In this interview, I sat down and chatted with Kirsten Baumberger, one of the co-founders of mininsocial, a prominent UGC platform for D2C brands. 

Kirsten is one of the most knowledgeable and insight-packed folks in the UGC & ad creative industry – in the interview, she gives us a peek behind the minisocial tool, how she and her co-founder built the tool, how it works and her thoughts on the current state of D2C paid social ad creative. 

Let’s get started!

Kirsten, tell us a bit about your story, how minisocial was founded and why you decided to build minisocial.

minisocial truly came out of a need of mine back when I was managing digital marketing for all kinds of brands, mainly in the D2C space. 

They all had the same problem: they needed content for social, ads, etc., but did not have a huge budget to produce it. Most importantly, they needed content that would actually feel native on social platforms and that’s exactly where the idea for minisocial came! 

What are your thoughts on creative becoming the #1 key to advertiser success nowadays? Have you seen that all along? 

I feel this is 100% true. If you feel confident in your product, then the next thing you need is quality content for all of these platforms. If a consumer can’t wrap their head around what they’re buying and why they actually need your product, then it won't move the needle for them and the content won’t perform. 

UGC is such a powerful way to showcase the products in the hands of real consumers who will then resonate with your audience. 

Tell us a bit about how a minisocial campaign works on the brand side.

The first step is a brand submitting a brief letting us know a bit about them and the kinds of creators they want to partner with. From there, minisocial and our platform handles the rest! 

We’ll book up the project with a group of high-quality creators from our database who can create content that resonates and share it with their followers! We try to make it as seamless as possible for our D2C brand partners.

Our campaigns start at $2K for a group of 25 creators who all create content that is fully licensed to the brand. The creators also organically share the content with their followers on their preferred social platforms. We pride ourselves on being one of the most accessible, fully-managed options on the market! 

How do you think about adding new creators into the minisocial network?

The minisocial creator database has been built up over the past 5 years with creators who have a track record of producing high-quality content and a real social following who is excited to hear from them. We love adding creators to our network that have a true relationship with their audience – this is a great sign that the creator produces quality content.