How EGC turned Staples into the internet's latest obsession
đ° NoGood News Vol. 113 | More on the Staples Queen, AI marketing trends, and how to build a UGC strategy
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Here's a quick TL;DR of what's below:
The Staples Baddie saves Staples:Â One post from a Staples employee and suddenly, people are adding Staples to their Target runs. Creator @Oblivion's passion for creating content about Staples is a perfect example of EGC. However, we keep seeing one common comment: add her to the social team at Staples. But is that the right move?
AI marketing trends in 2026: As AI startups are pressured to keep up with the pace of innovation and follow behind leading companies like Claude and ChatGPT, we developed a list of AI trends for 2026 that weâre keeping our eyes on to help you stay ahead of the race.
How to build a UGC strategy: Despite all the praise the Staples Baddie receives from marketers for her EGC (ourselves included), itâs important to recognize the importance of UGC as well. Both strategies play a role for brands, but in their own respective ways. And weâre providing you with the tools on how to build one.
Ready? Let's get into it.Â
đ´ The Staples Baddie saves Staples
Why this EGC strategy works for Staples
Staples is currently trending thanks to @Oblivion, the self-proclaimed âStaples Queenâ whoâs going viral for simply working at Staples.
But instead of posting typical âday in my lifeâ style videos, her TikToks pull back the curtain on what services Staples offers.
Staples built its reputation on being the go-to place for office supplies like printer paper, fax machines, and toner cartridges.
Then the âStaples Queenâ came in and revived a brand people had almost forgotten. Her content wasnât scripted or brand-approved in any way, and thatâs what made her content unique.
EGC creators have something UGC creators donât: insider knowledge. A UGC creator can rave about a brandâs product, but an EGC creator knows every corner of a brand, and thatâs a POV that canât be faked.
Now, the internet wants Staples to officially hire the Staples Queen. But is that the right move?
Staples has since sent her a personalized âStaples Queenâ PR package and regularly engages with her content. And while the internet is rooting for a full collaboration, how Staples responds could either amplify or dismantle what she built.
@Oblivionâs case is unique because her passion for Staples drove her to post about their services, inspiring others to explore them. The moment she loses that creative autonomy, it no longer feels like genuine employee advocacy.
Audiences will feel that shift, the same way they watch micro-influencers get big and slowly stop caring. The smartest move Staples can make is to lean into whatâs already working: her EGC content.
Whether that looks like a collaboration, commission, or even tapping her as an in-house creator, the creative freedom that got her here has to stay intact.
How do you think Staples should respond to the Staples Queen?
đ¤ AI marketing trends in 2026
A list of AI trends weâre keeping an eye on
Paid advertising hits LLMs: OpenAI announced plans to test ads in the U.S. for users on its Free and ChatGPT Go tiers. After that. Anthropic ran Super Bowl ads poking fun at the idea of advertising inside AI assistants.
AI agents become commonplace: They are already reshaping how commerce, marketing, and everyday tasks work. The clearest proof of how quickly this is happening is OpenClaw, an open-source AI agent that launched on GitHub and can autonomously schedule calendar events, read and send emails, all through the messaging apps people already use.
AEO is far from old news: AEO has been around for a few years now, but itâs only going to get more difficult to gain visibility in 2026, because now that people are finally catching on to the fact that itâs a non-negotiable, everyone will be doing it. This requires that both newbies and AEO veterans continue to innovate and find new optimization approaches.
Hyper-personalization meets a privacy reckoning: With AI, personalization has evolved into hyper-personalization: real-time, behavior- and intent-driven experiences tailored to individual users across every touchpoint. However, there are new rules around how you deliver that personalization because the regulatory landscape has reached an inflection point.
Flight to authenticity: One of the biggest mistakes that marketers make is underestimating their audience, thinking, âsurely this reader wonât be able to tell this article was written by ChatGPT.â Brands should de-slop their marketing in 2026, or face the wrath of search engines, social platforms, and users alike.
đ¸ How to build a UGC strategy
A complete guide to UGC for 2026
Set your objectives: When youâre first building a UGC program, itâs best to start small and scale up when you feel confident in your approach. The first step is to set clear objectives on a few platforms. Think about where your audience naturally gathers, and go with your gut!
Identify your sources: Select the right creator partners. Important factors to keep in mind include the creatorâs natural style, tone of voice, and content type. Remember, we choose UGC to authentically connect with new and core audiences; this can only be done by trusting our creators to take the reins and lead concept development.
Curate & leverage content: As you begin briefing creators, ensure you are clear about your expectations, vision, deliverables, and timeline. Itâs in your best interest to be very clear on where this content will live on your channels.
Stay engaged: Actively monitor your channels and comment sections to observe how your community responds to creators. Pay attention to platform-specific trends, how your content is received, and the cultural context to formulate a comprehensive understanding of your strategy.
Evaluate & improve: To accurately track your UGC marketing strategy's performance, measure key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with your goals. Once youâve outlined overall performance and identified which UGC was at the top and bottom, you can begin to strategize ways to improve content for the next round.
đď¸ Q&A with an expert
A bi-weekly interview series with the best in the game
Q: How can brands motivate employees to create content without compromising on the authenticity that makes EGC work?
A: The brands that have a strong EGC performance or even strategy arenât running internal content mandates. They build an environment first where employees actually want to publicly celebrate working there, hype up the organization, and develop their expertise. That looks like recognizing creators publicly, giving them creative latitude over format and tone, and treating their personal brand growth as a company asset rather than a liability. The moment EGC becomes a content quota, it reads like branded content wearing a costume, so avoid this at all costs. Even a âsuggestedâ brief carries weight. The moment an employee has a framework in hand, theyâre working from someone elseâs idea, and audiences can feel it. The conceptual territory must start and end with the employee. The brandâs job is to create the conditions, not the content. For first-time creators especially, the format that seems to be breaking through is quite simple: short, personality-forward video.
Retail and lifestyle brand employees are making quick clips about rare customer perks or comedically fielding FAQs about products. Think the Staples employee turning routine customer service moments into genuinely funny content. On the other end of the spectrum, employees at major tech companies like Google and Amazon are filming long-hour days or unexpectedly cool day-in-the-life vlogs that pull back the curtain on what different career paths actually look like in practice. Not the polished version from a recruiting page, but the real one. Both work for the same reason: the employee owns the angle entirely. The brand just happens to be the backdrop.
Q: Does EGC create the kind of relationship between brand and audience that UGC does?
A: UGC and EGC both borrow credibility from real people rather than the brand itself, but they build different kinds of trust. UGC is peer validation: a customer saying, âI chose this, and hereâs why.â EGC is insider access: an employee saying, âI live this, and hereâs what itâs really like.â One signals social proof, the other signals transparency. The audience relationship is different because the implied contract is different... a customerâs endorsement is optional, which makes it feel earned. An employeeâs voice carries that same authenticity only when it doesnât feel scripted. Where UGC has a natural edge is community.
When customers create around a brand, they generate a feedback loop that compounds, think Strava or Glossier, where the audience essentially becomes the content ecosystem. EGC doesnât replicate that network effect in the same way, but it builds something UGC canât: organizational credibility. The trust that comes from inside an institution hits differently than the trust that comes from a customer review. Which is exactly why the strongest content strategies donât choose between them. EGC, UGC, and branded content arenât competing priorities; they should be viewed as complementary signals that reinforce each other. One without the other leaves gaps in the story a brand is trying to tell.
âď¸ We wish we wrote this
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