands and consumers.

Only last week Seat unveiled a limited edition ‘car for women’ designed with input from Cosmopolitan readers.

We’ll be exploring the topic at a special BIMA Breakfast Briefing on September 27th. Our own Director of Content Branwell Johnson will be moderating a panel that includes two Propeller clients and is titled Beyond UGC: The Rise of Customer Co-creation.

The panel will tackle questions such as how do brands properly engage with their fans/customers? How do you build great co-created content for sustained competitive advantage and what channels can you use?

On the panel will be:  Carl Wong, CEO of LivingLens, Marina Cheal, Chief Marketing Officer of Reevoo, Adam Stamper, Founder of Hashtag’d and Liz Faber, Digital Strategist and EU Social Strategy Lead at  SapientNitro.

The event kicks off at 8.30 am and ticket details can be found here.