Fender, one of the world’s most prestigious and iconic music brands, is synonymous with electric guitar culture and innovation. Fender Europe plays a pivotal role in translating the brand’s rich heritage into a modern, digitally driven consumer experience – balancing legacy amongst professional musicians with accessibility for new players.
The Challenge
With users scrolling between half and a full mile of content daily, our challenge is clear: how do we make our upper- and mid-funnel strategy truly stand out with thumb-stopping, audience-relevant content that captivates and engages?
The Solution
We implemented a stronger focus on authentic paid media creative, leveraging creator and user-generated, platform-native content across social channels, including Meta and TikTok.
By working closely with Fender, we tested a hypothesis around the impact of this creative shift and were able to demonstrate significant efficiencies, both in cost and engagement metrics, please see results below.
As Meta aptly puts it, “Creative is the new targeting.” We believe this evolution in content consumption highlights the need to place creative at the core of every paid media strategy. While our deep platform expertise remains invaluable, it must now be adapted to align with campaign objectives, shifting user preferences, and broader market trends.
Research underscores this approach:
- UGC drives 28% more engagement than traditional branded content and delivers 4x higher click-through rates.
- 85% of users find UGC and creator content more influential than brand content, and 2.4x more authentic, particularly among Gen Z and Millennials.
- Social media creators are poised to surpass traditional media in advertising revenue for the first time, with creator-generated revenues projected to grow by 20% in 2025.
(The Guardian, tribegroup, crowdriff, sprinklr).
Results
Since shifting our approach to creative, our recent campaigns have delivered significantly stronger results across key KPIs.
Highlights include:
39% increase in view-through rates, well above typical retail benchmarks.
More efficient cost-per-click and a 26% reduction in cost per mille (CPM)
Overall, the move to creator-led, trust-driven, and highly engaging content has demonstrably enhanced performance, particularly on TikTok and Instagram, validating the value of authentic, platform-native creative in paid media.
“Our updated creative strategy has significantly enhanced performance and results. Through ongoing sessions and close collaboration with the team at Threepipe Reply, we’ve been able to learn, adapt, and optimise in real time. At the heart of our approach is content that champions artists and creators, ensuring it feels truly native to the platform and deeply resonates with our target audience.”
— May Nye, Senior Digital Marketing Specialist at Fender
