From Social Commerce to Agentic Discovery: The New Role of Creators and UGC with Kate Musgrove, Managing Director APAC, Bazaarvoice

Transcript

Our transcripts are generated by AI. Please excuse any typos and if you have any specific questions please email info@digitalshelfinstitute.org.

Lauren Livak Gilbert (00:00):
Welcome to Unpacking the Digital Shelf APAC Edition, where we explore the unique challenges and opportunities shaping digital commerce across Asia Pacific with insights from the region's top experts.

Teresa Sperti (00:24):
Today on Unpacking the Digital Shelf, the APAC Edition, we're diving into the changing social commerce landscape and what it means for the role of creators and user-generated content. Social is continuing to evolve as a channel for discovery and commerce with AI accelerating that evolution, bringing social content and product discovery closer together. And that creates an interesting new dynamic for brands because the content created to inspire and influence shoppers is increasingly influencing what AI platforms and agentic experiences understand and recommend. Joining me today is Kate Musgrove, managing director APAC at Bazaarvoice. Bazaarvoice works with brands and retailers around the world to harness the power of user-generated and creator content from ratings and reviews through to visual and social content to drive discovery, engagement, and conversion across the shopper journey. Kate has led Bazaarvoice's business and regional strategy across APAC since 2015, giving her a front row seat to how social, creator content and new GC have and continue to evolve across our region and what that means for brands in the next era of product discovery and commerce.

(01:37):
Kate, welcome to the podcast. This session is coming off the back of our recent digital show feature forum conference where you shared much of your wisdom. So I'm really looking forward to expanding on that discussion today.

Kate Musgrove (01:50):
Well, it's great to be here, Theresa, and thank you for having me.

Teresa Sperti (01:53):
Well, Kate, let's get right into it then. I'd like to start with the broader social commerce landscape because you have a really interesting vantage point leading Bazaarvoice across the Asia Pacific. Let's start with unpacking a little bit about the state of social commerce today across the region, where you are seeing the greatest maturity and innovation in Southeast Asia and what markets like Australia, the UK, and the US can learn from what you are seeing in Southeast Asia.

Kate Musgrove (02:21):
Well, it's a fascinating contrast right now, Theresa. If you look at Southeast Asia, it truly is a social first market, discovery, influence, and the actual transaction all happens seamlessly in a single social platform. Shopping and live streaming are deeply embedded in the culture there and platforms like TikTok Shop, which I know I'm going to, as I say, TikTok shop multiple times, I'll get the swing of it. It's a time twister for me, but it's really accelerated that convergence. And it's incredible to think that TikTok shop has actually captured 25% of the entire Southeast Asian e-commerce landscape in just four years.

Teresa Sperti (03:01):
From a sales

Kate Musgrove (03:01):
Point

Teresa Sperti (03:01):
Of view.

Kate Musgrove (03:02):
That's right. Second to shoppy, the biggest marketplace there today. So as you think about that and compare it to the US where it's growing, but it's still 3% of e-commerce, it's very different. And I think there's a couple of key differences in terms of how the platform's used. So in Southeast Asia, it's more like hosted live shopping, like the likes of TVSN that we see in Australia. And that's driven by live content creators twenty four seven, you think of the boxes, driving that FOMO through that kind of shop attainment. In the US, TikTok shops more micro nano influencers with prerecorded content really trying to influence sales. And then you look at Australia, obviously we don't have that same level of maturity. We don't have TikTok shop here today or that live shopping adoption, but I think things will change pretty quickly, especially when TikTok shop lands.

(03:59):
And this point of view is really reflected in our recent research around Aussie shopping behavior. So our research has found that, and I think this is pretty typical of other research out there, that 50% of Aussies are now discovering products by social media. So social media is a massive discovery engine for Aussies, but we're generally cautious and really make that purchase immediately upon seeing the product, unless you're me, which I do at all hours of the night when I wake up and shop for random things. But typically most Aussies don't, but we know that about 60% of Aussies will take at least one action after discovering a product on social media. So rather than buying it then and there, they're going to Google or the AI platforms to seek out more information. It could be to the other retailers as well and looking at things like pricing as well as reviews and new GC.

