Creator-led brand communities

Slapping “community-led” into your brand positioning doesn’t magically make it true. Because if what you’re calling a “community” is really just: - A one-way email blast - A WhatsApp group with no interaction - A silent audience politely lurking because they don’t know what they’re meant to say… Then what you’ve got is an audience. There’s nothing wrong with having an audience, by the way. But don’t confuse people watching with people connecting. Real community-led brands do things differently: - They don’t just speak at their audience, they co-create with them - They build rituals and reasons for people to engage beyond product updates - They listen, tweak, involve - not just broadcast It’s not always loud and ain’t always sexy. But it’s consistent, intentional and centred around actual people - not just a content strategy or GTM feature. Look at Strava. They didn’t just build a fitness app, they built a behaviour loop. You show up because others do too. You cheer each other on. That, my friends, is community. If your people aren’t engaging, it’s not always an awareness issue. Sometimes, they’re just not being given anything to belong to. And calling it “community” without the trust, participation or two-way value exchange is simply just marketing. Again, that’s okay. But remember: you’re not building a community if no one’s talking to each other. P.S. We now have over 500+ members in our Nexus Femtech community. All built on a SHARED purpose. 🤝

Big brands have a lot to learn about building community from this small East London shop. If you follow me you know I’m obsessed with pinpointing the places, moments and margins where culture appears, often outside the mainstream. Waste! is an independent store in Hackney specialising in handmade, self-published and DIY artist products that also serves as a meetup for makers and fans of the niche and novel. Big brands can spend millions chasing community. Yet genuine bonds form in the unlikeliest corners. By giving people a place to belong and a stake in the story, you can create evangelists rather than consumers. Here’s some of the playbook: → Look beyond the obvious Which subculture have you never visited? Find the one that aligns with your brand values and surprise them with an IRL activation made just for them. → Host micro-experiences Think smaller than a giant pop-up. Small scale means deeper conversations, stronger friendships and stories that spread far beyond the room. → Invite people behind the scenes Jack and Roydon modelled the shop on their childhood bedrooms. Everything feels handpicked and personal. → Celebrate genuine connections At Waste! customers aren’t just buying things. They swap ideas, share projects and spark new collaborations. Create spaces online or offline where people can connect, chill and feel like insiders. → Reinvest in your community Every penny from sales goes back into buying more stock from friends and local artists. That reinvestment shows you care about real people not just profit margins. → Turn every interaction into a collectible moment Limited-edition patches, secret passwords, custom playlists or tiny zines tie physical mementos to emotional experiences. Superfans will wear, share and trade these badges of honour. → Measure passion not just reach Track repeat attendees, social shout-outs from community insiders and user-generated content. A hundred truly engaged superfans create more long-term value than ten thousand casual followers. Sometimes the best way to build real community is the scrappy, DIY, heartfelt route ✌️💚

Your companies bureaucracy is limiting your creator communities performance and killing your bottom line. Most DTC brands only capture 1/3 of the value by only focusing on affiliate revenue. But creator communities drive full funnel performance, support brand goals, and performance goals. When you have 300+ pieces of content being posted monthly from your community: - New TOF channel that is getting your brand in front of new audiences at $2-$5 CPM - 50+ UGC/whitelisting ads you can test to scale paid media - Incremental revenue from affiliates - Halo effect, you'll see a 15% bump in amazon revenue + 70% more revenue thats captured on DTC outside of your last click attribution window. - Improved peak moments/ campaigns by having an army of creators posting about your biggest promos and marketing moments. Is your organizational structure killing your creator ROI? Creator initiatives often underperform when trapped in silos. Affiliate teams focus solely on revenue, brand teams on creative/awareness, and growth teams on conversion. This fragmented approach limits the true potential of creator partnerships. The solution? Reposition creator communities as a cross-functional asset that delivers value across multiple marketing objectives and departments. Our Process: 1. Map community benefits to key stakeholder objectives. Get everyone in a room and educate the team on the cross-functional value they are sitting on. Align creator activities with goals for brand, growth, and performance teams. 2. Establish clear measurement benchmarks. Do deep discovery on what metrics matter most to each team. Ex: New customer revenue, brand lift, CPM, impressions/engagement, and Meta CAC/ROAS. 3. Create cross-functional workflows Develop systems to leverage creator content across channels, from social media, and paid ads. This maximizes the impact of each piece of content. This can be as simple as a spreadsheet that's shared with media buying teams with links to organic creative that can be run as an ad. 4. Report on holistic ROI and share it with all teams. Make each department the hero by providing them a report on performance that supports their goals. By breaking down silos and repositioning creator communities as a value add for the entire business, brands can unlock significantly higher ROI from their partnerships. It's time to stop limiting creators to a single department and start leveraging their full potential across your organization.

