One of the more innovative trends emerging across the globe is companies solving their content needs with their talented staff.
Makes sense right? No one knows how to sell the benefits of your product or service better than those who do it for a living. As for content creation… these days anyone can have the TECH (in advanced smartphones) and the TALENT to craft engaging social content that can then be amplified as ads. That’s right, your creators don’t even need followers.
From retailers, restaurant franchises, banks, airlines, supermarkets, sports clubs, telcos, and music labels to your local cafe, there’s an opportunity to create a new workforce of creators who already love and understand your brand.
Keep scrolling for some inspiring examples of global brands leading this trend or get inspired by 48 of our favourite creative ideas to kickstart your own employee creator program.
1. Marks & Spencer
As one of the UK’s favourite retailers, offering everything from homewares to fashion, Marks & Spencer has a diverse customer base. Rather than following the traditional route of working with a high-profile celebrity ambassador with one voice, they’ve created mini-celebrities from their own team members who can appeal to their broad audience.
Click play below to meet some of their Insiders like Dominque, who appeals to millennials, Michelle who’s in her 60’s, and Jamie, the Dad-next-door.
2. Macy's
From another iconic department store, Macy’s Style Crew supercharged their eCommerce strategy by opening it up to 3,300 employees! To scale even further, they’ve since expanded it to their most loyal customers who’ve each created their own shopfront. All products they promote are shoppable with employees getting a cut of the sales.
Beyond that, the exposure alone is massive with close to 100,00 posts using the Macy’s Style Crew hashtag.
The definition of turning your employees into your content department, your sales department and your marketing department.
3. Woolworths
Proving a strategy doesn’t need thousands of creators if you have one exceptional one, Aussie supermarket Woolworths knows they’re sitting a goldmine with a home-grown hero, Liam Kirley.
Liam was already shooting TikTok content while working his shift before Woolworths made it official by throwing the company behind him and inviting him into their content team. Watch some of his hilarious content reaching a new generation of shoppers.
4. Dunkin' Donuts
Sales skyrocketed when Dunkin’ Donuts created a program to inspire employees to create videos while working and post them on social media. Especially popular with their customers were product launch videos because users assumed staff were leaking upcoming drinks, resulting in a 57% increase in app downloads and 20% in cold brew sales.
The key to their success? They initially launched the program with the world’s biggest TikTok star, Charlie D’Amelio. Not only do Dunkin’s customers love Charlie, but their staff felt so proud of their company, they were inspired to start creating and posting their own content. A clever way to kick the program off with a bang.
5. Starbucks
Proving there’s an appetite for employee-generated content, Starbucks’ dedicated social account for their employees, Starbucks Partners, has over 141K followers!
From cool behind-the-scenes chalkboard artistry to celebrating events like Disability Pride Week or Mental Health Week with staff members who genuinely care about the topic. A really clever way to create authentic content around topics that often fall victim to well-intentioned brands inadvertently attracting criticism using their own voice.
How can brands scale an Employee Creator Program?
Like these brands, one of Australia’s largest retailers BWS saw the opportunity in turning their staff into content creators. With over 9,000 team members, they could solve the problem of generating the huge volume of mobile-first content they needed while sharing an inside look into the values and culture they are so proud of.
Their only problem? The manual processes in managing a program like theirs at scale.
That’s where TRIBE Unlocked came in - our custom solution that enabled their strategy with the technology and teamwork needed to expand their program from dozens of Insiders to thousands.
Click here to read the foundation of BWS' story.
Or, to learn about the impact of their strategy today, and about how TRIBE Unlocked can benefit your EGC program, click the button below.
