Should you hire a Creator as the face of your Brand?

All Case Studies  🔍 Let's Partner

Heyo it's Alex. We spent the majority of last week talking to readers. Holding workshops. Figuring out what you want to read. What will help you. What doesn't. What you hate. Love. Needless to say...we're cooking now. We're going to host a few more workshops in the upcoming weeks so be on the lookout.

But if you've ever considered hiring a creator to be the face of your brand, then lock in for the next 4 minutes because this is what you needed to read.

And as always, thank you to our partner Refunnel.

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Ryan Trahan 8x’d sales projections for his new candy company.

Thanks to viral UGC, Joyride is completely sold out.

And this is just the beginning…. Ryan is giving away a year's supply of candy and a personal surprise every month to whoever gets the most views on a short-form piece of content.

Replicating this campaign is a no-brainer. Here’s how:

• Set a valuable/viral/creative incentive

• Create and share promotional content across channels

• Use Refunnel for campaign management

  • Save UGC to one location

  • Automatically download and categorize

  • Instantly acquire usage rights

• Share winners and prize unboxing videos to continue driving interest

Here’s a 15-day Refunnel free trial to kickstart your new UGC campaign.

You know you need a content strategy.

But who should be the face?

• Content creator; or

• Founder

Here’s a quick breakdown of brands that went in either direction.

Front Line Founders

As a Founder, you have an unfair advantage in telling a story that only you can tell.

And that’s how you should think about your content strategy.

Why did you create the brand? Share your obsession.

The founder of Bare Performance Nutrition, Nick Bare, is the face of his brand.

His primary content strategy is showcasing the day-to-day process and behind-the-scenes of his training, passion for nutrition, and why he created the brand.

And he just so happens to fuel his performance with BPN products.

Build Out Loud

Mid-Day Squares is a chocolate brand that reached $36 million in revenue in 5 years. Their Founding Team creates content like a reality show.

They bring you into the brutally unfiltered moments of building a business.

From legal battles to product launch failures and warehouse break-ins, the 3 founders take turns (paired with a videographer) to show the milestones and mishaps of their business on social media.

Only 5-10% of their content is product-focused.

But not every founder wants to be in front of a camera.

There are two ways you can have a creator-led brand.

#1 Creator as the Face of the Platform:

When Olipop hired an agency to handle their TikTok account, they felt the brand DNA got lost.

So they found an up and coming creator named Sarah Crane who took over the Olipop TikTok account.

She became the face of the TikTok and grew to nearly ~325k followers.

#2 Creator as the Face of the Brand

A hot-off-the-press example is Ryan Trahan, the now Chief Creative Officer of the better-for-you candy startup JOYRIDE.

JOYRIDE was founded in 2022, but they re-launched in 2024 with Ryan at the center.

In one week, they sold 8x sales projections and completely sold out of stock.

Creators are masters at storytelling. Their 5-minute “re-launch” video is higher quality than most Super Bowl commercials.

With Ryan Trahan's 15M YouTube subs, they got their story and product out to more people than even UGC could achieve.

But here’s the potential rub.

It’s hard to maintain a relationship with a creator who knows how to grow an audience.

Which is why you have to think about what will sustain a long-term relationship.

Ryan Trahan is an investor in JOYRIDE and contributes to their product development.

Marques Brownlee’s partnership with Ridge spans deeper than tech influencer. He is the brands Chief Creative Partner and helps with R&D as a board member.

Athletic Greens is a long-term sponsor of Tim Ferriss & Andrew Huberman’s podcasts. But Tim Ferris is also an early investor and Huberman is a medical advisor.

So whether you go the Founder or hired-creator route, you need two things:

1. Good storytelling

2. Storytellers that are in it for the long haul.

If you want help with your organic content strategy, drop me a line here.

🕳 Rabbit Hole Reads and Resources

• Personal Board of Directors: Sidebar is an exclusive program to grow your career or business through the power of peers. (LINK)

• Genius or PR faux pas? Oatly created a page to show all the negative headlines about the brand. (LINK)

• Agency x Talent Matrix: Rabah Rahil's hiring framework for a fast-growing startup. (LINK)

• Behind-the-scenes: Inside MKBHD's Eye-Opening Ridge Deal (The Colin and Samir Show). (LINK)

• Brand collab ideas: Olive & June marry BookTok and NailTok trend with its new partnership with author Colleen Hoover. (LINK)

• $1M Books: Pat Walls shares the 13 key books that helped him build a $1M business - different books in different stages. (LINK)