Digital marketing: What is ECG and which brands are getting it right?

So what is electronic customer engagement? Katrina Bell explores the viral trend that can harness your in-house creator talent and reveals the brands who are setting the standard.

Unless you live under a rock, you will no doubt have witnessed the frankly massive wave of employee generated content gaining significant traction.

This phenomenon goes far beyond the cosy 'How To' videos you may have dabbled with in the past. It has now morphed into a highly effective method of building trust and grabbing attention online.

Think beyond TikTok: EGC has found a home on Insta, YouTube and LinkedIn. It doesn’t even just have to be video – employees can have a role in creating stories and blogs for text-based social apps like Facebook and Threads.

At its core is the use of your team’s talents and knowledge to establish an identity and connection with viewers that is not at its heart transactional. The big message is that B2B can absolutely be fun, it can absolutely go viral and it is still always human.

Successful strategies have seen brands establish skills, formats and protocols they can use again and again. They have also grasped with both hands the idea that some social media is not about a route to sale, but a brand awareness that sets goodwill and visibility in a soft concrete base to build on. And there have been some surprising viral outbreaks.

The most obvious is Marks & Spencer. Its upward trajectory began when consumers fixated on its Christmas ‘picky bits’ which began to be spoken of as an edit. And thus a cheeky trend that was super easy to join in on, was born. It wasn’t that deep and it was very accessible. Eat, film and repeat.  

The big moment came in the form of M&S director of product development food division Kathryn Turner. Beginning in May 2026, she brings unflappable knowledge, enthusiasm and authenticity. The products she showcases also bring with them a pre-loaded social meda notoriety. Think Dubai chocolate or hot honey. It’s no coincidence that the content both creates and copies trends.

Her videos are not showy, there are no high-end production values or starry special guests. With 3.3million likes and nearly 300k followers, she has now overtaken the main M&S account.

But M&S is not the only brand that has nailed EGC – here are 3 more to help inspire your first campaign.

1 - Currys (@currys) works because users are seeing the same ‘characters’ who are living and breathing the products. With consumers tiring of overpaid, entitled influences, average Joes with average jobs are taking over the space. It has been reported that Currys’ TikTok gives a better ROI than its paid advertising campaigns.

2 - Cafe brand Joe and The Juice (@joeandthejuice) loves a ‘Day in the Life of’. Crucially it doesn’t rely on just one employee – there is a rotating cast just like in a sitcom. As their approachable ambassadors connect with the consumer, they also do a good job in providing a positive recruitment outlook.

3 - Internet services company GoDaddy (@Godaddy) decided early on to have 2 TikTok personalities – one is corporate and knowledge-focused. The other is perky POVs, untethered to traditional norms of marketing, meaning they can happily jump on trends when the mood is right.