Vocal Media created a UGC trend campaign around the popular TikTok format of a "stitch" video. This idea centers around a primary video starting with "I'll go first," and showing or discussing something personal and relatable to their viewers. Then, more and more creators add onto that primary video, adding and showing their own experiences in comedic ways. Vocal Media aimed to create a UGC trend around personal stories of reproductive care, and why access to reproductive care is critical for all Americans.
In order to generate a strategic and organic trend around reproductive care, Vocal Media partnered with well known creator Madeline Ford, who had previously started 'storytelling' trends. Ford created a first video after strategic discussions about the best way to capture her audience with a 1 sentence 'hook' encouraging stitch videos. "The people who are making decisions about our bodies act as if it's all a hypothetical situation, so let's start sharing our real stories regarding reproductive care. I'll go first..." After enticing viewers, Ford discussed the role reproductive care played in saving her life after a sexual encounter. Viewers strongly resonated with this message, and over a dozen TikTok users took to the video to add their own stories.
Vocal Media worked closely with Madeline Ford and her team to devise the most strategic message for this campaing, and learn her best practices for starting a trend. In order to get the news of this trend in front of as many people as possible, Vocal Media hired a cohort of strong and diverse creators to create a 'duet' across TikTok with the original video, adding in their own commentary and encouraging their followers to do the same. Equally, Vocal Media reached out to various media partners with a strong presence on Instagram—such as @nowthis and @feminist—in order to bring the trend across social media platforms. Although TikTok is the most likely platform for a stitch trend, we wanted to ensure that viewers who only use 'Reels' could add their voice and perspectives to the conversation. Madeline's primary video reached over 85,000 viewers and prompted 18 organic stitch and duet videos. In total, viewership on this trend reached over 4.5 million, and comments across the posts were flooded with firsthand accounts of reproductive care, signaling the importance of its existence and why we need to vote for candidates who will not vote for a national ban on abortion in the 2024 election.