A reference catalogue of every play in active use as of 2025–2026 — the way Sup reads them in audit-report data, and the way agencies actually deliver them. Sup Audit Reports hyperlink to this guide when they name a strategy, so you can land directly on the play under discussion and read what it is, when to use it, and what it costs.
Every strategy has a different fit depending on the business model under it. Where a play lands for a DTC e-commerce brand is rarely where it lands for a coffee group or a B2B SaaS — so each strategy entry walks through how it's implemented and what it gets you for each of these five types.
Direct-to-consumer brands selling physical product online (beauty, skincare, apparel, supplements, home, accessories, food & bev with online distribution). Single funnel from social to checkout. Performance-marketing-driven. Typical AOV £30–£200.
Physical-location food and beverage businesses: cafés, bakeries, restaurants, restaurant groups, bars, hotels, gyms, salons. Foot-traffic-driven. Geo-specific. Revenue tied to location visits, not online sales.
Software, platforms, agencies, B2B tools. Considered-purchase, often multi-stakeholder, long sales cycle. KPI is qualified leads, trials, demos, and enterprise pipeline more than direct sales.
Mobile-first products downloaded from the App Store / Play Store (AI assistants, dating, finance, gaming, social, productivity, health). KPI is installs, activation, and retention. Often venture-funded with volume-of-content as a primary growth strategy.
Mass-distributed packaged goods sold through retail (grocery, drug, big-box, convenience). Multiple channels (DTC + retail + wholesale). Velocity at shelf and category leadership matter as much as DTC sales.
Tap into any strategy. Strategies 23–25 are marked recognise, don't run — they're documented so Sup audit reports can identify when a competitor is using them, not as plays Sup recommends.
How modern brands flood paid social with creator-native video.
The depth-of-commitment ladder — gifting to ambassador.
Faces from inside the company — founders and staff.
Pay-on-outcome and shoppable plays.
Host-read and read-it-slowly formats.
Trips, events, geography, and the comment-section underground.
The healthiest signal in the data — plus three plays you should be able to spot.
A creator is paid a flat fee to produce short vertical video in a personal, hand-held, authentic style; the brand owns the raw files and runs them as paid ads. The creator does not post the content on their own channel.
Brand briefs a single concept (problem-solution, unboxing, day-in-the-life, testimonial, demo). The creator films and edits 15–60 seconds of vertical video, often filmed on a phone with natural light, and delivers raw cuts plus a finished edit. The brand then uploads the content as a paid ad on Meta, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Pinterest. Whitelisting from the creator's own handle is sometimes layered on, but the core deliverable is licensed content for the brand to use in performance media.
Polished studio-shot brand content has been underperforming hand-held creator-style content on Meta and TikTok by a wide margin since roughly 2022. Performance teams need 20–80 fresh ad variants per month to keep CPM and CPA stable. Use when the brand is actively running paid social and wants to scale creative output without standing up an in-house studio — or when targeting a new audience the brand does not yet have native voice for.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | 10–30 UGC creators on rolling contracts, each producing 2–4 videos per month across hooks, formats, and demographics. Plug outputs directly into Meta and TikTok creative testing. | 2–4× more ad variants per dollar than studio production; lower CPA on cold traffic by 20–40% versus polished brand content. |
| Hospitality | Local UGC creators film tasting / atmosphere / pop-in content at the venue. Brand runs the assets in radius-targeted Meta ads within 10–20km of each location. | Cheap, perpetual local ad-creative supply tied to real venues; strong creative for footfall-driving campaigns where studio shots feel inauthentic. |
| SaaS / B2B | B2B creators (operators, marketers, finance pros) film talking-head problem-solution explainers and product demos. Brand runs as LinkedIn paid, Meta paid, YouTube pre-roll. | Bypasses the brand-voice trust gap on LinkedIn / Meta paid for B2B; pulls demo signups at lower CPL than logo-led ad creative. |
| Apps | Creators in the target demographic record themselves discovering / using / reacting to the app. Brand runs as TikTok Spark or non-Spark, Meta Reels, YouTube Shorts paid. | Drops install CPI sharply versus brand-shot ads; supplies endless creative for the volume-testing cadence apps need. |
| CPG | Recipe / occasion / shelf-life UGC. Brand runs in geo-targeted Meta paid around retail availability. | Drives retailer co-marketing budget and category-leadership optics; assets double as retail e-comm PDP content. |
UGC for ads does not generate organic views. The metric is paid-ad performance: thumb-stop rate, hold rate, click-through rate.
Direct: lower CPA, lower CPI, lower CPL on paid social. Indirect: faster creative testing velocity, which compounds to better blended ROAS across the account.
£100–£500 per video for entry-level UGC creators; £500–£1,500 for top-tier UGC creators or B2B operators. Whitelisting rights add +20–30% per month. Perpetual rights add 2–3× base fee. Brands at scale spend £5k–£40k per month on UGC ad supply.
High volume of unique active ad creatives in the Meta Ad Library classified as UGC or creator-led at low production complexity. Each creative used in only one or a few ads (the brand is feeding many distinct UGC clips into the ads system rather than reusing one polished asset). No matching organic post on the brand's own feed — the content lives in paid only.
Threshold A competitor with 20+ active creatives, ≥50% UGC-classified, and most creatives running under 30 days is running a heavy UGC-for-paid-ads programme.
UGC-for-ads is invisible on tagged-influencer tables — the creators do not post the content. If a competitor appears 'quiet' on tagged-influencer counts but loud on ads, this is almost certainly the strategy. Do not confuse with Strategy 02 (UGC for organic social), which leaves a different fingerprint.
A creator is paid to produce vertical video which the brand posts to its own organic feed (Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts) rather than running as paid media or having the creator post it on their channel.
Brand contracts UGC creators to deliver a flow of 4–30 videos per month tagged to the brand's content calendar. The brand publishes these videos on @brandhandle, sometimes crediting the creator as Collaborator, often not. Content is meant to feel native to short-form social — talking heads, pack-shots, behind-the-scenes — and is treated as the brand's organic content engine.
Brand-shot studio content underperforms native UGC-style content on TikTok and Reels by 3–10× on average view counts. Internal teams cannot produce the 30+ posts per month TikTok's algorithm now rewards. Use when the brand needs to ramp organic post velocity, refresh feed aesthetic to feel less corporate, or test creative directions before committing to paid.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | 3–5 UGC creators delivering 3–6 videos each per month to the brand's feed. Mix of product demos, lifestyle B-roll, trend participations. | Brand feed shifts from 1k-view brand posts to 10k–200k view creator-style posts; raises the ceiling on organic discovery and the brand's TikTok / IG algorithmic standing. |
| Hospitality | Local UGC creator hired on a part-time basis to film at venue 1–2 days per week. Brand publishes captured content on its own TikTok / IG. | Daily content velocity on a tight budget; foot-traffic-driving Reels and TikToks without staff distraction. |
| SaaS / B2B | Operator-creator records weekly build-in-public or how-I-use-the-tool videos posted on the brand's LinkedIn and X. Often evolves into a dedicated channel (see Strategy 04). | Brand channel becomes a trusted operator voice rather than a product feed; lifts demo-request rate from organic. |
| Apps | Creator-style UGC feeding the brand's own TikTok with 3–5 posts a day, mostly product-in-use clips, reactions, hooks. | Brand handle competes for FYP placement with the volume the algorithm rewards; cheaper than paid for early-stage installs. |
| CPG | Recipe / usage / occasion creator videos posted to brand channels; ties into retail moments (holidays, new-store launches). | Channels grow without category-leader budget; retailer relationships benefit from visible velocity on social. |
Direct: higher average views, plays, and engagement on the brand's own posts. Indirect: improved algorithmic ranking on FYP, lifting all subsequent content.
