Employee-Generated Content: What It Is and How Brands Are Using It

The most trusted voice a brand has on social isn't its CEO, its ad agency or a paid influencer. It's the people who actually do the work.

Cabin crew, baristas, shop floor teams, pizza makers, product developers. They know the product better than anyone, they're on camera-ready ground every day, and audiences can tell they're real.

That's why employee-generated content (EGC) has moved from a nice-to-have to one of the most effective formats on TikTok and Instagram. Below, we break down what it is and the three main models brands are using right now.

What is employee-generated content?

Employee-generated content is any social content created by the people who work for a brand, featuring their real job, their real colleagues and their real know-how.

It's not the same as user-generated content (UGC), which comes from customers. And it's not the same as old-school employee advocacy, where staff reshare a polished corporate post on LinkedIn.

EGC is native, short-form and personality-led. Think a barista's POV of the morning rush, a cabin crew member explaining a hidden plane feature, or a product developer walking you round the food hall.

It works for three simple reasons:

• People trust people. Audiences relate to a face and a voice far more than a logo.

• Employees are the experts. Nobody explains the product, the process or the behind-the-scenes better.

• It's endlessly renewable. A brand with 5,000 staff has 5,000 potential storytellers, filming moments no agency could stage.

Where brands differ is in where that content lives. Broadly, there are three models.

Model 1: Employees on the master brand account

Example: easyJet

The first model puts employees front and centre on the brand's main channels. The brand owns the account and the audience, but the faces on screen are its own people.

easyJet is a good example of how fast this can move. When a passenger's TikTok hack (using an onboard sick bag as a hands-free phone holder) racked up over 11.5 million views, easyJet didn't just repost it. Its own cabin crew filmed an instructional demo for the @easyjet TikTok, showing passengers how to do it, and slipping in a reminder to stay eyes-forward for the safety briefing and hand the bag back afterwards.

That's the master brand model at its best. A trend was already happening, and the crew were the most credible people to jump on it. It felt like a colleague in on the joke, not a brand trying to be relevant.

The same instinct shows up in bigger campaigns too. When easyJet was Official Airline Partner for Eurovision 2024, crew featured in the social content alongside the celebrity talent.

Why brands choose it:

• Full control over tone, approvals and brand safety

• Every view builds the main account's following

• Easy to plug into campaigns and reactive moments

The challenge: sourcing. The main account needs a steady stream of crew-shot clips, filmed, approved and posted while the moment is still live. Without a system for that, it's usually the same three keen employees doing all the work.

Model 2: Local store handles

Examples: Costa and Waitrose

The second model hands the camera to individual sites. Each store, branch or location runs its own TikTok or Instagram, made by the team who work there, for the community around them.

This is where EGC gets genuinely local. A store account can talk about the regulars, the new starter, the Friday rush or the local football result in a way the national brand never could.

Waitrose has leaned into this through its Partners. Alongside the main brand account, individual shops run their own accounts made by the people who work in them. In The Grocer's store of the week feature on Waitrose Lincoln, the branch described having a big team who are very much into using TikTok and Instagram to promote the store. That's the model working as intended: enthusiasm on the shop floor turned into local reach.

Costa has the perfect raw material for this model, with 2,800+ UK stores and baristas who are, in effect, on stage all day. Coffee shop TikTok is one of the most natural homes for EGC: the order skits, the latte art, the behind-the-counter POV. Store-level Costa accounts show how a national chain can feel like your local without losing the brand.

Why brands choose it:

• Hyper-local relevance that drives footfall to a specific site

• Spreads the creative load across hundreds of teams

• Gives store colleagues ownership and pride

The challenge: consistency and risk. With dozens or hundreds of handles, head office needs visibility of what's being posted, light-touch guidelines and an easy way to approve content. Otherwise you end up with brilliant accounts, dormant accounts and the occasional one that keeps the comms team up at night.

Model 3: Employees running their own handles

Examples: Dough Joe (Papa Johns) and Kathryn Turner (M&S)

The third model is the most personal. Employees build their own following, on their own account, talking about their own job. The brand benefits by association, and often amplifies them.

Dough Joe (@d0ughjoe) is a Papa Johns pizza maker who has built a following of around 3 million on TikTok by spinning, throwing and catching dough on the makeline, often lip-syncing while colleagues look on. Nickelback even reposted one of his videos.

What makes him compelling isn't just the skill. When a commenter told him he was wasting his talent at Papa Johns, he replied on camera that six years in the job had paid his way through college and bought his first car. That video passed 1.5 million views, and commenters started tagging Papa Johns asking for him to get a raise. No brand ad could buy that kind of sentiment.

Papa Johns clearly noticed. Joe and his twin brother, Jacob Bartoli ("Doughtoli"), appeared in a commercial on the official Papa Johns TikTok, and in 2025 Doughtoli helped launch the brand's "Meet the Makers" campaign, which puts real team members' craft at the heart of its marketing.

Kathryn Turner (@kathrynlturner) shows this model isn't only for frontline staff. She's Director of Product Development at M&S Food, a senior role with nothing to do with marketing. She launched her personal TikTok in mid-May 2026, sharing her hidden gems from the Foodhall, behind-the-scenes product stories, bakery favourites and farm visits. Within a month she had close to 50,000 followers.

Her edge is expertise. She's the person who actually made the product, telling you why it's good. That's a level of credibility no influencer partnership can replicate.

Why brands choose it:

• The most authentic and trusted format of the three

• Personal accounts reach audiences who would never follow a brand

• Breakout creators can be lifted into brand campaigns

The challenge: you can't manufacture a Dough Joe. This model relies on spotting and supporting natural talent, with clear guidance on what's okay to share, and a fair conversation about recognition and reward once someone's content is clearly driving value for the business.

Which model is right for you?

Most brands that do this well end up running more than one. Here's how they stack up:

• Master brand account (easyJet): the brand owns the audience. Best for reactive moments, campaigns and brand consistency. Watch out for sourcing enough content, fast enough.

• Local store handles (Waitrose, Costa): the brand owns the audience, site by site. Best for local footfall, community and store pride. Watch out for oversight across many accounts.

• Employees' own handles (Dough Joe, Kathryn Turner): the employee owns the audience. Best for maximum trust and reach. Watch out: it can't be forced, and it needs support and recognition.

Whatever the model, the brands getting results have three things in common:

1. They let employees sound like themselves. None of these examples feel scripted.

2. They move quickly. easyJet's crew video worked because it landed while the trend was hot.

3. They make it easy. Clear guidelines, a simple way to capture and approve content, and real recognition for the people creating it.

Getting started

Every business already has the talent. The hard part is finding it, giving it a little structure and getting the best content in front of an audience before the moment passes.

That's exactly what PLOY is built for. We help brands source, manage and approve employee-generated content at scale, whether it's destined for your master brand, your local handles or your people's own channels.

If you'd like to see how it could work for your team, get in touch.