Teresa Sperti (04:52):
Yeah. So the role of influence is really strong locally. It's just that ability to go full funnel on the platform isn't quite there yet until we see TikTok shop launch. It's also a tongue twister for

Kate Musgrove (05:03):
Me. Yes, that's right. We did well, TikTok shop.

Teresa Sperti (05:07):
It is for me as well. When you spend time with brands across Southeast Asia, what feels different about the conversations you are having with marketers and e-commerce leaders around social compared to markets like Australia, given that 25% of their sales are coming through major social channels?

Kate Musgrove (05:31):
That's right. I think the biggest difference is how they view the role of the social feed. See in Australia, social media is still treated largely like a digital window display where the whole strategy is to catch someone's eye long enough to drive them usually away from the platform onto a standalone site and convert them there. Whereas as we go to the conversations we have with clients in Southeast Asia, they don't want to drive you anywhere because the feed is the actual storefront and the conversion's happening right there. So shop attainment comes up a lot as a phrase, and it feels like they've kind of shifted entirely from a kind of search to buy culture to a watch to buy. So the creators that they're engaging aren't just a PR expense for brand awareness, they're actually known as key opinion sellers and brands are treating them like a decentralized sales force with the goal of getting a customer to discover a product in a video, trust the live demonstration, and then buy it in two taps without leaving the app.

Teresa Sperti (06:29):
That is so interesting in the context of we've been working with a couple of clients recently, and I think that mindset that you are speaking to or pointing out is a really important one. If you're too transactional with the creator, the reality is they're not embedded in the brand, they don't understand the brand story, that ability to leverage them as a sales channel is -

Kate Musgrove (06:54):
Extension of your sales

Teresa Sperti (06:56):
Channel, yeah. Is more muted or limited in terms of the outcomes that you can derive versus if you've actually, you think about them as an extension of your sales team and that the longevity of contracts and relationships reinforce that as a model.

Kate Musgrove (07:12):
Very true.

Teresa Sperti (07:14):
Really interesting. As you were talking as well, one of the things that was front of mind for me in terms of the Australian market and how they're engaging with the channel, you talked about very much like a display or a shopfront, and that resonated with me for a couple of reasons. I think particularly for legacy brands locally, historically legacy brands haven't been as strong in the owned media space as they have in the paid media space. So as they shift strategies from different channels or move into social in a much bigger way, often that lift and shift of what we advertise in this channel gets lifted and shifted to the social channel as opposed to building a storytelling approach up and leveraging the platforms based on how people engage with the platforms first and foremost as opposed to just thinking about it through an advertising lens.

(08:05):
So I think that's a really, really interesting observation and requires quite a significant shift for brands if they are still thinking about social media first and foremost as a media channel.

Kate Musgrove (08:16):
Exactly.

Teresa Sperti (08:18):
Interesting. What do you think that brands can learn from the way that the Southeast Asian counterparts are engaging with the channel and investing in the channel?

Kate Musgrove (08:29):
Look, there's plenty of lessons that Australian brands can take from these markets. Before social commerce, I guess reaches the same level of maturity here. So it was interesting reading, it was actually, it came out a couple of days ago, but the Marketing Association of Australia shared a report that said of the brands investing in creators today, 77% of those plan to up their creator investment in the next two years, which is kind of mind-boggling. So when you think about how right you've got to get it, you're upping your investment there. So I think with this trend, the biggest opportunity for brands is really to start thinking about the things you were just talking about, but also how do you sweat that creator asset? So top performing brands in Southeast Asia, they're not just getting this glowing creator review that sits and dies in their feed 48 hours later.