Indirect: organic discovery → followers → website / app visits. Hard to attribute directly. Best measured on aided brand awareness lift, branded search lift, and unattributed-organic revenue trends.
£100–£400 per video; £2k–£8k per month for a 3–5-creator engine producing 20–40 videos. Often cheaper than hiring one in-house social producer.
The brand's own feed is dense with UGC-styled Reels and TikToks despite the brand having no obvious in-house production team. Format skews to Reel / Video, not Image. Posting cadence is steady and high — 15–30+ posts per month on the brand's own feed, sustained over months. Production complexity reads low; hook scores read high — the fingerprint of native short-form.
Threshold A brand publishing 20+ Reels per month on its own IG feed with UGC creative style and low production complexity is almost certainly running a UGC-for-feed programme.
Easy to confuse with EGC (Strategy 12) if staff are filming themselves. Tell: UGC-for-feed uses outside creators paid per video; EGC uses the same employee faces repeatedly across months. Distinct from Strategy 03 (retainers) — retainer creators post on their handle and tag the brand; UGC-for-feed posts on the brand's handle.
A creator is paid a monthly fee to publish a fixed number of posts about the brand on the creator's own audience, every month, for 6–12+ months.
Brand signs 5–30 creators to contracts specifying monthly post commitments (typically 2–4 in-feed posts + a handful of Stories), usage rights, and exclusivity within category. The creator posts on their own handles; the brand pays a flat monthly retainer regardless of view count. Spark Ad whitelisting (Strategy 06) is commonly bundled in.
One-off sponsored posts produce one-off spikes; retainer posts compound audience trust and platform signal across months. Platforms now penalise sponsored-content-as-novelty and reward sponsored content that looks embedded in the creator's regular rhythm. Use when the brand has the budget for 6+ month commitments and wants category leadership through sustained creator presence, not novelty.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | 5–15 mid-tier creators (10k–200k followers), 2–4 posts per month each, on monthly retainers of £1k–£8k per creator. | Category-leadership signal; compounding brand familiarity in target audience; first-pick on creators competitors might otherwise sign. |
| Hospitality | 3–8 local creators (food, lifestyle, parenting) on £300–£1,500 / month retainers; each visits and posts about the venue twice a month. | Predictable foot traffic; saturation in local feeds across seasons; competitors can't sign the same creators. |
| SaaS / B2B | 3–6 operator-creators on £1k–£10k / month for 1–2 posts about the product per month on LinkedIn / X / YouTube. | Authority signal in target persona's feed; demo pipeline that doesn't dry up between campaigns; warm leads versus cold ads. |
| Apps | 10–30 mid-tier creators each posting 3–8 brand-tagged TikToks per month, plus Story arcs. Often paired with Strategy 05. | Persistent algorithmic presence on FYP; install volume that holds between paid campaigns. |
| CPG | 10–20 creators in target verticals (cooking, mums, fitness) on annual retainers around relevant occasions. | Year-round category-leader presence; retailers see consistent demand drivers, unlocking shelf and feature support. |
A 10-creator retainer producing 30–40 brand-tagged posts per month typically generates 1m–15m monthly views across creator audiences, with the same creators outperforming on the 10th post versus the 1st.
Direct: tracked via codes, links, and Spark Ads layered on top. Indirect: lifts branded search and unaided brand recall significantly. Retainer programmes are the single biggest driver of organic mentions (Strategy 22) over the following 12 months.
Per creator: £500–£10k per month depending on follower tier and content volume. Whole programme: £10k–£100k per month at brand scale. Typically 15–25% cheaper per post than one-off sponsored equivalents.
High average posts per creator on the brand. The SAME creator handles appear multiple times in tagged-post tables for the same brand across a 30–90+ day window. Tagged posts from those repeat creators frequently carry partnership signals in captions: 'partnered with', 'ambassador', 'in collaboration with'.
Threshold Any niche brand with average posts per creator ≥ 3 on either platform AND total tagged posts ≥ 50 on that platform is running retainers. This is the canonical retainer signal.
A brand can run retainers below the top-100 view threshold and not appear in the named top-rankings at all — the brand-level ratio of posts to unique creators is the source of truth.
A brand pays a creator to operate a dedicated handle (e.g. @boringmarketer, @vcbrags) that is brand-affiliated but operates as a creator-first persona rather than a corporate handle. Distinct from the brand's main account.
Brand hires one creator on retainer (often £4k–£12k per month) to run a purpose-built handle daily. The handle has its own voice and identity, is openly or quietly affiliated with the brand, and posts category-relevant content in first person rather than as the brand. Common in AI SaaS, fintech, and B2B-with-edge categories.
Main brand handles are penalised by algorithms that reward personal voice. Alt-handles route around that penalty. Use when the category benefits from insider voice (VC, marketing, fintech, dev tools, AI), when the brand wants to build distribution it owns, or when the main brand handle is too sanitised to be useful on social.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Often a tips-and-tricks or category-niche handle the brand quietly owns (e.g. a skincare brand running @skincaredupes). Avoid for brands where transparency is core to the proposition. | Owned distribution channel; full algorithmic presence without the brand-handle penalty. |
| Hospitality | A local-guide style handle (e.g. @best_brunch_brighton) that the venue group owns or quietly funds. | Drives traffic to all the group's venues while feeling editorial; amplifies launches. |
| SaaS / B2B | A category-expert handle (@boringmarketer for SEO tools, @vcbrags for funds). Hired creator posts daily; brand mentions appear naturally. | Trust-led demand generation; brand becomes synonymous with the niche; recruiting funnel lifts as a bonus. |
| Apps | AI / SaaS apps commonly run multiple creator-led handles in parallel. Each creator builds personal audience aligned to the product use case. | Always-on growth channels the brand owns; lower CAC than paid acquisition; talent retention through equity / bonus structures. |
| CPG | Rare and risky in CPG; better fit for premium / niche CPG with a strong subculture (craft beer, premium coffee, science-led supplements). | Editorial channel that drives category authority and SKU discovery. |
A well-run alt-handle hits 10k–200k+ followers within 6–12 months and generates 100k–2m monthly views — comparable to a mid-tier paid creator but at compounding owned-channel value.
Demand generation rather than direct attribution. Lifts branded search, direct traffic, and demo / install volume. Easiest to measure via UTM on the bio link.
£4k–£12k per month per handle for the creator's time. Multiple handles × 12 months → £50k–£300k annual programme. Often equity-laced for early-stage startups.
A niche-relevant handle appears repeatedly in tagged-post tables across the niche but is not in the niche brand set itself, and is not a typical creator (no diverse brand mix in their tags). That handle posts daily / multiple times a week with content tightly scoped to a niche the brand operates in. Captions on its posts frequently mention the brand or the brand's product category in non-promotional language. Sometimes appears as a Collaborator on the brand's own feed posts.
Threshold A handle with high niche post count, narrow content range, and direct or indirect ties to one brand in the niche (frequent Collaborator tags, frequent mentions) is likely an alt-handle.
Disclosure regulation varies by jurisdiction. Alt-handle is sometimes indistinguishable from a normal niche creator account on data alone; the giveaway is the brand-collaboration density and content-scope narrowness. Brand needs to confirm via web research (job postings, LinkedIn, X chatter).
The brand hires 20–100+ young creators as paid employees or contractors, each contractually required to post multiple short-form videos per day about the product on their own personal handles.
