It’s true that in just a few weeks the slick production values, made-up faces and staged sets of old seem jarring and we’ve come to expect a more stripped back, lo-fi approach. 

Just look at New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recording a homespun video message about the country’s imminent lockdown from her couch wearing an almost threadbare sweatshirt after putting her toddler daughter to bed.

Closer to home Coles has embraced the lo-fi aesthetic in its What’s for Dinner segment during the 6pm news with chefs like Luke Mangan, Colin Fassnidge, Matt Stone and Kylie Millar sharing favourite recipes they have filmed themselves preparing in their own kitchens and backyards complete with messy fridge magnets, kids and pets.

Necessity is the mother of invention but arguably this is just accelerating a trend that was already underway. If Instagram was, initially at least, a place for more highly polished content, the newer social darling TikTok has always traded in more quirky, accessible lo-fi content. The platform’s biggest star, 15-year-old Charli D’Amelio, mostly does choreographed dances from her bedroom wearing sweatpants and drinking a mug of tea.

The question is will it last? I’ve got no doubt that there’s a shift that will resonate for months if not years to come. But I’m picking that the pendulum will shift back somewhat because there are limits to what audiences will put up with (think shaky cameras, poor sound) and even the most forward-thinking brands aren’t quite ready to hand everything over to average Aussies armed with an iPhone. And nor should they.

The good news is you don’t need UGC to be “authentic” and of the moment. You just need real people stories honestly told that offer something of value to your audience.