#CSOM: The End of Celebrity Endorsements? Meet the New Brand Champions

Celebrity Endorser. Influencer. Content Creator. Employee.

Wait – reverse that.  According to the recent Cision/PR Week survey, for the first time in the 7-year history of the study, employees are ranked more effective as brand champions than those that are paid for their endorsements.

Research shows that the content shared by employees gets eight times more engagement than content shared by the brand channels.

To me, it comes back to trust.  As we discussed in a previous episode, trust in business, government and other institutions continues to decline.  And although we want the brands we interact with to take a stand, speak up and be advocate, we place our trust in the people behind the brands.

Organizations need to embrace this and give these individuals the power to serve as brand champions.  There will always be a need for brand guidelines and strategy, but activate your team members and give them the tools to speak on behalf of the organization.

We get into this a bit more on the podcast.

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the Copper State of Mind podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app. We publish new episodes every other Friday. To have them delivered automatically and free of charge, just pick your preferred podcast player from this link, open the app, and click the button to “Follow” the show: https://www.copperstateofmind.show/listen