Employees are the New Influencers: How the EGC Landscape is Shaping Brand Marketing

The Benefits of Employee Generated Content 

Cost effective

Employees allow you to bring your content creators closer to home, minimise additional expenses, and access passionate brand representatives at a lower cost than professional influencers.

Trust

Who could cultivate audience trust better than real employees, who work with the brand and its products every day? Rather than polished marketing messages, this is about people-led stories.

Culture & Employee Recruitment

EGC gives users genuine insight into company culture, with huge potential to support a brand’s reputation and appeal among potential applicants.

Expert Insights

There’s nobody who knows your business better than the people building and selling it every day, making them the perfect creators of expert content.

The Goat Agency’s weekly vlog is a prime example of this, with everyone from founders to campaign teams cropping up to share their wisdom, give us their hottest takes, or do deep dives on recent projects and industry developments. 

Check out our Vlog

The Top Employee Generated Content

Starbucks Global Coffee Creator

In their search for new global brand ambassadors, Starbucks decided to recruit from among their own staff. These ‘Global Coffee Creators’ travel the world, visiting Starbucks branches and diving into the culture of 15 different countries, creating TikTok content that’s as exotic as it is familiar.

Drawing ambassadors from among their staff works because who knows Starbucks coffee better than a Starbucks barista? When this creator expresses their passion for Starbucks around the world, we believe it – not least because we’ve seen their journey from day dot, but because they have clear authority on the topic.

Audiences also take pleasure in seeing Starbucks empower one of their humble baristas to travel the world. Not only do users feel they deserve it more than just an ‘off the street’ influencer, but they appreciate a brand seeing and uplifting their staff. The result is greater approval and esteem for the Starbucks brand.

Hobbycraft

Hobbycraft looked beyond traditional influencers – one of their store branches in Wimbledon has positioned themselves as certified social icons. In fact, they even partnered up with Stateside’s Zara Larsson in a quest to cement themselves as the spirit animal of the crafty community. 

By positioning Zara not just as a face, but as a genuine enthusiast in the world of crafting, Hobbycraft bridged the gap between celebrity glitz and hobbyist glitter. Not only did audiences love seeing Zara so down to earth, but they lived for the clear joy and enthusiasm of the staff who were flexing their own creative muscles in making these joyous reels – whether it was riding an inflatable dolphin or strutting down the haberdashery aisle.

Not only does their campaign resonate with the crafty, creative community worldwide, but it gave the brand’s South London store instant viral status – driving site-specific footfall alongside global online engagement.

Currys

Currys tapped a goldmine when they built a strategy for in-store colleagues and their unbridled creativity. Whether it’s satirical Gen Z scripts, a strangely recurring theme around Henry hoovers, or a tongue-in-cheek “store of the week” series (that occurs at random intervals), Currys has unleashed the secret comedians and creative visionaries from among their ranks.

The payoff has been massive. Popular among younger audiences who usually ignore traditional ads, this content has racked up millions of views on tiny budgets, helped in part by the brand’s readiness to clap back against witty commenters. 

This EGC approach has put Currys at the front of younger audiences’ minds in the ongoing battle to remain relevant in hyper-competitive tech and home appliance retail markets.

Duolingo

We know where this one is going…

Duolingo ditched polished influencer partnerships for an “unhinged” employee-generated content strategy, cementing themselves as the undisputed champions of the form in the process. The social marketing team and wider staff became a shared well of creativity as they put the Duo mascot through an ever-escalating range of chaotic, low-budget scenarios and stories, culminating in the famous ‘death of Duo’ incident.

The results are indisputable. With over 400M likes on TikTok and more than 16M followers, it’s safe to say it’s working well.

This is a case study in reacting to user-generated memes and jokes by really running with them, rather than simply seeing them as engagements to be added up and reported on.

Sephora

A number of Sephora employees have climbed into the ranks of the “Sephora Squad”, a dedicated ambassador group and community of passionate content creators. This intermingling of employees with ‘traditional’ influencers from all walks of life gives those employers stronger credentials as independent creatives, minimising the chances of them being viewed simply as mouthpieces for the brand.

Sephora’s beauty advisors create content alongside, and even with, beauty brand founders – creating a cross-marketing ecosystem where beauty experts are always front and centre.

By leveraging the credibility of staff who have a passion for (and daily experience with) its products, Sephora bypasses the paid actor feel of one-off influencer partnerships and becomes a more compelling home for beauty recommendations.

Rare Beauty

Long-form entries from founder Selena Gomez and “Behind the Brand” insights from staff take Rare Beauty’s Substack from being a company newsletter to a community-driven space where mental health, vulnerability and real people reside.

The Rare Beauty brand is about celebrating individuality and uplifting people. Rather than relying on short-form video and viral trends, this brand recognised that ‘slow beauty’ should be accompanied by ‘slow content’.

By giving a large amount of space and freedom to the voices of the brand – including its founder – Rare Beauty’s Substack serves as a living, evolving home for its core values. Employee authors become a familiar ‘inner circle’, developing an intimate approach to text-based storytelling that sustains loyalty among discerning, value-led customers.

Interested? Check out our Substack Raised on Social, and watch our video on the Substack revolution…