Brand recruits creators (often 18–25, often Gen Z, often with at least some short-form skill) at a flat hourly rate or modest salary plus a view-bonus structure. Each creator is required to publish 2–6 videos per day about the brand on their own TikTok / IG / YouTube Shorts. Total daily output: 100–500 videos. Volume saturates the algorithm; 1 in 20 hits big and pays for the rest.
Algorithms reward content velocity. Per-post production cost has collapsed because creators self-produce on phones. AI / SaaS startups with venture money + novel demos can outspend traditional brand-handle strategies through pure volume of native content. Use when the brand is venture-funded, has a memorable hook, and is willing to put creators on payroll.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Less common but viable for 'demoable' products. 10–30 creators on rolling contracts, view-bonused, producing 50–150 videos per day across personal channels. | Saturates target FYP with native-feeling product content; TikTok Shop velocity unlocks; lower blended CAC than pure paid. |
| Hospitality | Rare. Restaurants tend toward retainer (03) or local geo-clustered (18) rather than full collective. | Limited — high overhead for a single-location business. Group / chain operators with national reach can use it. |
| SaaS / B2B | Rare for traditional B2B SaaS; more common for AI / consumer-SaaS hybrids. 20–50 creators producing demo and hot-take content. | Volume of new-user discovery on TikTok / Reels at venture scale. |
| Apps | This is the home of the strategy. 30–100+ creators, 4 short-form posts per day, often Gen-Z native, view-bonused. | Industry-leading install velocity at venture stage; brand awareness lift on a curve only volume can produce. |
| CPG | Emerging for category-leader CPG. Less common because the unit economics of physical product can't always support payroll-grade creator labour. | Shelf-velocity-grade brand-awareness lift. |
A 50-creator collective at 4 videos/day produces ~6,000 videos per month. Even with most underperforming, the brand commonly hits 50–500m monthly views. Hit rate is low per video; aggregate reach is enormous.
Drives installs, signups, branded search, and direct sales at compounding velocity. AI consumer-apps using this model have gone from £0 to £20m+ ARR within 12 months on this strategy alone.
£40–£80 per hour OR £4k–£8k per month per creator full-time. View-bonus add-on: £1 per 1k views or £1k per million-view hit. Programme cost: £150k–£600k per month at the high end.
Very high unique-creator counts on a single brand, disproportionately in lower follower bands (1k–5k, 5k–10k). The same brand handle appears in tags of many creators with small followings, posting near-daily. Captions skew first-person — 'I tried [product]', 'POV: using [product]' — rather than overt partnership disclosure.
Threshold A niche brand with 200+ unique IG influencers AND a high share (≥40%) of posts in the 1k–5k and 5k–10k bands within a 30–40 day window is almost certainly running a creator collective.
Easy to confuse with Strategy 23 (burner page networks) — both produce high-volume small-account posts. Tell: collective creators have genuine personal accounts with diverse content; burner pages are themed and templated.
The brand runs paid ads from the creator's own handle — the post looks to viewers like the creator's content but is amplified by brand media budget with platform-tracked attribution.
Creator posts organically. Brand obtains a Spark Ad code (TikTok) or Partnership Ad permission (Meta) and runs that exact post as a paid ad through Ads Manager. The ad displays the creator's handle and engages their audience signal at scale. Creator gets a usage-rights premium on top of base fee; brand pays the media spend.
Cookie loss and iOS attribution made first-party platform signal + creator social proof the most powerful ad format on Meta and TikTok. Spark / Partnership Ads consistently outperform brand-handle ads on CTR and CVR. Use as a layer on top of any retainer (Strategy 03) or gifting (Strategy 07) campaign — increasingly table stakes.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Every retainer creator contract includes whitelisting rights. Brand runs the top organic-performing posts as Spark Ads with media spend behind them. | 20–50% CPA reduction vs brand-handle paid ads; first-party attribution signal compounds. |
| Hospitality | Local creator's organic foot-traffic post → run as Spark Ad in a 10–20km radius. | Hyper-targeted local awareness at lower CPM than national ads; warmer foot traffic. |
| SaaS / B2B | Operator-creator's organic build-in-public or product demo → run as LinkedIn or Meta Partnership Ad. | Trust-led ads in B2B feed; demo signups at 2–3× the rate of brand-handle creative. |
| Apps | Top-performing creator post → run as Spark Ad targeted to lookalikes. Bid for installs. | Drops CPI dramatically vs brand-handle ads; native social proof improves install-to-activation rates. |
| CPG | Recipe / unboxing posts whitelisted and run with geo-targeted Meta paid around retail availability. | Pulls retailer co-marketing budget; visible at-shelf demand in the data. |
Spark Ads typically deliver 40–150% higher engagement and 30–50% higher CVR than equivalent brand-handle creative.
Direct: lower CPA / CPI / CPL across paid social. Reliable lift.
Whitelisting premium: +20–30% of base creator fee for 30-day rights, or +30–100% for longer or perpetual rights. Media spend is on top.
Ad creatives whose thumbnail is clearly a creator face / handle rather than a brand pack-shot, and the ad library shows 'Sponsored by [brand]' under a creator handle. The same creative also appears as an organic post on tagged-influencer tables (cross-reference via posted date / caption similarity).
Threshold A brand with ≥40% of classified ad creatives in UGC style AND multiple ads cross-matching organic tagged posts is running Spark / Partnership Ads.
This is the only strategy that produces a dual-table fingerprint (paid + organic), which makes it identifiable with high confidence.
The brand sends premium-packaged product (often £80+ retail value) to 20–200+ micro / nano creators in target demographics, typically with a soft ask to post if they enjoy it.
Brand identifies micro creators (1k–50k followers) who align with the product. Sends free product with a personalised note, premium packaging, and sometimes a discount code or hashtag. No paid relationship. Conversion to post is typically 10–30% on a quality list. Modern gifting programmes layer a small nominal posting fee (£50–£200) or affiliate code to lift conversion to 50–70%.
Pure gifting (no fee) is softening — top creators won't post for product alone. The modern version is a quasi-paid layer that still feels lighter than a sponsored deal. Use as the top of a creator funnel: gifting → who posts well → upgrade to retainer. Strongest for visual / experiential products.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | 50–200 gifts per quarter to micro creators. Affiliate code or small flat fee for confirmed post. | High-volume organic-feeling content with low cash outlay; discovery of top performers for retainer upgrade. |
| Hospitality | Comp meal or VIP table gifting to 5–30 local creators around launch moments. | Foot-traffic-driving local content; bookings spike around gift waves. |
| SaaS / B2B | Free seats / pro plans / event passes for operator-creators. Sometimes physical swag. | Top-of-funnel creator discovery; future retainer pipeline. |
| Apps | Early access, creator perks, premium subscription gifting. Pair with affiliate links. | Authentic-feeling install seeding; creator discovery for larger programmes. |
| CPG | Gifting boxes / PR-gift mailers around new launches. Industry standard; works best with a memorable unboxing experience. | Launch buzz; long-tail organic-feeling content. |
On a 100-gift programme, expect 20–40 confirmed posts, 200k–1m total views, and a long tail of unattributable mentions.
Indirect. Best measured via discount code redemption, branded search, and unattributable-organic lift.
Product COGS only on pure-gift programmes. £50–£200 nominal post fee when layered. Operational cost (curation, fulfilment, comms) is the real cost — £2k–£15k per programme.
