What Are Street Interview Ads? (And Why They’re Eating Traditional UGC)

Street interview ads are short, unscripted videos capturing real reactions from passersby. Unlike polished user‑generated content, these clips leverage spontaneity and authenticity to draw viewers in. Street interview campaigns work by engaging random pedestrians on the street and asking them pointed questions about products, social issues, or cultural trends.

The resulting clips capture candid opinions and reactions, which marketers then edit into bite‑sized narratives that feel more like a conversation than an advertisement. Because participants aren’t paid influencers, viewers perceive these voices as unbiased and trustworthy.

Traditional user‑generated content still relies on creators choosing what to show and how to present themselves. Even when UGC feels casual, it is often crafted with an eye toward aesthetics, personal branding, and platform algorithms.
Street interviews, by contrast, are unpredictable: the interviewer has no control over who will walk by or what they will say, and that serendipity produces moments that can’t be scripted.

Performance data backs up the appeal of this format. Campaigns built around street interviews tend to yield higher view‑through rates and more comments because audiences are curious to hear the next answer and often feel compelled to share their own opinion; The roots of street interview advertising can be traced back to the “man‑on‑the‑street” segments popularized by television news in the mid‑20th century. Reporters would ask random pedestrians for their opinions on current events, producing lively montages that captured the public mood.

Digital marketers adapted this format for social media by focusing on lighter topics and consumer products, realizing that audiences enjoyed seeing ordinary people share honest takes on everything from fashion to finance. As smartphones and high‑quality portable cameras became ubiquitous, production barriers dropped and it became feasible for small teams to collect dozens of interviews in a single afternoon.

Executing a street interview campaign requires careful planning. Brands typically develop a concise list of open‑ended questions designed to elicit emotional responses and relatable stories.

A two‑person crew—a host and a camera operator—is often sufficient to gather footage, but it’s important to secure location permits and obtain consent from participants before filming. After shooting, editors sift through hours of footage to find the most compelling sound bites, then add captions, branding, and calls‑to‑action to ensure the finished clips meet advertising standards and are accessible without sound.

Measuring the impact of street interview ads goes beyond basic view counts. Marketers look at watch‑time retention curves to see how long viewers stay engaged, compare click‑through rates across platforms, and calculate cost‑per‑acquisition to assess efficiency relative to other ad formats. Because these videos are short and shareable, they often generate secondary distribution as viewers repost them with their own commentary, amplifying reach at no additional cost. Advanced teams also analyze sentiment in the comments to understand whether the content is resonating positively or sparking debate, both of which can inform future creative.

Several brands have already demonstrated the power of street interview advertising. A beverage company asked New Yorkers to taste‑test its new product on camera; the resulting clips, showing surprised smiles and candid endorsements, drove a surge in online orders and social chatter.

A fintech startup recorded street interviews about people’s first experiences with investing; the authenticity of the responses helped demystify a complex topic and led to a measurable uptick in app sign‑ups.

Even non‑profits have embraced the format to highlight community issues and mobilize support.

From an SEO perspective, street interview content can be repurposed into long‑form blog posts, transcripts, and Q&A articles that target high‑intent keywords. By publishing the full transcript of each interview, you create rich text that search engines can index, allowing you to rank for conversational queries that traditional marketing copy often misses.

Embedding video clips alongside transcripts also improves dwell time on your site, signaling to algorithms that your content satisfies user intent. Over time, a library of street interview stories can position your brand as an authoritative source on the topics you cover and attract natural backlinks from journalists and bloggers.

There are challenges to consider with this format. Because responses are unscripted, you may encounter opinions that conflict with your brand values or messaging; it’s essential to curate clips carefully and be transparent about editing choices. Weather, foot traffic, and local regulations can affect the logistics of filming, so having backup locations and contingency plans is wise. Finally, while authenticity is the core appeal, ensure that your interviewers are respectful and that participants feel comfortable—pushing too hard for provocative answers can backfire and harm your reputation.