(09:22):
They're taking this content and they're syndicating it directly onto their brand site, product pages, anywhere as close to the sale as possible that might be happening outside of the social environment. So I think that the takeaway for Aussie brands here is even without a TikTok shop here, Aussie brands can, as they're investing in that content, coaching creators around thinking of them as sellers versus a vibe for the product, number one. And then number two, as you're thinking about where to have that and host that content, getting it as close to a purchase button as you can so that we know that when shoppers engage with good quality creator content and reviews as well in this instance, it can work at the bottom of the funnel too. So my advice there is get it as close together to your checkout as humanly possible to

Teresa Sperti (10:16):
That. Which makes sense. And probably the same is true of think about the entire shopper journey and how to leverage that content across the shopper journey, across different touch points that are relevance. That makes a lot of sense and is really practical. And I think from a brand point of view, that starts to open questions around, well, what does that mean for the contracts that we need to put in place with creators around ownership of content for the ability to be able to use that content beyond the 48-hour shelf life in a feed? I think that's really practical advice. So we can't talk about social without talking about AI.

Kate Musgrove (10:56):
True.

Teresa Sperti (10:57):
So let's go there.

Kate Musgrove (10:58):
If it hasn't killed us beforehand, Theresa, with all the talk this week.

Teresa Sperti (11:02):
Yes, that's very true. I've seen that. So AI and agentic commerce are obviously driving convergence between search, social, and commerce, as I alluded to at the start. So how do you see AI and Agentic reshaping social commerce, and what can we expect social commerce experiences to look like as a result of the shifts that are happening in market? Which means you need your crystal ball out a little bit, although - We do.

Kate Musgrove (11:33):
I think that the macro level, you've got all the major social commerce platforms in a race to own the checkout natively. So I think yes, the wall between social search and commerce is officially gone and we do need to crystal ball gaze. And I think we've already watched this play out to some extent with TikTok shops. So their rapid expansion has really shown that this blueprint where you merge creator storytelling and new GC with instant checkout, you can completely collapse the funnel. So it's going to be interesting to see now that we've got this blueprint and zoom out, if you look at the likes of Meta and what their fight looks like. So they're obviously wanting to keep shoppers and brand budgets inside their Meta garden, and their holy grail is really with what they've just dropped with the MuseSpark AI model. And I think this is a game changer for the digital shelf.

(12:30):
The intention behind it isn't just to build a better chatbot, it's designed to be a GensKI that actually takes action on your behalf. I think it's going to be the first time that I actually get someone that's AI to do my shopping. I've not fully done it yet.

Teresa Sperti (12:47):
You would start that in a social environment?

Kate Musgrove (12:49):
Potentially, yes.

Teresa Sperti (12:50):
Interesting.

Kate Musgrove (12:51):
Yeah. I think they're sitting on so much more data. So if I was going to say looking at a serum, obviously Muse is going to open that in the cloud, in a browser, navigate to the site, fill out the shipping and forms and buy the product for me. And I'd be comfortable with that right now.

Teresa Sperti (13:06):
I

Kate Musgrove (13:06):
Think as we look at some of the retailers that have started down that path with their AI assistance on site probably are not at the level yet to get there. So I think this is going to be an interesting one to watch.

Teresa Sperti (13:21):
And I think you're right. If we think about the type of content that the social platforms hold and house, particularly as a result of their investment in the creator ecosystem over the last five years, it's really built a foundation to differentiate in the agentic commerce space. And we already know from the launch of MetaMuseSpark that that content is going to play a critical role in what is recommended and what is understood by their agentic experiences. So I definitely think it's an interesting space that is hotting up and is going to really challenge brands to start to do things differently. So that probably brings me really nicely to the next conversation that I want to have, which is with the convergence that's happening with social search commerce and the acceleration of AI and agentic commerce, it creates a really interesting shift for UGC and content creator strategies.

(14:26):
We can't just keep doing more of the same. It's going to challenge us to do things differently. Obviously, traditionally that content has helped brands inspire, influence and build trust with shoppers, but increasingly it has another role to play, helping AI to understand products and brands and derive trust signals and shape what gets recommended. So what does all this evolution mean from a creator standpoint and UGC strategy point of view? What do brands need to be thinking about?