Many unique creators tagging the brand each posting only 1–2 times in the window (average posts per creator close to 1). Captions contain gifting signals: '[gifted]', 'thank you to', 'PR package', 'kind gift', 'ad/pr included', 'freebie'. Mostly small / mid creators (1k–5k and 5k–10k follower bands dominate). Spikes cluster around launch dates with a sudden burst then taper.
Threshold A brand with average posts per creator ≤ 1.5, unique influencers ≥ 50, and gifting-signal captions in 20%+ of tagged posts is running an active gifting programme.
Gifting often masquerades as pure organic in the data because UK disclosure varies. Caption-signal analysis is critical. Distinct from retainers (03) by the average-posts-per-creator ratio: gifting ≈ 1, retainers ≥ 3.
The brand opens its products to TikTok's affiliate marketplace with a commission rate (typically 15–50%); any TikTok creator can pick up the product and create commission-driven content with the in-video product card.
Brand lists SKUs on TikTok Shop, sets commission rates per product (usually 20–50% on hero SKUs, 5–20% on others). Creators in the TikTok affiliate marketplace request samples or order directly, then make organic videos with the in-video product card. TikTok handles fulfilment and attribution. Brand pays only on sale. The algorithm rewards flooding with hundreds of creator videos per month.
TikTok Shop has become the dominant social commerce surface for sub-£50 consumer products in the UK and US since 2023. Use when the brand has high-margin SKUs, strong visual appeal, and is willing to operate at high commission rates for category-velocity. Best for beauty, supplements, accessories, food, home, and apparel.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Set hero-SKU commission at 20–30%, seed samples to top affiliate creators, run live shopping events (Strategy 21). Layer paid promotion on top of organic. | Single largest growth channel for sub-£50 DTC in 2025–2026; unlocks 7-figure monthly GMV at scale. |
| Hospitality | Not directly applicable — TikTok Shop is for physical shippable product. | Not applicable directly. |
| SaaS / B2B | Not directly applicable. | Not applicable. |
| Apps | Some app developers sell digital goods, merch, or in-app currency through TikTok Shop — niche case. | Limited. |
| CPG | Major use case. Open every SKU to TikTok Shop with tiered commissions; seed thousands of samples; recruit affiliate creators to hero SKUs. | Velocity-led category leadership; retailers see TikTok ranking and grant more shelf and feature. |
Affiliate-driven views are uncapped — a single hero SKU can generate 50m–500m views per quarter from hundreds of affiliate creators.
Direct GMV. Major UK / US DTC brands hit £1m–£20m monthly GMV on TikTok Shop alone via this model.
15–50% commission per sale paid to the affiliate creator, minus TikTok's cut. Zero upfront cost per creator. Sample-seeding overhead.
Many small TT creators tagging the same brand product within a 30-day window (TikTok side dominated by unique low-follower handles). Captions reference 'TikTok Shop', 'linked in bio', 'shoppable', 'product card', or phrases like 'I got these for £X on TikTok Shop'. Ads frequently link to tiktok.com/shop URLs.
Threshold TT-skewed brand with 100+ unique TikTok creators in a 30-day window AND multiple captions referencing TikTok Shop or product cards is running an affiliate programme.
UK launch of TikTok Shop is more recent than US; many UK brands are mid-adoption. A brand absent from this is a real gap for many sub-£50 categories.
The brand opens a permanent commission-only programme where any creator can apply and earn a percentage of attributable sales via unique tracking links — typically through LTK, Howl, ShareASale, Amazon Influencer, or in-house affiliate platforms.
Brand sets up an affiliate platform (LTK, Howl, ShareASale, in-house), publishes commission rates, and approves creator applications. Approved creators get unique tracking links; the brand pays only on attributed sale. Tiered bonuses for top performers are common. No retainer; no posting requirement.
Performance-aligned with no upfront fee. AI search and recommendation engines now surface affiliate content, lifting evergreen affiliate revenue. Use when the brand has strong unit economics and is willing to pay 5–25% commission for incremental revenue.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Open programme on LTK, Howl, and in-house. Tier commissions (5–15% standard, 15–25% on hero SKUs, bonuses for £10k+ quarterly creators). | Free-CAC revenue layer; long-tail organic-feeling content without upfront retainer commitments. |
| Hospitality | Less common — booking systems can integrate (OpenTable affiliate, Resy programmes) but adoption is uneven. | Limited unless online booking is core. |
| SaaS / B2B | Common. Partner / affiliate programme paying 20–40% recurring on customers referred. Often the highest-leverage growth channel for self-serve SaaS. | Aligned-incentive customer acquisition; recurring revenue amplifier. |
| Apps | Affiliate codes through influencer partner programmes, in-app referral tied to creator codes. | Pay-on-install economics; scaleable across thousands of creators. |
| CPG | Amazon Influencer Programme is the obvious lever; Howl programmes for non-Amazon retail. | Marketplace velocity; reviews and content density on PDPs. |
Indirect — affiliate creators don't always tag the brand, so impact on tagged-post tables may understate the real volume.
Direct: tracked commissions. Easiest to ROI of all influencer strategies. Commonly 5–20% of total brand revenue at maturity.
5–25% commission standard. Up to 50% on Howl hero products. Tiered bonus payouts at high volume. Zero upfront fee per creator.
'Linked in bio', 'code in bio', 'affiliate link' references in captions across many uncoordinated creators. Ad destination URLs point to known affiliate platforms (rstyle.me, ltk.app, howl.link, amzn.to). A varied mix of creators — different tiers, different geographies, no coordinated posting pattern.
Threshold A brand with diverse / scattered creator tagging activity (no retainer clusters, mixed follower bands) AND affiliate-platform destinations across ads is running a commission programme.
Hardest strategy to detect in tagged-post tables alone, because affiliate posts often don't tag the brand. Destination domain on ad creatives is the most reliable signal. Combine with web research on the brand's affiliate-programme page.
A small number of high-trust creators are contracted as multi-year ambassadors with annual fees, performance bonuses, and a deep relationship (events, product input, equity in some cases).
Brand identifies 1–10 creators who are perfect on-brand fit, contracts them for 12–36 months with annual six-figure-or-more fees, brings them to events, includes them in product development, and uses them in hero brand campaigns. Distinct from retainer (Strategy 03) by depth, exclusivity, scope, and contract length — ambassadors are part of brand identity, not part of content supply.
Hero campaigns still need brand-defining faces. Ambassador deals create long-term equity in audience trust. Use when the brand has clear brand-defining moments (launches, events, IPOs) and the budget to make a multi-year creator commitment.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | 1–3 ambassadors at £100k–£1m annual fees. Featured in hero campaigns, on packaging, at events. | Category-leadership equity; press; brand-recall lift that generic creator content can't deliver. |
| Hospitality | Local celebrity / regional creator ambassador relations (face of the brand in marketing). | PR-grade visibility; expansion / new-location momentum. |
| SaaS / B2B | Operator-celebrity ambassadors who advise and appear at events. Often equity-laced. | Recruiting halo; enterprise pipeline that ad copy can't open. |
| Apps | Celebrity-creator ambassadors (athletes, gamers, musicians) for hero campaigns and brand identity. Equity / sponsorship mix. | TV-grade brand awareness without TV spend. |
| CPG | Long-running ambassador-celebrity ties (athletes, chefs, actors). Often the headline of annual marketing plan. | Retail and media leverage; brand becomes inseparable from the named ambassador. |
A 1-ambassador deal might produce only 5–20 posts per year, but each post is viewed in millions and amplifies all other content. Effect is PR-grade rather than view-grade.
Brand equity, not direct response. Measured via aided / unaided awareness, branded search lift, and retail growth in tracked windows.
