User-Generated Content Campaigns

Our client spent 13 months building something Meta can't take away. Now they're generating 50M impressions at $4.02 CPM while competitors pay $20+. While your competitors cut TOF budget to chase short-term ROAS, we built a creator community that delivers brand awareness at 1/5th the CPM of Meta ads. Too many brands have sacrificed top-of-funnel investment to maintain ROAS targets, creating a growth ceiling as they continuously retarget the same audience pool. This approach is unsustainable as CACs rise and attribution becomes more challenging. Here's why our Creator Community strategy is the game-changer you need: 1. Generate millions of authentic impressions at a fraction of paid media costs 2. Create multiple touchpoints before a purchase decision 3. Improve performance of existing paid channels through increased brand awareness 4. Build mental availability that drives long-term revenue growth Our solution? A systematic approach to building a 1,000-person distribution network that generates consistent TOF awareness without draining your budget. How it works: 1. Identify and recruit creators aligned with your brand 2. Implement performance-based compensation to ensure ROI 3. Provide creators with creative briefs, campaigns, and challenges 4. Monitor and optimize creator performance from 1:1 coaching 5. Whitelist top performing influencer posts by EMV and Revenue By focusing on performance-based compensation, we ensure every dollar spent drives both immediate revenue and long-term awareness. Don't let short-term ROAS obsession limit your growth potential. Invest in a creator community that generates a new TOF strategy that builds a sustainable competitive advantage.

I’ve been watching brands like GRÜNS and Duolingo absolutely crush it, not just in sales, but in building real communities that genuinely love them. The most interesting part? They’re doing it without relying on the “old playbook” of huge ad buys and perfectly polished campaigns. Instead, they’ve built their success on authenticity, relatability, and community. Creator-first marketing They’ve mastered the power of micro-influencers. Instead of putting all their budget into one big celebrity endorsement, they work with hundreds of smaller creators who speak directly to niche audiences. These aren’t scripted ads, but rather authentic moments and personal recommendations. Their creators actually use and love the products, and as a result their audiences trust them. Community-first branding Fans don’t just buy the product; they feel like they’re part of something bigger. From reposting user-generated content to running rewards programs that incentivize sharing, every touchpoint is about building belonging. It’s the difference between a customer base and a community. Culture-led product design They make products that look and feel like they’re meant to be shared. Think pastel energy drink cans that pop in a selfie, or candy-like gummy vitamins that break the mold of what “wellness” products usually look like. Every design choice is intentional and it turns customers into free brand ambassadors. TikTok-native campaigns These brands don’t try to force traditional ads into TikTok. They create short, snackable videos that match the tone of the platform, relatable, quick, and unpolished in the best way possible. That’s why their content gets watched, shared, and remembered. The biggest lesson for me? You don’t have to chase perfection to win. The real power comes from knowing your audience, speaking their language, and giving them the tools and reasons to tell your story for you. In a world of massive ad budgets, authenticity and cultural relevance are still the most powerful currencies. #BrookeMonk #TikTok #BrandMarketing #CreatorEconomy

Ummmm...Any social strategists wondering what just happened?! The McDonald's team either just executed the most brilliant marketing campaign of the year, or a train went seriously off the rails... 🚂 🔥 Or both 🤷♀️ Let's break it down. Grimace sits perfectly at the intersection of a few powerful trends - 90's nostalgia, extreme authenticity, the joy of the unhinged, and brand mascots gone wild... 💜 💜💜 The #GrimaceShake trend is a prime example of the new ways that brands can captivate audience attention in marketing. Here's what we can learn from it: 1️⃣ Measure the New Success: McDonald's is redefining marketing success metrics. Users who make content about a brand care deeply - they invest their time and creativity into MAKING something in the brand's narrative. New fandoms can be measured - and 1 instance of UGC engagement is worth 10000 likes. 2️⃣ Drive Unexpected Virality: McDonald's Grimace shake unleashed a wave of fan-driven content, turning the campaign into something far beyond its initial intent. Fans dressed up, created art, and even made Grimace a queer icon. The hashtag #GrimaceShake got a mind-blowing 689 million views in just 15 days! 3️⃣ Embrace the narrative: Content creators took the Grimace shake trend to the next level by crafting elaborate narratives, horror films, and documentaries around it. The evolution of the trend kept it fresh and proved that audiences are not only intelligent but also wildly creative. Lo-fi horror has been making a comeback ever since Stranger Things blew up, and this trend doubled down on it. 4️⃣ UGC Highlights Community -Empower It!: McDonald's allowed fans to shape Grimace's perception and the shake's story, blurring the lines between creators and consumers. This created a vast network of user-generated content that boosted brand awareness and customer loyalty. The Grimace shake showcased the marketing potential of embracing and amplifying user-generated content. It builds a sense of community and a deeper connection with customers, resulting in massive brand exposure. The Grimace shake campaign demonstrates the influence of audience engagement and unexpected virality. By embracing customer creativity and enthusiasm, brands can expand their reach, foster loyalty, and create a strong sense of community. Successful marketing campaigns connect with audiences, ignite their imagination, and make them storytellers too! Every brand is an entertainment company, and the best ones give the audience the microphone. 🎤 (🍦🍦🍦 Also anyone else surprised the ice cream machines worked long enough to make all these shakes???) #viralmarketing #tiktokstrategy #usergeneratedcontent #grimaceshake #grimace