Kate Musgrove (14:58):
I think that's a million dollar question today, but I think if we stay with the Meta example and thinking about how would Metamuse know how to pick your product, and I think this is where the whole perspective on content, specifically around creator content and reviews needs to change. So if you think about Muspark, it's multimodal. It doesn't just read text. It literally watches creator videos, listens to audio across Instagram and Facebook, and visually matches user intent. So if you're not producing the right creator video for AI to index, you're going to be invisible to the agent. And secondly, the AI agent isn't going to spend a user's money on a product that has no reviews or is very low rated or doesn't have the right facets for that product for it to make an informed decision. So I think there's that aggregated social proof as it goes on to convert that's going to be needed.

(15:57):
And if we pivot that away from the Meta environment and look at the key AI engines like ChatGPT and Gemini, I think the same can be said that you've got UGC and creator content now having a dual role, so it needs to continue to inspire and influence and build trust with shoppers, but it's also contributing to how AI understands and surfaces and recommends brands and products. And you think about how the AI agent is trying to act, and I often say it tries to act like a little greedy human looking for chunks of food, which is the content, but it really values high trust signals. And when the AI crawlers find authentic consumer created content, they assign it at a significantly higher authority source because it proves that the data isn't synthetic. So because of this breadth and depth of content becomes really critical. And not only does the content need to be really flagged as authentic, you need to make sure as a brand that you're covering the right product, attributes, use cases, occasions, consumer language so the AI doesn't develop either a really narrow or incorrect understanding of a product.

(17:12):
Of the

Teresa Sperti (17:12):
Product. That makes sense. It's interesting as you're talking, it's making me think, if we think about authority and where authority comes from from a social point of view and where AI is deriving that authority, does that mean we might see a bit of a shift back to we need to work with larger creators because they have a bigger following? Assuming that that following is highly engaged, do the number of followers, is that an authority signal?

Kate Musgrove (17:42):
It depends on the engine, and I think the way that we're actually speaking with brands and what the research is showing, it is about depth and breadth. And also the things like verified purchaser badges or creators talking about purchase and holding a product within the video content become really, really critical here. So it's really around an abundance of authentic content and ensuring that that content is in multiple places and it needs to be accessible to the AI crawlers. A lot of companies have reviews and UGC sitting in JavaScript on site and the crawlers are lazy. They're not going to hang around and read that. So you need to make sure as a brand that you've actually got the content. So it's accessibility, abundance and authenticity that we're seeing are the three key driving forces around success here.

Teresa Sperti (18:46):
And you've made a really good point. I want to dig on the accessibility bit in more detail in a sec. You've made a really good point, which is the crawlers are lazy. Many of these engines and platforms are designed to reduce the processing power to generate a response. And I think that needs to be really front of mind and top of mind for brands that if it's not accessible and it's not easy, it's likely to impact your ability to be visible and your ability to be recommended. So I think that's really important because I think we can sometimes forget that or we don't understand that as brands.

Kate Musgrove (19:23):
True. And what we're seeing, Theresa, is we've recently launched at Bazaarvoice an AI visibility solution, and our clients that are implementing that are seeing an increase on average of 40% AI referred traffic to site just by doing that. So they've had this rich, abundant, and fantastic content sitting there, but when it can't be read by the agent or the crawlers - It doesn't matter.

Teresa Sperti (19:51):
You're

Kate Musgrove (19:52):
Invisible. That's right. So I'd really encourage brands that no matter who they're working with, make sure that the content that they're displaying in different places is crawlable.

