How Camp Chef Won Black Friday with Creator-led UGC

The Challenge: Sourcing Authentic UGC Fast Enough to Run at Scale

Camp Chef already knew UGC worked. The hard part was getting enough of it — fast enough, and good enough — to actually run at scale. Traditional production was slow. It was expensive. And at the volume Camp Chef needed for Black Friday, it just wasn't going to work.

They needed a UGC strategy that could:

• Deliver diverse, engaging content at scale
• Outperform existing ad sets
• Secure full licensing for the brand and its retail partners

What they needed was real content from real cooks, in real conditions. Not a studio set. Not a stock library.

The Solution: A Creator Network Built for Outdoor Brands

Camp Chef came to Popfly.

Through Popfly's network of verified adventure creators, Camp Chef tapped into people who already live the brand — campers, backyard chefs, weekend warriors who know how to shoot for socials and understand outdoor cooking from the inside out.

Popfly handled the rest:

• Creator matching aligned to Camp Chef's brand and target audience
• Seamless licensing and usage rights for Camp Chef and their retail partners
• Payments, contracts, and content delivery in one place
• A cost-effective pricing model compared to traditional production

Camp Chef collected the content and ran the ads.

The Results: UGC That Outperformed Traditional Ad Sets

The content didn't just keep up with Camp Chef's existing ad sets. It outperformed them in nearly every category.

When Black Friday, Cyber Monday data came in, three of the top five performing ads were sourced through Popfly creators. Including Camp Chef's top-converting ad of the season.

Compared to other content Camp Chef ran, Popfly UGC delivered 4.16x higher engagement and 13.4x higher click-through rate — at a fraction of the cost and timeline of a traditional shoot.

And because licensing was secured up front, Camp Chef and its retail partners can keep using the content long after the holiday rush.

"We received a ton of content. All 3 of the top-performing ads were UGC we got from Popfly, and our top converting ad was from Popfly."

— Kyle Andrus, Camp Chef Marketing

Why This Approach Worked: Verified Creators Who Already Live the Brand

The creators weren't sourced cold. They were matched to Camp Chef on the things that actually move performance: expertise, audience fit, and a real point of view on outdoor cooking.

That's what authentic UGC looks like when it's done at scale.