I was watching a Telfar ad and had this thought: it’s enviable how Telfar has exploded into a cultural phenomenon without ever taking outside capital. The brand, built by Telfar Clemens, is proof that you can win big by creating things your community genuinely loves. Telfar's iconic Shopping Bag—dubbed the "Bushwick Birkin"—didn’t become a sensation because it was dripping in luxury marketing. Instead, it sold out, time and time again, because it was accessible, high-quality, and most importantly, designed with the people in mind. There’s a palpable authenticity in how Telfar connects with its community. By sticking to its values and empowering its supporters, the brand created a cultural moment where fashion felt inclusive, not elitist. Telfar is worn from Solange to the subway babyyyy! Peggy Gou is another example of someone who leans into her community—and it's working every time. Her merch line, Peggy Goods, has become a staple for her fanbase, selling out consistently and growing a dedicated following of over 127k on Instagram. What makes Peggy's approach special is how she actively involves her fans in the creative process. Through design competitions, she taps into the talents of her community, letting her fans shape the very merch they’re obsessed with. Not only do the winners earn a design fee, but they’re also credited for their work, creating a powerful sense of ownership and pride within her fanbase. Both Telfar and Peggy Gou show that community-driven brands are the future of fashion and luxury. The days of top-down, exclusive-only approaches are being replaced by brands that make people feel seen, valued, and included. It's not just about selling products—it's about building movements where everyone feels like they have a stake. These brands don't just sell out; they sell in—into the hearts of their communities. And that, perhaps, is the real luxury. #CommunityMarketing #SocialMedia #BrandBuilding

Most communities look the same from the outside. But internally, they’re a mix of very different personas. After managing thousands of creators at scale, I realised there are three groups you’ll always find in any community. Here’s a quick guide on how I learnt to identify who is who and how that changed the game for me! 📌 The Champions You recognise them instantly. They’re the ones posting consistently, advocating for your product, replying to your emails before you’ve even hit send, and saying “this program genuinely changed my life” without being asked. How I activate them: • Give them visibility (roundtables, speaker slots, exclusive features) • Collect their wins and stories regularly (a simple monthly cadence works beautifully) • Bring them into early tests or pilots so they feel like co-builders Whenever the brand or social team needed speakers, I never had to think. I already knew who would represent the platform brilliantly. Activating champions almost always led to higher-quality advocacy. I also built a VOM system, kept a monthly BCC list, and stayed intentionally close to them so I never lost momentum with this group. 📌 The Questioners This group sees some value but isn’t fully convinced yet. They want context. They show up to sessions, ask thoughtful questions, and look for that one “aha” moment. How I activate them: • Share deeper product context (case studies, capability walkthroughs, feature updates) • Track their engagement patterns so you can understand where they’re leaning • Host 1:1s or small-group sessions when needed to move them from “I’m not sure” to “count me in” Along with dashboards, I’d turn on post notifications to stay close to their on-platform activity and understand how they were progressing in real time. When done well, this cohort turns into champions fast. 📌 The Enthusiasts I like to call them curious explorers. They don’t know the product well yet but they’re excited enough to peek in. Almost like landing in a new city and signing up for a guided tour! How I activate them: • Run short onboarding sprints • Mix formats (scaled sessions, value-driven newsletters, gamified challenges) • Give them small wins that create mini “aha!” moments Once I saw consistent session attendance or challenge participation, I knew they were ready for deeper programming. This group moves KPIs the fastest when nudged with intention. I’m speaking from a platform lens, but you can absolutely tweak this for product or service communities too. The “how” becomes much easier the moment you figure out the “who.” What do you think? Would love to hear your community-building tips in the comments! 🙌 Image Credits: https://lnkd.in/dxCWC7GV #communitybuilding #creatorcommunities #programmanagement