Teresa Sperti (20:03):
It's like I said at the digital shelf Future Forum, if you're not visible, it's like being on the bottom shelf or it's like being digitally deranged altogether, right? In terms of the impact, if we think about it in a physical sense, that is what is happening. So yes, you might be a great brand, gives you a right to play, but if the content's not accessible, you are not going to make that short list. So that brings me nicely to being accessible because you touched on it. I've just touched on it. You talked about a lot of content being not accessible because it's coded through JavaScript in the way that it's contained or held within digital experiences. What do brands need to be thinking about to make their content accessible?

Kate Musgrove (20:50):
So it's really looking and auditing their digital properties. There's free widgets out there. There's an Adobe one. You can put it on your site and you can actually check what a human can see and what the crawlers can see. Do that and invest in ensuring that your content is crawlable. As I said at Bazaarvoice, we've invested in a solution here. Yeah.

Teresa Sperti (21:14):
So the starting point is auditing, getting an understanding of your today's state, and then working out where do we go to from here?

Kate Musgrove (21:20):
That's right, when it comes to accessibility.

Teresa Sperti (21:22):
Yeah, very sound, very practical. So let's talk about some examples. We know that our audience loves hearing about brands that have already started evolving and learning with respect to, I'd like to unpack content creator strategies in UGC. How are brands doing this well? Who is doing it well? And what can we learn from it?

Kate Musgrove (21:47):
Yeah, great. And I like talking about our customers who are doing incredible things, but I think it's worth, first of all, starting off to say that we've got the absolute privilege of working with thousands of brands globally, and our best in class clients think about UGC and creator content as a supply chain. So they have a really well-oiled supply chain of UGC and creator content flowing ongoing to maintain a steady and diverse mix of reviews, videos, photos, et cetera, from real shoppers, creators in their own community. So there's a mix. So it's a mix of types of content, and then there's a mix of where the content's sourced from. And what this does, it ensures that the content is staying fresh, visible ahead of the competition if their content's gone stale. We all know as shoppers when we're looking at aged content that the relevance and influence drops.

(22:39):
And then where the content is doing the real work is on their brand site. So when shoppers land on a product page backed by this sort of real UGC and creator content, and it's in formats that answer their questions, they're staying engaged and more likely to purchase, or in the case of non - D2C brands, more likely to click through to a retailer website to make a purchase. And I think here it's where to that earlier point around accessibility, when the underlying architecture isn't set up, they're not going to be visible to search engines and AI platforms. So making sure that that's the case there. So that's kind of what our best in class brands are doing to be really visible. And then they're also looking at where can they amplify that content? So our winning brands here are the ones where that social proof doesn't just stop on their own brand.com site.

(23:32):
They're actually getting that content in front of shoppers on social channels, in marketplaces, on their key retail partners if they're a brand and on their brand.com site, as well as quick commerce platforms as well. So one brand that I think does this really well in market in Australia is Kimberly Clark's Huggies brand, the Nappies. So they have hundreds of reviews in UGC across all of their products. They're displaying that content on their brand site. If you go to any of their key retailers that are in our Bazaarvoice network, retailers like Chemist Warehouse, Coles, and Woolworths, you can start to see consistency. So wherever the shopper is searching for that product, there's a consistent experience in terms of the UGC content that's served to the shoppers there. And that's helping convert the shoppers at the bottom of the funnel for humans because we know that that kind of content drives conversion, but likewise at the top of the funnel for AI agents to discover that brand.

(24:34):
So if you think about Huggies, nappies, if you look at things that you're wanting to know about as a new mother, that was so long ago for me, I can't remember, but it's absorbency for nappies obviously and how much it leaks. So the other thing that Huggies are doing is using an AI content coach to make sure that when their content's being created by consumers, all the key facets of the product and those attributes are being commented upon. So I think with that combination, getting the content, abundant content in the right place with the right kind of feedback that other shoppers are going to find useful is why they're doing so well.