Just as it seemed to be exploding, influencer marketing may soon be on the decline. To a certain extent, it’s already happening. Brands have poured massive budgets into influencer partnerships, but the returns aren’t as strong as they once were. For one, engagement rates are dropping. Younger audiences are skeptical of branded content, and as the market becomes oversaturated, it’s harder to make an impact. Rising costs and declining trust make it difficult to justify the spend. But brands aren’t abandoning social influence altogether. Instead, they’re shifting toward more sustainable strategies—leveraging micro-influencers, KOLs (a big thing in China), and community-driven content. That could mean: - Allowing fans and super users to be brand ambassadors, which offers authenticity and a sense of relatability that resonates with customers. Ikea does a great job with this. Their Ambassador Club network of patrons has shared over 9,000 pieces of content, leading to 5% increase in sales. - Throwing employees into the mix. Team members offer the same realism, and have the advantage of knowing your target market. Perfect example: last year, the owner of a cafe in Illinois created a TikTok campaign pitching drivers on the restaurant’s pancakes. Her videos went on to accrue over 10.5 million views, and sales increased by 50%. - Repurposing material for targeted campaigns. Ads based on user-generated content get 4x higher click-through rates than regular ads, and campaigns that include UGC see 29% higher web conversions. Original, everyday voices can drive just as much—if not more—engagement as traditional influencers and reduce the drain on your budget. And they’re often easier to work with 🤣

Most employees LinkedIn personal branding fails. Here is the cheat code 👇 After working with dozens of B2B employees to build an employee content strategy, here’s what separates winners from losers: Winners build humans. Losers build billboards. Let me explain with a story… A few months ago, a client came to me frustrated. They struggled to book meetings and gain market share so they added content KPIs to their sale playbook. The problem? Sellers felt so lost, uncomfortable, and intimidated to post. So they leaned on all the company collateral and became ignored billboards. They didn't hit their new KPIs. They hid from them. Here’s what we changed: First, I needed to understand each individual's fear of posting. I focused on eliminating their limited beliefs and inspired them to change. Once I got buy-in we needed to focus on who they are as individuals so their posts are authentically them. We use my SHINE framework for this. Then we changed the “KPIs” to “mini-challenges”: ❌ “Post 5 times about our product features” ✅ “Share one challenge you solved this week” ❌ “Use our branded templates” ✅ “In your words, share a career highlight” ❌ “Track post impressions” ✅ “Track meaningful and ICP engagement” For companies doing this on their own, I've got 1 big tip for you… Focus on 1 person's content instead of rolling this out to the entire team. Spend 3 months working with that 1 person to see how you can build an employee brand. Then let the rest of the team see the possibilities and are inspired to take action. But if you want to take the guesswork out of it and roll it out to your teams lmk 😉 Do you think employee-generated content should and will be a KPI for sales teams??? —————————- PS: hi I'm Melissa 🌟 a B2B SaaS sales leader, LinkedIn content & sales coach! Here to help you build a B2B network 💕 Let’s connect! #EmployeeBranding #PersonalBranding #B2BMarketing #SalesStrategy #LinkedInStrategy #Authenticity

Almost all of the startups who ‘crush it’ on LinkedIn have multiple team members posting content. But most founders mess up when trying to roll-out ‘employee-generated content.’ WRONG WAY: - Make content a ‘requirement’ (you can’t do this lol) - Force employees to use branded headers and profile pics (they’re lame) - Use some ‘employee advocacy’ software to supply copy-paste posts to team members (congrats on the 2 likes and 1 comment) RIGHT WAY: - Lead by example with founder-led content - Identify employees who want to post content - Align their interests with the interests of your company - Reward and shout out team members who are most active 3-4 extremely active team members who are posting high-quality content that gets shared by your target customer is WAY more valuable than 100+ employees flooding the timeline with copy-paste AI slop. You get more distribution. They get to build their own personal audience. Win-win. When you layer in company content too, you end up with a 3-pronged Content Ecosystem that makes it feel like you're everywhere. Examples of B2B companies doing it right: - beehiiv - Exit Five - ColdIQ - Unify PS: I wrote more about the interplay between founder, employee, and brand content in an edition of my newsletter, Social Files. You can check that out using the button next to my profile pic.

What if your entire team became a content-creating, lead-generating powerhouse? If you had a LeBron or KD on your team to help : 👀 (If you're Steph Curry, you still take, and make, the shot) Maybe this is the next evolution of B2B marketing: Team Brand. Here's why this matters: B2B searches and discover are shifting to social media and word of mouth. Cold outreach effectiveness has plummeted (Adam Robinson shares his numbers on that) And individual team members contributing to the social (ie LinkedIn) conversation expands reach, adds diverse voices, and helps create authentic connections at scale. A few ideas to help get team members active on LinkedIn: 👉 Train: Equip your team with comprehensive social media playbooks tailored to each platform. 👉 Encourage authenticity: Help each team member find their unique voice and niche within your industry. 👉 Create a content assist program: Develop a library of customizable templates, images, and talking points for easy sharing. 👉 Implement a user-generated content (UGC) strategy: Encourage employees to share behind-the-scenes glimpses, success stories, and personal growth journeys. 👉 Gamify the process: Set up friendly competitions with rewards for engagement metrics and lead generation. 👉 Cross-pollinate content: Have team members from different departments collaborate on posts to showcase your company's diverse expertise. 👉 Highlight customer success: Train your customer success team to share anonymized win stories and use cases. Michel Lieben noted that he wants his whole team to be LinkedIn influencers. That's an awesome goal for a CEO. But more importantly, a sound marketing strategy. It builds on your entire team's network and knowledge to hit marketing goals. The result? A scalable social presence that grows organically with your company. This is the evolution of Founder Brand to Team Brand. Who else is doing this well?