£100k–£10m+ per ambassador per year for top tier. Equity / sponsorship deals common. Long contracts (24–36 months) typical.
A single very high-tier creator (50k–1m+ followers) appears in the brand's tagged-post set multiple times in a year. That creator's captions mention long-term partnership language ('year three with…', 'as a long-time partner of…', 'official partner'). Press coverage tied to ambassador announcements.
Threshold A brand with even 1–2 creators in the 50k+ band appearing 3+ times in the niche window AND partnership signals in caption is likely running ambassadorships.
Ambassador deals are usually announced publicly. Web research is the most reliable confirmation. Data alone rarely tells the whole story.
The founder or CEO is the brand's primary creator, posting daily or weekly behind-the-scenes / build-in-public / personality content from their own handle.
Founder maintains an active personal channel on TikTok / LinkedIn / X / YouTube. Posts cover company building, customer wins, revenue numbers, hiring, opinions, and category commentary. Content is supported by a small in-house team (content producer, editor, ghost-writer) that captures and packages founder time efficiently.
Trust in faceless brand ads has collapsed. Founder voices command disproportionate attention. Use when founder is willing, articulate on camera or in writing, and the company stage allows time investment. Especially strong for early-stage and bootstrapped brands.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Founder posts behind-the-scenes weekly on TikTok / IG. Content team turns interviews into 4–8 clips per week. | Trust-led discovery; the founder story becomes a moat competitors can't copy. |
| Hospitality | Founder-chef / founder-owner posts daily kitchen / floor content. Often the most efficient creator the brand could hire. | Distinct personality the venue is associated with; press coverage easier. |
| SaaS / B2B | Founder posts daily on LinkedIn / X. Mix of company metrics, opinions, and category insight. | Demand generation that costs only founder time; recruiting halo; investor relations. |
| Apps | Founder is often the face of the AI app on TikTok. Build-in-public posts about user count, model improvements, customer reactions. | Pre-PMF awareness; investor pipeline; recruiting. |
| CPG | Founder posts category-insider content. Less common at mass scale but emerging. | Brand humanisation; retailer differentiation. |
Top founder-creators reach 100k–1m+ followers and 1m–50m monthly views, comparable to mid-tier paid creators but at near-zero marginal cash cost.
Indirect for direct sales; direct for B2B / SaaS demo pipeline. Often the single biggest acquisition channel for bootstrapped B2B.
Founder time + £3k–£15k per month content support team. Effectively free at scale relative to alternative paid acquisition.
The founder's personal handle appears as a top niche creator in their own right. The brand's own feed heavily features the founder's face. Captions on brand posts are in first person ('today I…', 'we hit…', 'I built…'). Founder personal-brand content is visible on LinkedIn / X / podcasts.
Threshold Brand's feed caption text frequently contains first-person founder voice AND founder's personal handle has a standalone audience.
Hard to detect from data alone — best confirmed via web research. Distinct from EGC (12) where multiple employees appear; founder-led centres around one face.
The brand trains and incentivises employees to make TikTok / Reels / LinkedIn content as themselves about working at the brand or about the product, posting on the brand handle or their own.
Brand runs a content-training programme for staff. Provides bonuses (£50–£500 per post), guidelines, and equipment. Employees film themselves at work — kitchen prep, store walkthroughs, product builds, day-in-the-life. Posted on brand handle and / or personal handles. Often 'the team' becomes part of brand identity.
Employee voices feel less polished than influencer voices, which the algorithm now favours. Use when brand culture is content-friendly and staff are willing. Outsized lift for retail, hospitality, restaurants, and software with personality-led culture.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Warehouse / packing / customer-service team posts; meet-the-team content. | Humanises brand; doubles as recruiting content; differentiates from competitors with sterile feeds. |
| Hospitality | Front-of-house and back-of-house staff post regularly from the venue's handle and theirs. | Foot-traffic-driving native content; one of the highest-performing creative formats for hospitality. |
| SaaS / B2B | Engineers and PMs post on LinkedIn / X about how the product is built. Founder may lead but team participates. | Recruiting halo; trust-led demand generation. |
| Apps | Eng / design team builds in public; PM team posts feature demos. Less common but effective for AI / dev tools. | Builder-credibility lift; signals product velocity to users and investors. |
| CPG | Less common at scale. Manufacturing facility / lab content for science-led brands. | Differentiator for premium / category-leader positioning. |
EGC posts often produce engagement rates several times higher than generic branded content (LinkedIn reports 5–10× engagement on employee posts versus brand-handle).
Indirect. Lifts brand awareness, recruiting, and (in service businesses) repeat-customer rates.
£50–£500 per post bonuses + training cost. Often <£5k per month for a meaningful programme.
The brand's own feed features the same employee faces repeatedly across months — not influencer rotation. Captions in first person ('my shift today', 'team mate of the week', 'POV: I work at…'). Tagged users / Collaborators sometimes list employee personal handles. Bonus: niche creator accounts whose bios contain the brand name often work at the venue.
Threshold Brand's feed with 30%+ of posts featuring same recurring faces and first-person staff captions is running EGC.
EGC is hard to outsource and harder to copy than other strategies, making it a particularly defensible content engine.
The brand co-creates a limited-edition product with a specific creator or celebrity and markets the drop as a media event through both partners' channels.
Brand and creator co-design a SKU (flavour, colour, scent, formula, or collaboration variant). Drop is timed, often scarcity-led. Marketing runs simultaneously on brand and creator channels. Often a single SKU co-branded for 4–12 weeks; sometimes a recurring drop schedule.
Drops are press events. Limited-edition CPG and apparel collabs drive press, retailer interest, and direct sales spikes. Use when the brand has a meaningful audience-fit creator and a manufacturing / supply chain that can support a limited-edition SKU.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Capsule collection / co-branded SKU with a creator. £20k–£500k creator fee + product economics. | Spike in revenue and press; halo on full product line. |
| Hospitality | Creator-named menu items (e.g. 'Chef X's signature burger' for a month). Common in fast-casual. | Foot-traffic spike; recurring creator-fan visits. |
| SaaS / B2B | Rare. Co-branded template / playbook / dataset releases with operator-creators. | Demand-gen spike; category co-leadership signal. |
| Apps | Co-branded in-app skins / personalities / packs with creators. | Install spikes from creator audience; press. |
| CPG | Major use case (Crumbl-style flavour drops, cereal co-brands, beverage co-brands). Backbone of category-leader marketing calendar. | Retail features and shelf placement open up; press. |
Drops cluster all related content into a tight window — short-term view spikes of 10m–500m+ across drop launches.
Direct: drop revenue. Indirect: halo on full product line; retail relationships.
£20k–£10m+ per creator deal depending on creator tier and royalty structure (3–15% royalty common).
Sudden spike in tagged posts around a specific date, with captions referencing a co-branded SKU. 'Limited edition', 'drop', 'collab', 'available now' in captions. The named creator appears in multiple posts across the spike window. Brand's own feed in the same window features drop-themed content concentrated tightly.
Threshold A 7–14 day spike of tagged posts ≥ 3× the brand's baseline rate, with caption signals 'drop / collab / limited edition', indicates a creator-led drop.
Drops are usually press events. Confirm via web research.
The brand pays for host-read mid-roll or dedicated-episode sponsorships on podcasts and long-form YouTube channels, often as multi-month flights.
Brand buys mid-roll or pre-roll inventory on a podcast or YouTube channel. Host reads or shows a brand-supplied script in their own voice for 30–90 seconds. Often runs across simultaneous audio and YouTube simulcast. Repeated weekly / multiple-episodes-per-month for trust compounding.