Teresa Sperti (25:16):
Recipe for success. And I think it points to a broader underlying piece here, which is there's often a social team or a social individual. There might be somebody managing brand websites. Sometimes there might be no one managing brand websites, which we know is also true in this market. They

Kate Musgrove (25:33):
Might not be wanting to go to their brand website.That's

Teresa Sperti (25:36):
Right. Exactly. Some of the state brand websites locally need to be addressed. And then in addition to that, you might have a brand manager or a marketer that is separately managing campaign activity, paid media. What you are calling for is to do this properly, it needs a shift in ways of working and needs that shopper first mentality and approach where different silos come together to really map out what's that shopper journey look like, and then what content do we have to fuel that journey at each stage of the journey to help provide the right content at the right time? Because what you were describing from Kimberly Clark, that doesn't happen by accident.

Kate Musgrove (26:21):
It doesn't, and it sits across multiple teams. And I think exactly to your point there, that brands to be really successful in this new era need to remove the silos. There needs to be strong governance around this as well. There needs to be ultimately a shift from paid to earned media budgets ultimately. And you go back to basics here that ultimately, and the AI crawlers are saying this, is as humans, we trust what other shoppers and other people we don't even know say more than a brand says. We'll trust people that are paid by them to speak as well more than we'll trust what they'll say. So having a strategy, the right governance, top down from the C-level is going to be critical for future success.

Teresa Sperti (27:09):
And that requires brands to potentially rethink how they design budgets or create budgets or forecast budgets for the year ahead. Forecast is probably the right word. We often see brands looking to incrementally tweak their budgeting approach year on year rather than stepping back and going, right, actually there's a bigger change upon us. We need to start thinking about this differently and what do we need to truly invest? Because I do feel like at the moment in Australia, the sacred cow still is in many respects, the media budget. We don't want to carve too much off the media budget. And so in spaces like social, we still often see there's not enough investment being made to generate the depth and breadth of content that needs to be generated and it's becoming a bigger risk now given the shift that

Kate Musgrove (28:02):
Is occurring. I agree. And I think I look at some of our best in class clients and how they're approaching that. It's actually stepping back. So it's starting with an audit of the digital shelf for UGC and creator content. It's then looking annually and even two years out as well at what are the MPDs that they're bringing to market? So what does it look like from current SKUs through the MPDs? And then planning that budget out alongside of all of the media budget associated with those MPDs. So you've got your base and it's not set and forget even with core SKUs that you continue to be selling, you really need to be focused on constantly fueling all of your products with fresh content.

Teresa Sperti (28:51):
Yeah. Which means a bottom-up approach to the planning rather than top down, this is your budget, how are you going to use it? Step back, really think about what do we need to be successful? And look, you might not ultimately be able to deliver everything. Every organization or brand has constraint, but the ability to step change needs to start with thinking about what's possible, not what can we do with what we have today. Because I believe probably like you, Kate, the next three to five years I think are really going to determine which brands in some respects survive versus - It's true.

Kate Musgrove (29:30):
There's a quite often, it's from the US and it's from P&G's CEO, but he shared an insight earlier this year around the US personal care division. And what he's shared is, and it's one of their most successful divisions with double digit growth, but he shared that one of the key reasons for this growth has actually been adjusting earlier to the changing media landscape and significantly increasing the volume of influencer user generated content. And

Teresa Sperti (29:57):
That's from

Kate Musgrove (29:57):
One of the - Your CEO attribute that One of the world's largest CPG brands I think is - You

Teresa Sperti (30:03):
Got to

Kate Musgrove (30:03):
Listen. Really nice intelligence that is a smaller brand that you could very much learn from. Yeah.

Teresa Sperti (30:09):
And personal care is one of those categories. It's, I would say a little bit more mature from a digital point of view, ripe for disruption.

Kate Musgrove (30:16):
Yeah. And I think there is opportunity for disruption as well, because even you don't need to be a P&G to be having this kind of always on supply chain of creator and UGC content. We work with plenty of smaller brands in this market where they're looking at their content needs and they've got a mix of everyday shoppers, micro influencers that they're engaging. And it's not the cost of getting these huge following influencers to create that content. And then they're getting that content where it's going to get them discovered and convert. You can almost say with what's happening now, there's almost an unfair advantage going towards some players where you've got a chance to disrupt.

