Marketing ops ·

Sinclair Broadcast Group scales UGC collection across news stations with Stackla

The problem

Sinclair's previous UGC platform lacked robust social media permission-gathering and could not scale quickly enough across all their news stations and consumer touchpoints.

First attempt

Their prior UGC platform took up to six months to reach critical mass across news markets, and UGC content was buried behind albums rather than prominently visible to site visitors.

Workflow diagram · grounded in source
1
Viewer outreach request
trigger
“The station will reach out to viewers/users on-air, on social media or even push notifications in their apps and ask people to share images and videos of what they are seeing or how they were participating.”
2
Social media content sourcing
integration
“we can just use the Stackla platform to immediately source from social media, gather and report that content, which is quicker than sending out requests for content and waiting for somebody to submit an image or video”
3
Permission gathering
integration
“Stackla's ability to gather, reach out and get permissions to use social media content—specifically from Twitter and Instagram”
4
Human editorial review
human_review
“the SBG local news teams review every image prior to publication—no easy feat given the number of submissions per day. This assures that no inappropriate content is posted.”
5
Chime In gallery publication
output
“Across 73 of Sinclair's local news stations, they feature "Chime In" pages, which showcase content from local viewers and encourage others to upload their own content in order to be featured on the webpage.”
6
Automated contributor emails
output
“Sinclair is able to automatically send emails to community members thanking them for contributing as well as notifications letting them know when their personal photos are live on their local news site or scheduled to be broadcasted on air.”
Reported outcome

Sinclair completed rollout across all news stations in about 10 weeks, gained the ability to immediately source breaking-news UGC from social media, and generated new sponsorship revenue through Stackla-powered topic galleries.

Reported metrics
Stackla rollout timeabout 10 weeks
Previous platform rollout timeup to six months
UGC volumesignificant UGC numbers
Sponsorship revenuevaluable source of revenue
Reported stack
StacklaTwitterInstagram
Source
https://www.nosto.com/case-studies/sinclair-broadcasting-group/
Read source ↗

Frequently asked questions

What did this team achieve with this AI workflow?

Sinclair completed rollout across all news stations in about 10 weeks, gained the ability to immediately source breaking-news UGC from social media, and generated new sponsorship revenue through Stackla-powered topic…

What tools did this team use?

Stackla, Twitter, Instagram.

What results were reported?

Stackla rollout time: about 10 weeks; Previous platform rollout time: up to six months; UGC volume: significant UGC numbers; Sponsorship revenue: valuable source of revenue (source-reported, not independently verified).

What failed first in this deployment?

Their prior UGC platform took up to six months to reach critical mass across news markets, and UGC content was buried behind albums rather than prominently visible to site visitors.

How is this marketing ops AI workflow structured?

Viewer outreach request → Social media content sourcing → Permission gathering → Human editorial review → Chime In gallery publication → Automated contributor emails.

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