Considered-purchase products (financial, supplements, software) need more time than 15-second short-form. Use when the brand needs to explain itself in detail and reach an attentive audience.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Premium / considered DTC (supplements, sleep, wellness, mattresses, fitness) running 6–12 month podcast flights. | Trust-led conversion; attribution-resistant brand awareness. |
| Hospitality | Rare. Local-radio-style podcast sponsorships occasionally. | Limited unless a regional podcast or chef-led show fits. |
| SaaS / B2B | Major use case. Sponsor relevant B2B podcasts (Lenny's, My First Million, Acquired) for 8–12 episode flights. | High-quality demo pipeline; category-authority signal. |
| Apps | Tech podcasts, mainstream podcasts for consumer apps. Common at venture stage. | Install scale; brand-recall lift. |
| CPG | Mass-podcast inventory. Often paired with retailer co-marketing. | Trial driver; aided awareness. |
Per-episode listens range 5k–500k+. Trust-led conversion is the unit metric, not view count.
Trackable via vanity URLs and codes. £25–£50 CPM standard; £50–£200 CPM for finance / B2B podcasts.
£500–£20k per episode read; £10k–£200k per multi-month flight.
Difficult to detect in standard influencer audit data alone — long-form podcast / YouTube creators rarely appear in IG / TT tagged-post tables. Ad creatives drawn from a podcast clip used as ad supply (long-duration video on YouTube) is the closest fingerprint.
Threshold Ad creatives with duration ≥ 60 seconds on YouTube indicate long-form repurposing typical of podcast-flight brands.
Mostly invisible in standard influencer audit data — flag this gap explicitly when relevant for considered-purchase categories.
The brand pays for sponsorship placement (banner ad, dedicated section, or full-takeover edition) in a creator-authored newsletter sent to an engaged email or Substack list.
Brand identifies relevant creator newsletters (Lenny's, Morning Brew co-sponsorships, niche Substacks). Pays per send / per impression / per click. Sponsor copy is creator-authored or brand-supplied. Most common as ongoing flights of 4–12 sends.
Open rates and reading attention on newsletters are higher than social. Best for B2B SaaS, premium DTC, and considered-purchase categories. Use when target audience reads category newsletters at scale.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Mid-tier premium DTC (skincare, home, lifestyle) sponsoring lifestyle newsletters. | High-attention audience; trust-led conversion. |
| Hospitality | Local-newsletter / regional-Substack sponsorships. | Booking-driving local awareness. |
| SaaS / B2B | Major use case. Lenny's, Morning Brew, Marketing Brew, vertical Substacks. | Demo pipeline; category authority. |
| Apps | Tech newsletters (TLDR, Hacker Newsletter). | Quality install signal. |
| CPG | Niche category newsletters (kitchen, parenting, wellness). | Trial driver among engaged readers. |
Per-send opens 30–60% on engaged lists; CTR 1–5%. Audience size varies widely (5k–500k subscribers).
Direct via tracked codes / UTM. Trackable but smaller scale than social.
£500–£15k per send; £5k–£50k per flight.
Invisible in social-feed audit data. Ad creative library may carry newsletter-style screenshots used as ad creatives.
Threshold Web research is the primary detection method.
Almost never visible in tagged-influencer or ad-library data. Flag as a gap based on category fit, not data signal.
The brand sponsors streamers on Twitch / Kick / YouTube Live with on-stream segments, mid-stream callouts, or full-stream takeovers.
Brand contracts a streamer for live-stream coverage. Includes overlays, mid-stream reads, branded chat commands, viewer codes, and sometimes full event sponsorships.
Strong for gaming, energy drinks, consumer apps with male-leaning demos. Live commerce attempts on Amazon Live and TikTok Live extend the format. Use when target audience overlaps with streaming culture.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Energy drinks, peripherals, apparel for gamers sponsoring streamers. | Targeted reach in passionate community. |
| Hospitality | Rare. | Limited. |
| SaaS / B2B | Dev-tool streamers, productivity-streamers. | Demo pipeline in builder community. |
| Apps | Gaming-adjacent apps; AI apps with technical demos. | High-quality early adopters. |
| CPG | Energy / hydration / snacks sponsoring gaming streams. | Category-leader signal in gamer audience. |
Live concurrent viewers 1k–100k+. VOD views extend the tail.
Codes and links tracked; direct revenue and brand-recall lift.
£200–£20k per stream / hour depending on streamer tier.
Mostly invisible in standard IG / TT audit data. Ad creative library may show streamer clips repurposed as ads.
Threshold Web research is the primary detection method.
Niche channel. Not relevant for most categories.
The brand flies a cohort of 10–30 creators to a destination or event, covers travel and accommodation, hosts experiences, and expects (but sometimes doesn't require) social coverage.
Brand identifies 10–30 creators within target audience and offers a 3–7 day trip — luxury destination, retreat, conference, or factory visit. Programme includes branded experiences, product reveals, and photo opportunities. Coverage is sometimes contracted, sometimes expected, sometimes purely earned.
Trips create premium content density and creator-network effects. Use for launches, brand-positioning resets, premium / luxury brands, and category-leadership moves. Most efficient when product is experiential (hospitality, travel, premium beauty, premium fashion).
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Brand-trip activations (Bali, Mallorca, Mexico) around launches. | Hero content for paid + organic; press; creator-network expansion. |
| Hospitality | Soft-opening invites, chef's table previews, property-launch trips. | Top-of-funnel category demand; press coverage. |
| SaaS / B2B | Conference invites, customer-summit trips, founder retreats with select creators. | Pipeline and category authority. |
| Apps | Creator retreats / launch events at headquarters. | Creator-network depth; press. |
| CPG | Factory / origin-source trips, immersive brand experiences. | Premium positioning; press. |
A 20-creator trip produces 100–500 pieces of content across platforms; aggregate views 5m–100m+.
Indirect. Lifts launch sell-through; press value high.
£50k–£500k per trip depending on destination and tier.
Cluster of 10–30 creators all posting from the same location in the same 3–7 day window. The brand's own feed location-tags the trip destination in the same window. Captions reference 'Thank you [brand]', 'invited', 'brand trip', 'in [destination] with…'. Spike in mid-tier creator follower bands within a single window.
Threshold A 7-day window with 10+ unique creators posting brand-tagged content with overlapping location strings indicates a brand trip.
Brand trips often produce both immediate viral content and longer-tail retainer relationships afterwards.
Instead of one national macro campaign, the brand activates 20–50 micro creators per metro area / per retail-location cluster, with content that explicitly references local context.
Brand identifies metros where retail or venues are live. Recruits 20–50 micro creators per metro for short-form content that names the city, the neighbourhood, the store, the venue. Activations often tied to opening dates, expansions, or seasonal moments.
Local context closes the loop on retail and venue revenue. 'TikTok made me visit' works best when the creator says where. Use for retail expansions, location-based businesses, and CPG with regional distribution.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Activate creators in cities tied to retail launches or pop-ups. | Foot traffic to retail; retail-partner co-marketing. |
| Hospitality | 10–30 creators per new venue / new market. | Direct foot traffic; brand awareness in expansion city. |
| SaaS / B2B | Rare for software; relevant for event-based or on-the-ground services. | Limited. |
| Apps | Geo-targeted creator activations for city-specific features. | Localised install volume. |
| CPG | Per-metro creator pushes around retail expansions. | At-shelf velocity; retail co-marketing leverage. |
Per-metro activation: 20–50 creator posts, 200k–2m views in market.
Direct: foot traffic, retail sell-through. Strong attribution via location-tagged posts.