Teresa Sperti (31:01):
Well, for those smaller brands that need to be agile, nimble, less governance around

Kate Musgrove (31:07):
What

Teresa Sperti (31:08):
We can and can't say, and less governance around how we work with creators, which can be a real challenge for certain brands as well. I agree. I think it is absolutely ripe for the picking for the brands who adopt a first mover advantage mindset. So all of that is really, really valuable and interesting, I think for our audience. What does this all mean for the creator brief? How do creator briefs need to evolve and adapt given what we've just talked about in terms of the types of content that Agentik experiences will need, the type of content brands might be creating today? How does that brief evolve? Again, what are you seeing? What is your tips and advice?

Kate Musgrove (31:58):
I think it absolutely has to become part of a brand's discoverability strategy. So this is going to require a shift from briefing creators for aesthetic vibes to really briefing them for AEO. Brands that win tomorrow, they're going to be the ones that are training the AI today. And that's where there's a chance for disruptive brands and challenger brands really to move in and potentially take market share here. So the ones that will win are those that are training the AI today and creating a footprint of authentic and context rich user generated content. So yeah, it's a real change in mindset, I think, in terms of how creators need to be briefed.

Teresa Sperti (32:43):
And even for creators themselves, they're going to have to start thinking differently and evolve how they are creating the... That mindset shift, it doesn't just need to happen from a brand point of view. I mean, the creator ecosystem is now what globally? 300 million or something last time I looked at data. Is that right? You'd probably -

Kate Musgrove (33:04):
I don't have it to the top of my head, but it sounds about right. But it's interesting when you look at Southeast Asia here and that shift. So if you think about the creators that have embraced working on YouTube with the video short form and long form videos, if you think of TikTok is kind of FOMO and buy now, whereas YouTube is more considered purchases and it's that part of that watch to buy culture. But what's interesting is that with those shorts that are created on YouTube that are 15 seconds or so, they're a sales team creating content. I think there's a huge opportunity for creators and they might've obviously had to let go of some things that might be part of their vibe or image, but they're able to create a lot of sales and content that, I mean, I don't know how the models are set up between those creators and the companies, but I think it creates opportunities for creators as well.

Teresa Sperti (34:10):
Absolutely. And I think at its core though, authenticity is still key and critical. And so that means that as creators lean more heavily into the product side rather than selling a bit of an image and a vibe, understanding the product and its use cases becomes critical. So thinking about how do I nurture the relationships with my influencers and creators, ensure that they deeply understand the product so they can talk to it with a level of authenticity is going to be even more important. I don't think that's not happening today. I just think it's going to up the ante in terms of importance.

Kate Musgrove (34:51):
It is. And how we approach that at the moment. So we have an 11 million strong community called Influencer. It's a mix of influencers, micro influencers, and then everyday shoppers. And what we're doing for brands that we work with is actually hyper-targeting from this mix of 11 million communities, like 11 million community members, should I say, to really work with the right content creator -

Teresa Sperti (35:21):
Yeah, for the brand.

Kate Musgrove (35:22):
To fit the brief for the brand. And going back to those, the product facets and attributes, and to your point around making sure that they know about the product, in this instance, the brand will actually sample the product with the creator as well. So they get to trial the product and then take that through to whether it's social content, a review, et cetera.

Teresa Sperti (35:44):
Which delivers that authenticity. They've touched it, they've felt it. They can see the benefits themselves firsthand. So many interesting considerations, Kate. I think -

Kate Musgrove (35:53):
It is. And on that one, it's very important to call out that the product was gifted as well. That's why you don't want to be penalized by the AI crawlers when that's not called out. So that's a big one too.