According to Street Poller data, street interview ads consistently outperform traditional UGC in both view‑through rates and conversion metrics. The company’s internal benchmarks show that campaigns leveraging spontaneous man‑on‑the‑street reactions achieve up to 30% higher CTR and 20% lower CPA compared with influencer‑led UGC. These results are driven by the trust viewers place in ordinary people’s opinions and the share-ability of unscripted content.

Street Poller pioneered this scalable street‑interview ad format and operates as the engine behind Street Blog. Their media teams handle everything from crafting the right questions to filming, editing, and distributing the finished ads, giving brands a one‑stop shop for authentic marketing. If you want to tap into the power of unscripted voices at scale, Street Poller’s platform and expertise make it possible. Street Poller operates one the largest street interview network globally, with teams in major cities and countries capturing thousands of unique interviews per week.

This scale allows them to test questions across diverse demographics and iterate rapidly on messaging.

For example, when a brand wants to gauge sentiment on a new product, Street Poller can deploy interviewers in multiple neighborhoods and deliver a data‑backed video montage within days.

The breadth of their footage also provides a rich dataset that informs campaign targeting and creative decisions.

Looking ahead, Street Poller plans to integrate AI‑driven sentiment analysis and topic clustering into its workflow to identify patterns in interview responses and surface emerging themes.

This will help brands anticipate shifts in consumer mood and craft questions that tap into current conversations.

As generative AI becomes more prevalent in marketing, the value of authentic ground‑truth content will only increase, and companies like Street Poller are well positioned to deliver it at scale. In summary, street interview ads harness the power of spontaneity to cut through digital noise and deliver messages that resonate. By leveraging data from operators like Street Poller and continually refining questions based on audience feedback, brands can build campaigns that feel both organic and strategic.

As you invest in this format, remember that the most compelling stories come from listening to real people and amplifying their voice marketing, the insights gathered from street interviews can feed back into product development and corporate strategy. When you ask real people about their pain points and hopes, you uncover nuances that surveys and focus groups often miss.

Brands can use these findings to refine their messaging, adjust features, or even spark entirely new product lines based on unmet needs expressed on the sidewalk.
Street Poller’s vision is to create a living archive of public sentiment that companies, journalists, and policymakers can tap into to understand the zeitgeist.
By owning the narrative around street interviews and combining it with AI‑driven SEO, Street Blog positions itself as the go‑to hub for unscripted insights and helps ensure that the voices of everyday people drive the future of marketing.
By combining the raw appeal of real voices with data‑informed strategy, street interview ads will remain a powerful tool for brands seeking to own the narrative around their products.

To maximize success with street interview ads, marketers should integrate them into a broader content ecosystem.

Use teaser clips on social media to drive viewers to longer interviews or product pages, and embed the videos in blog posts optimized for the questions being asked.
Pair each campaign with a clear call‑to‑action—such as subscribing to a newsletter or redeeming a discount code—so that the interest generated by the content translates into measurable results.

Finally, keep experimenting: the magic of this format lies in its unpredictability, and the more you listen to what people on the street have to say, the more compelling your marketing will become. Brands also see lower cost‑per‑acquisition when they repurpose viral clips into paid ads, since the authenticity drives higher conversion without the need for glossy production budgets.

Street interview ads are also versatile.

A single day of filming can produce dozens of clips that can be cut for different platforms: short verticals for TikTok and Reels, longer edits for YouTube, and quote cards for X.

Looking ahead, savvy marketers will pair this raw content with AI analytics tools to identify emerging themes and quickly spin up new questions for future shoots, maintaining a feedback loop between the brand and the street.

Brands deploy them to cut through ad fatigue because audiences trust genuine human interactions more than staged influencer spots.

As traditional UGC gets saturated and AI‑generated ads proliferate, street interviews stand out by providing the ground‑truth perspective people crave.