£100–£500 per micro creator per metro; £5k–£25k per metro programme.
Tagged posts clustered by location and time around metro expansions. Captions reference local context: 'just opened in [city]', 'found this in [neighbourhood]', 'the [city] location of…'. Location fields on the brand's own feed correlate with tagged-post geography.
Threshold Multiple creators (5–20) posting in a 7-day window with shared location references for a single brand indicates a geo-cluster activation.
Particularly relevant for chains, restaurants, retail. Less useful to detect for pure-online DTC.
The brand co-hosts a public IRL event (pop-up shop, dinner, screening, launch party) with a named creator who fronts the experience and drives their audience to attend.
Brand collaborates with a creator to host a public event. Creator promotes the event to their audience via short-form posts and Stories. Event captures content, builds press, and converts attending audience.
IRL events convert online audience into deeper community. Use for launches, brand-personality reinforcement, and to surface UGC content that lasts.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Creator-fronted pop-ups for launches. | Press; content density; community feel. |
| Hospitality | Creator-hosted dinners / takeovers / launches. | Foot traffic spike; press coverage. |
| SaaS / B2B | Creator-hosted summits / dinners / panels around conferences. | Pipeline and category authority. |
| Apps | Creator-hosted launch parties / community meetups. | Engaged-user community; press. |
| CPG | Creator-led sampling / experience events at retail. | At-shelf velocity; retail relationships. |
Event content: 30–200+ posts, 1m–50m views aggregate, plus press.
Indirect. Press and category authority. Direct for event-led commerce.
£10k–£500k per event depending on creator tier and production.
Cluster of brand-tagged posts referencing event location in a short window. Captions reference 'event', 'pop-up', 'hosted by', 'in [city] with…'. Brand's own feed in same window features event content heavily.
Threshold 10+ creator-tagged posts in same 3-day window with location and event references = active event.
Often paired with brand trip (17) or geo-cluster (18) for compounded effect.
The brand pays creators or community insiders to seed mentions, recommendations, or product references in target niche communities (subreddits, Discords, comment sections of related content).
Brand identifies high-intent communities (subreddits, niche forums, Discord servers). Recruits community-native creators or insiders to contribute relevant comments, answers, or thread starts that mention the product. Sometimes paired with AMA / official-presence threads.
AI search engines pull from Reddit and forum data. Niche communities remain high-trust discovery surfaces. Use for products with technical or expert audiences (software, supplements, finance, hobbies).
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Reddit-native seeding around launches in product subreddits (r/SkincareAddiction, r/MaleHairAdvice). | Long-tail SEO via Reddit; quality top-of-funnel discovery. |
| Hospitality | Local subreddit and community seeding. | Foot traffic in city-targeted audience. |
| SaaS / B2B | r/SaaS, r/sales, dev / industry subreddits and Discord communities. | High-quality demo signups; AI-search citation. |
| Apps | Niche subreddits, Discord servers. | Quality early adopters. |
| CPG | Health / fitness / parenting subreddits. | Long-tail SEO and category-leader signal in AI search. |
Hard to quantify. Some Reddit posts hit 10k–1m+ views with strong SEO halo.
Indirect. Branded search lift; AI-search citation lift.
£100–£2k per seeding placement; £2k–£20k per programme.
Largely invisible in IG / TT audit data. Web research surfaces high Reddit / forum mention density.
Threshold Web research is the only reliable detection method.
Reputational risk if discovered. Context-only — not detectable via the standard audit-data stack.
A creator hosts a multi-hour live commerce stream on TikTok Live / Instagram Live featuring the brand's products with in-stream purchase flow.
Brand contracts a creator or live-shopping host for a 1–8 hour live stream demonstrating products. Viewers shop via in-stream product cards. Live commissions, urgency offers, and time-limited drops common.
Live commerce volume is rising sharply on TikTok in 2025–2026 in the US and UK. Best for sub-£50 visual products that demo well live.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Weekly / daily live-shopping streams with rotating creator hosts. | GMV velocity; algorithmic lift on TikTok Shop. |
| Hospitality | Limited (gift-card live commerce in some markets). | Niche. |
| SaaS / B2B | Not applicable. | N/A. |
| Apps | Limited. | N/A. |
| CPG | Major use case. Live-shopping replaces some retail sampling. | At-velocity GMV. |
Concurrent viewers 1k–50k; total replays multiply views.
Direct GMV. Often the single highest-converting format on TikTok.
£300–£10k per stream + commission to host.
TT-feed posts with Format = LIVE or captions referencing live stream replays. High TT-Shop affiliate density alongside (Strategy 08 cross-signal).
Threshold A brand consistently posting LIVE replay clips AND high TT-shop affiliate density is running live commerce.
UK adoption is behind US but growing rapidly.
Not a campaign in the traditional sense — the deliberate strategy of investing in product, experience, packaging, and brand identity such that creators tag, mention, and post about the brand without compensation.
Brand invests in elements that creators want to capture: photogenic product, photogenic spaces, distinct packaging, community moments, shareable experiences. Distribution becomes an outcome of product investment, not advertising spend. Often paired with light gifting (07) or ambassador layer (10) to amplify.
The healthiest signal in any creator audit is high earned (unpaid) tagging. It is what every paid creator programme is trying to manufacture. Use when the product has inherent shareability and the brand wants to compound trust over years rather than weeks.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Invest in unboxing, packaging design, in-pack inserts that creators screenshot. | Earned tagging at scale; trust competitor brands cannot buy. |
| Hospitality | Invest in interior design, plating, photogenic moments. Build a venue creators want to be seen at. | Foot-traffic engine that operates with zero ongoing spend. |
| SaaS / B2B | Invest in distinctive product moments (onboarding, delight moments, share screens). | Earned operator-creator mentions; trust-led demand generation. |
| Apps | Build features designed to be screenshot-worthy. | Earned virality; install spikes from feature reveals. |
| CPG | Invest in packaging and pack-in moments. | At-shelf-discovery driver; trial lift. |
Strong earned mention strategies generate hundreds-to-thousands of tagged posts per quarter with no per-post creator fee.
Indirect but compounding. The single most durable creator-marketing effect.
Cost is invested in product / brand assets, not creator fees. Often the highest-leverage spend a brand can make.
Very high tagged-post counts AND high unique-influencer counts relative to brand's paid programme size. Low average posts per creator (close to 1 — many creators tagging once each). Captions and core premises show enthusiastic personal language, no partnership disclosure, no discount codes. Brand has small or no paid ad presence yet high tagged-post density.
Threshold A brand with average posts per creator ≈ 1, unique influencers ≥ 50, no partnership-signal captions, AND low ad spend is a strong earned-mention brand.
This is a SUCCESS metric, not a gap. A brand with strong earned mentions and no paid programme is not missing anything — it is demonstrating what every paid programme tries to manufacture. The strategic move is to AMPLIFY earned signal (add a small retainer bench, add an ambassador layer) rather than replace it. Misreading this as a gap is one of the most common analytical mistakes in this domain.
A marketing firm operates a network of hundreds-to-thousands of small, themed social accounts (coffee pages, truck pages, meme pages, fan pages) that look organic. Brand / song / product is placed in background of videos posted across the network at industrial volume.
Operator runs a portfolio of niche-themed accounts that appear personal or fan-run. Brand client pays for placement; product appears in B-roll, hooks, or backgrounds of videos. Posting volume is 1,000–15,000 videos per day across the network. Originated in music marketing; spreading into brand marketing.