Teresa Sperti (36:04):
Absolutely. Increasingly, they'll start to sniff out what is paid

Kate Musgrove (36:09):
Placement

Teresa Sperti (36:10):
Versus not. And so I think that's a really important one to reinforce. All right, so we've covered a lot over the last 30 minutes or so from the evolution of social commerce through to the changing role of creators and UGC in the agentic era. If I'm a brand leader sitting here listening to this podcast today and I'm thinking about my next 12 months, where should I be focusing my energy to make sure I'm ready for what is already changing in the market? Not where the market's heading, the market, this is happening now. What am I thinking about? What should I focus on?

Kate Musgrove (36:46):
I'm sure there's a lot, but I think really as AI transforms search and discoverability, authentic UGC is becoming critical fuel. The brands need to be discovered, trusted, and ultimately chosen. And to win in that space, an abundance of content is critical. So brands really should be assessing whether their existing content, and we've spoken a bit about this, provides sufficient breadth and depth around their products, occasions, needs, consumer language. So that's a really important thing to start with that kind of audit. Freshness is a big one as well. We spoke about thinking about your UGC and created content as a supply chain of content. So fresh content is highly favored by the AI engines, so planning for that to be always on. And I think for non - D2C brands, we know that this is harder, but you can make your content work harder because you think about a retailer where their product might show up only on their site and their app and maybe some other in the marketplaces for brands where it's showing up in 10 plus places, that one piece of content, you can sweat that really, really.

Teresa Sperti (37:58):
And it provides brands even that don't have a DTC with far more influence than ever before over the preference and the choice that the shopper makes. This is a really positive change if you understand what is coming and you're investing appropriately within the social creator UGC space as well as outside of. It's a really, really exciting opportunity. I think, like you say, the importance is you've got to start to understand where you are today, which starts with an audit, and then you build your plan around that. I mean, if you've got gaps in content that speak to certain shopper needs and missions, then that

Kate Musgrove (38:38):
Has - Like those gaps. That's

Teresa Sperti (38:39):
Right. That has to form part of the plan. I think the biggest challenge that brands will face is like you talked to, how do you continue to build freshness and build at a velocity that you need to, to ensure that you can maintain your visibility over time? I think that's going to test a number of brands in market, but I think there's a lot of really, really solid advice in there for those that are sitting back going, okay, what do I actually do from here? Start with an audit and plan from there.

Kate Musgrove (39:13):
Exactly. I think that's the best advice. And then I think just touching back on what we're talking about before and breaking down the silos, I do think organizations need to step back and ensure that UGC creative content is working as part of their ecosystem, has strong governance, and it really looked at from the top down. Don't look at it as a, oh, we've got an MPD coming and we've got this much budget, what can I do? Step back and look at that audit that you've done on your digital shelf today and

Teresa Sperti (39:44):
Assess

Kate Musgrove (39:46):
Where your content needs are.

Teresa Sperti (39:48):
Yeah, absolutely. And we're seeing some organizations or brands start to spin up working groups, cross-functional working groups to tackle this. I'm working with one at the moment, which is doing just that. In order to break down those silos, sometimes it doesn't mean we need to restructure. You heard it here, people. Often people look to pull the structure leave. This is not necessarily structural. It's sometimes about bringing cross-functional teams together and everyone's starting with the same understanding and context, this is where we are, this is what the shopper journey looks like to start to really reimagine what that needs to look like moving forward.

Kate Musgrove (40:26):
Yeah, and set some KPIs around that so you've got some internal benchmarks on what great looks like.

Teresa Sperti (40:32):
Yeah, absolutely. And measure as you go. That's

Kate Musgrove (40:35):
Right,

Teresa Sperti (40:35):
Exactly. To make sure that you're getting there. So Kate, thank you so much, firstly, for joining me today.

Kate Musgrove (40:42):
It's been my pleasure. Thank you for having me, Teresa.

Teresa Sperti (40:44):
Yeah, I've really, really enjoyed the conversation. And as always, I want to thank everyone for tuning into Unpacking the Digital Shelf, the APAC Edition with me, Theresa Sperti.