Can you remember the last time you trusted an influencer's promotion? If your answer is ‘not recently,’ you’re not alone.
At the same time, this year, the share of brands spending over 40% of their marketing budgets on influencer marketing fell from 24.2% in 2024 to just 11.9% in 2025.
Why is it happening?
Rising costs, oversaturation, and declining ROI - these are the main reasons why brands are reducing their budgets for influencers. Also, consumers are becoming increasingly skeptical of influencer posts.
Thus, brands are discovering new ways of advertising and social media influencing. One of the 2025 key trends is Employee-Generated Content (EGC). EGC is created by a company’s own employees and shared across social media to represent the brand.
This content can take many forms, including day-in-the-life videos, behind-the-scenes looks, product tutorials, employee social media takeovers, or even personal stories from team members.
Unlike traditional influencer marketing, EGC offers what modern audiences value most: authenticity and transparency. Consumers are more likely to trust the “real people” behind a brand than polished influencer campaigns.
Think of it this way: Influencers sell the lifestyle, but employees show the reality - and in 2025, reality is what truly resonates most with audiences.
Employees inherently understand their brand’s values, voice, and culture.
SkySociety highlights that they are often more aligned and passionate, avoiding the disconnect that sometimes plagues influencer partnerships.
Beyond building trust, EGC is highly cost-effective, since employees are already part of the organization, and it naturally strengthens employee advocacy and employer branding.
EGC allows audiences to meet the people behind the products through behind-the-scenes tours, day-in-the-life stories, or personal perspectives. This transparency builds stronger trust and emotional connection.
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Starbucks actively leverages employee-generated content (EGC) by encouraging baristas to share behind-the-scenes moments, drink creations, and daily life on their personal Instagram accounts, which are often reposted on the official Starbucks Partners page and sometimes the main brand account.
This strategy not only humanizes the brand and boosts authenticity but also expands reach through employees’ personal networks, motivating staff while engaging customers with genuine, relatable content.
Walmart Empowered frontline associates to post on TikTok under #TeamWalmart. The content includes funny in-store skits, product demos, and day-in-the-life.
This helped Walmart appear more relatable to younger audiences; some employee creators went viral.
On Duolingo’s Instagram, EGC mostly comes from employees (often the social team) creating playful, meme-style content featuring the iconic green owl.
The brand highlights day-in-the-life posts, behind-the-scenes skits, and humorous videos made by staff, which blur the line between employee content and official brand voice—making Duolingo’s feed feel authentic, relatable, and highly shareable.
By mid-2025, marketing is witnessing a clear shift: Brands are balancing between trusted, cost-effective, employee-driven content and strategic external influencer campaigns. Employee creators are powering authenticity and trust from within, while influencers still play a key role, especially when targeting niche audiences or hero product launches.