TikTok algorithm rewards content velocity from real-looking pages more than corporate handles. Burner networks exploit this gap. Use is debatable; reputational and platform-policy risk is real. Sup does not deliver this play — it's documented here so you can recognise when a competitor is using it.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Avoided by mainstream DTC due to platform-policy and reputational risk. | Not recommended. |
| Hospitality | Not applicable. | Not recommended. |
| SaaS / B2B | Not applicable. | Not recommended. |
| Apps | Occasionally used by AI app startups as a volume amplifier. | Reputational risk outweighs lift in most cases. |
| CPG | Avoided by regulated CPG. | Not recommended. |
Per-campaign: tens to hundreds of millions of views, of which a fraction is genuine attention.
Variable. Hard to attribute. Often produces vanity metrics.
£3k–£20k per campaign / song. Operators charge view-tier pricing.
Many themed-niche TT accounts (e.g. all named with niche-coffee or niche-truck patterns) posting brand-tagged or product-visible content. Accounts have small but consistent followings, narrow themed content range, and inhuman posting cadence (multiple posts daily). Caption text is highly templated / nearly identical across many posts.
Threshold A brand with very high unique TikTok creators heavily concentrated in 1k–5k follower band AND duplicated caption patterns is likely benefiting from a burner network. Distinguish from Strategy 05 by content-template uniformity — collective creators are diverse; burner networks are templated.
Reputational and policy risk make this a competitor pattern to identify but not to recommend.
Brand or creator publishes long-form content (podcast, livestream, YouTube). Hundreds of independent clippers cut short vertical highlights and post them on their own accounts. Clippers paid per 1,000 verified views.
Brand uploads source content to a clipping platform (Vyro, Whop, Clipify, Sx Bot). Sets per-1k-view rate. Independent clippers compete to cut viral clips and post on TikTok / IG / YT Shorts. Platform verifies views and pays clippers.
Performance-aligned. Pay only on delivered views. Used heavily by streamers, podcasters, gambling and crypto brands. Use when the brand has long-form source material worth clipping. Sup does not deliver this play.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Rarely used. | Not recommended for most categories. |
| Hospitality | Not applicable. | N/A. |
| SaaS / B2B | Some SaaS founders with long-form podcast appearances use it. | Useful for amplifying owned long-form content. |
| Apps | Limited. | Niche. |
| CPG | Avoided. | Not recommended. |
Per-budget: pay-per-view economics directly relate spend to view volume.
Indirect for most brands. Direct for streamers / paywalled creators.
£0.80–£3.50 per 1k views typical.
Brand-related clips appearing across many small TT / IG / YT Shorts accounts with similar source material. Repeated visual / audio fingerprints across clipped posts (same speaker, same clip, different visual treatments). Source content is long-form on YouTube / podcast.
Threshold Multiple low-follower accounts posting clearly-clipped vertical excerpts of the same source content indicate a clipping campaign.
Detectable mainly via content-similarity analysis, not standard tagged-post fields.
The brand uses AI avatar platforms (Arcads, HeyGen, Argil, Creatify) to generate dozens of UGC-style ad creatives with synthetic creators reading scripts. Used predominantly in paid social, not on creator-owned channels.
Brand scripts a UGC-style ad. AI platform generates 1–50+ variants with different synthetic faces, voices, and settings. Brand runs the variants as paid ads on Meta / TikTok / YouTube Shorts.
Cost per variant drops 50–100× versus human UGC. Use when the brand needs massive ad-variant volume and the category isn't trust-sensitive. Limitations: consumer fatigue, uncanny valley, platform-policy risk. Sup does not deliver this play.
| Business type | How it's implemented | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| DTC | Used by performance-marketing-heavy DTC in lower-trust categories. | Cheap variant volume; mixed CVR. |
| Hospitality | Not applicable. | N/A. |
| SaaS / B2B | Used by SaaS with broad audiences when human UGC is hard to source. | Variant volume; trust risk. |
| Apps | Occasionally used to scale ad-variant testing. | Cheap variant volume. |
| CPG | Avoided by regulated CPG and premium brands where authenticity is core. | Not recommended. |
Synthetic UGC produces no organic reach — paid only. Performance versus human UGC is mixed.
Lower production cost; mixed CVR. Most sophisticated brands use it as B-team supply, not hero creative.
£50–£300 per month subscription per platform. Marginal cost per variant ~£0.
Multiple ad creatives with extremely similar settings, lip-sync artefacts, identical lighting, and a recurring 'creator' face that has no real social account. UGC creative style but unusually low production complexity with high visual consistency across variants. The featured creator is not findable in tagged-influencer tables — no real creator account exists.
Threshold 10+ ad creatives all in UGC style with the same synthetic-looking face whose handle does not appear in tagged-influencer tables → AI-generated UGC.
Hard to verify without manual inspection of ad thumbnails. Flag as suspected rather than confirmed when relying on data alone.
A condensed lookup from observable signal to named strategy — the same mapping Sup's analyst uses when reading a brand's audit data.
| High volume of unique short-runtime UGC ad creatives | → | S01 · UGC for paid ads |
| Brand's own feed dense with UGC-styled Reels / TikToks | → | S02 · UGC for organic social |
| Same creators tagging the brand repeatedly (avg posts per creator ≥ 3) | → | S03 · Always-on creator retainers |
| A niche-relevant handle narrowly focused on one brand | → | S04 · Creator-run alt-handles |
| Hundreds of unique low-follower creators tagging one brand | → | S05 · Creator collective (the 'Cluely model') |
| Same content shows up as both an organic post and a paid ad | → | S06 · Spark ads / whitelisting / partnership ads |
| Many unique creators each posting once, with gifting captions | → | S07 · High-value gifting & seeding |
| TikTok-skewed brand with 'TikTok Shop' / product-card captions | → | S08 · TikTok Shop affiliate programmes |
| Ads pointing at rstyle.me / ltk.app / howl.link / amzn.to | → | S09 · Affiliate / commission-only (non-TikTok) |
| One 50k+ creator returning across the year with partnership language | → | S10 · Long-term brand ambassadors |
| Founder's face all over the brand's own feed, first-person captions | → | S11 · Founder-led / CEO as creator |
| Same employee faces repeating across months | → | S12 · Employee-generated content (EGC) |
| 7–14 day spike with 'drop', 'collab', 'limited edition' captions | → | S13 · Creator-led product collabs / drops |
| Long-duration video creatives on YouTube | → | S14 · Long-form podcast & YouTube sponsorships |
| Invisible in social — found via web research | → | S15 · Newsletter / Substack sponsorships |
| Invisible in social — found via web research | → | S16 · Twitch / livestream sponsorships |
| 10–30 creators posting from the same destination in 3–7 days | → | S17 · Press trips & brand trips |
| 5–20 creators with shared local-context captions in 7 days | → | S18 · Geo-clustered micro-creator activations |
| 10+ creators tagging the same event location in 3 days | → | S19 · Influencer-hosted IRL events & pop-ups |
| Heavy Reddit / forum mention density | → | S20 · Covert community seeding (Reddit, Discord, comments) |
| Brand-feed TikTok posts with Format = LIVE + TT Shop affiliate density | → | S21 · TikTok / IG Live shopping with creator hosts |
| Many unique creators each posting once, no partnership signals, low ad spend | → | S22 · Earned organic mention cultivation |
| Themed-niche accounts posting near-identical templated captions | → | S23 · Burner page / volume posting networks |
| Low-follower accounts re-posting the same long-form source clip | → | S24 · Clipping / pay-per-view networks |
| Many UGC ads with the same synthetic face that doesn't exist as a real account | → | S25 · AI-generated UGC / synthetic avatars |