India’s creator-to-founder wave is reshaping its startup landscape. The creator economy here already influences $350B+ in consumer spending, and influencer-led commerce is projected to hit ₹3,375 Cr by 2026. But beyond the numbers, the real power lies in what creators bring to the table: trust, community, and real-time market insights. Unlike traditional founders who chase venture capital first, creators raise trust first. That becomes their "seed capital" to launch businesses. Kusha Kapila didn’t just sell shapewear—she sold confidence born from conversations with her audience. Bhuvan Bam built streetwear his fans would wear even without his logo. Preeti Sarkar turned 60,000+ YouTube comments into free R&D for her brand. The common thread across all of them? Authenticity turned into strategy. This isn’t about slapping names on merchandise. It’s about solving problems your community actually voices. The next wave of Indian startups won’t come from IIT dorms alone. They’ll come from Instagram feeds, YouTube channels, and regional creator ecosystems. The future founder is part creator, part strategist, part entrepreneur and they’re already here.

2017: Emma Chamberlain posts her first Youtube Video. 2019: She launches Chamberlain Coffee. 2023: Forbes estimates the coffee company to have brought in $20 million in revenue. 2024: Emma assumes the role of co-CEO at Chamberlain Coffee, steering the brand's strategic direction. January 30th 2025: The first Chamberlain Coffee café opens its doors in LA, marking the brand's entry into physical retail. From my point of view, two things stand out: 1️⃣ Emma’s trajectory is the blueprint for the next era of creator-led businesses. She didn’t stop at influence, she quickly found the right people to build her infrastructure. This isn’t just a brand extension; it’s a long-term play to own the entire experience. Creators who think beyond digital will define the next generation of legacy brands. 2️⃣ Retail isn’t dying; it’s evolving. It was once about transactions - now, it’s about destination. The best brands don’t just sell products, they engineer experiences. They create places where people don’t just shop, but connect, share, and belong. This shift matters because the next evolution of commerce isn’t just about what we consume, but where we experience it. Physical spaces give brands depth, presence, and permanence, things digital alone can’t provide. Chamberlain Coffee’s café is more than a storefront. It’s a signal of where creator IP is heading: from URL to IRL, from content to community, from hype to heritage. What other creator brands do you think will take this leap next? 👀

Community-led growth is emerging as perhaps the most powerful, flexible and accessible growth lever right now. The CLG flywheel helps you turn customers into champions, and champions into growth. My next guest, mallory contois (Mercury, Cameo, Pinterest) harnessed this flywheel to turn a passion project -- a community called The Old Girls Club -- into a $300k ARR side hustle with a $0 CAC. Here's how she did it & how you can, too. Don't miss the full story in today's Growth Unhinged newsletter: https://lnkd.in/e3zhVdDm 1️⃣ Hone your unique POV Your community needs to be interesting in format, function or fashion. Nobody needs yet another Slack or WhatsApp group that they immediately mute. At The Old Girls Club, Mallory's insight was that as you become more senior, you have fewer peers, and even fewer of those peers are women. That's the problem she set out to address. 2️⃣ Attract early champions Don't focus on scale, focus on alignment. You need your first believers. There are future collaborators and super users. At The Old Girls Club, Mallory started with ~75 women who'd expressed interest in the space. This quickly ballooned to ~1,000 members in 60 days. The tactics: Private beta invites, 1:1 outreach, thought leader meetups, landing pages & waitlists 3️⃣ Enable contribution Once you've built trust and rapport, open the door to participation. Invite early champions to co-create the product, the culture and the behaviors. Mallory curated her Slack space with 6 specific threads, all with a purpose. The most unconventional: yell-in-caps-here (😂). This was a last minute follow-her-gut add, but would turn out to become one of OGC’s pillars of success. The tactics: Creator tools, content prompts & templates, feature voting, focus groups 4️⃣ Repeat to create the new wave The visible and in-public momentum pulls in the next wave of superusers. Each cycle gets easier as your champion base grows & self-sustains. Mallory was nervous about being the only one with eyes on potential joiners, so she spun up member-referrals, adding a public element and additional accountability to referrals that were made. The tactics: Product-led shareables, social loops, invite & onboarding rituals, referral processes & programs 5️⃣ Reward & amplify Shine a light on those who contribute, adopt, advocate and amplify. Social recognition fuels retention, loyalty, sharing and viral growth. At The Old Girls Club, Mallory uses Memberful for subscription management, Disco for new member onboarding, MeetWaves to archive chats, Trova to create rich member profiles, and Curated Connections to help members match with others. The tactics: Community badges or titles, leaderboards & streaks, shoutouts and rewards & loyalty programs --- Hope y'all enjoy this framework (& story) as much as I did 🙏

