Employee creators are a new brand strategy in marketing circles. Making them work, however, is another matter.The first major problem is infrastructure, or the actual format and layout of these employee creator programs. Some retailers like Gap Inc., are inviting employees to apply into an existing creator program spanning Old Navy, Gap, Athleta and Banana Republic, rather than building something bespoke for staff.
Others, like Starbucks, are building new programs from scratch to elevate employee creators, which is a slower, costlier route. These programs need their own measurement tools, close oversight, dedicated strategy and real rewards.
That fissure is deepening as businesses hunt for fresh ways to stand out in a crowded creator market. A recent conversation Keith Bendes, chief strategy officer at Linqia, had with an exec brought that into focus.
The exec, whom Bendes declined to name, had just built an employee creator program from the ground up at their company. The list of things that had to be worked out was long: how employees log their hours, whether content gets made on the clock and in-store or off it and elsewhere, whether customers’ faces and brand logos can appear in that in-store content, and how it all clears legal hurdles.