I’ve been watching brands like GRÜNS and Duolingo absolutely crush it, not just in sales, but in building real communities that genuinely love them. The most interesting part? They’re doing it without relying on the “old playbook” of huge ad buys and perfectly polished campaigns. Instead, they’ve built their success on authenticity, relatability, and community. Creator-first marketing They’ve mastered the power of micro-influencers. Instead of putting all their budget into one big celebrity endorsement, they work with hundreds of smaller creators who speak directly to niche audiences. These aren’t scripted ads, but rather authentic moments and personal recommendations. Their creators actually use and love the products, and as a result their audiences trust them. Community-first branding Fans don’t just buy the product; they feel like they’re part of something bigger. From reposting user-generated content to running rewards programs that incentivize sharing, every touchpoint is about building belonging. It’s the difference between a customer base and a community. Culture-led product design They make products that look and feel like they’re meant to be shared. Think pastel energy drink cans that pop in a selfie, or candy-like gummy vitamins that break the mold of what “wellness” products usually look like. Every design choice is intentional and it turns customers into free brand ambassadors. TikTok-native campaigns These brands don’t try to force traditional ads into TikTok. They create short, snackable videos that match the tone of the platform, relatable, quick, and unpolished in the best way possible. That’s why their content gets watched, shared, and remembered. The biggest lesson for me? You don’t have to chase perfection to win. The real power comes from knowing your audience, speaking their language, and giving them the tools and reasons to tell your story for you. In a world of massive ad budgets, authenticity and cultural relevance are still the most powerful currencies. #BrookeMonk #TikTok #BrandMarketing #CreatorEconomy

Sway House, Team 10, Hype House… Dead. But their DNA? Everywhere. Anytime you gather 5–10 Gen Zers in a room, odds are 2+ of them are already creators. That’s not a marketing “trend.” That’s a permanent shift. That’s why I loved Sara Wilson’s smart breakdown of how Poppi nailed community-led growth — not by chasing virality, but by embedding early and intentionally into a real-world community (in this case: a UT sorority during rush). Her playbook: 🔻 Nail the timing 🔻 Stick around 🔻 Skip fleeting trends But here’s the bigger reveal: 🔻 It’s not just sororities. 🔻 It’s not just college. 🔻 It’s not even just “influencers.” The new strategy? Find the real-life nodes where people already gather — basketball courts, dorm rooms, D&D tables, job sites, fan Discords. And when you do, guess what? You’re already in a "creator house". You don’t need to “build one.” You just need to discover and respect the ones that already exist. Following memes is easy. Embedding in communities is hard. But the brands that get it? Poppi for one. And now PepsiCo. They’re playing a different game. 👇 What's the strangest community where you've seen a brand pop up. Was it successful? Or cringe? Read the full breakdown in this week’s “Inside the Creator Economy” newsletter, along with more details on ChatGPT's Ghibli takeover, the creator marketing plan disguised as a "fund", shorts on steroids, and big media's Casablanca moment. Along with 23 other stories you and me need to know about now. And thanks to Whalar Group for sponsoring this week's newsletter! #creatorecononomy #cannes #shorts