• by Tanya Gazdik , 10 hours ago

The “Staples Baddie” who gained attention and followers after posting on TikTok about creative projects has been made an official partner of the retailer. 

And the partnership is already paying off as the influencer's first sponsored TikTok garnered an engagement rate of 44.16% -- far surpassing Staples’ average eRate of 1.63% -- and earned $236,651 in estimated media value according to Sprout Social Influencer Marketing.

This is social intelligence in action, says Brittany Hennessy, vice president, social intelligence evangelism at Sprout Social.

“What makes this moment stand out is that Staples broke from a pattern audiences have come to expect,” Hennessy says. “We’ve seen brands sideline or even fire employees after they go viral, even when those moments are clearly driving attention and loyalty. You could see it in the comments, people were actively hoping Staples wouldn’t fumble it. The response when they didn’t was immediate.”

The company paid attention to the conversation, recognized the business impact already happening, and chose to amplify it instead of control it, she says.  By backing the employee who was driving the moment and formalizing their role as a creator, Staples turned organic momentum into something much bigger for the brand, Hennessy says. 

“Two months ago, Kaeden Rowland was just a print specialist at a Staples in upstate New York: bored at work, looking for subjects for her TikTok account and wondering how to inform the masses about the office supply chain’s services and products,” according to CNN Business. “So on Jan. 13, while on the clock, she posted a quick video of herself in her red work shirt and lanyard, click-clacking her long fingernails on her name badge and offering to help with print projects.”

Now, after 100 or so videos she seems to be the retailer’s de facto employee of the year.

“The combination of Rowland’s earnest yet deadpan description of what might otherwise be banal sundries is part of the draw,” according to The New York Times. “In her videos, Staples is a potential wonderland of creativity and whimsy rather than just a place to grab toner and ballpoint pens.”

Rowland has “‘single-handedly’ reminded hundreds of thousands of people on the Internet that the office supply store is actually kind of cool,” according to Buzzfeed. “In her videos, Kaeden shares the various services the store provides, delivering them in an Internet-fluent, deadpan drawl.”

Rowland has 537.4k followers and 13.2 million likes on TikTok alone.

“Not every employer is on board: in recent years, an employee at Chick-fil-A said she was asked to stop filming content related to her work, and one Sherwin-Williams employee was fired after growing a following from paint-mixing videos created while on the clock,” according to Marketing Brew. “Both employees subsequently worked with other brands.”

Staples is taking a different approach. Rowland said that while she had some initial fears around how the corporate team would react, the response has been “overwhelmingly positive and truly unexpected.”

Staples CMO Bob Sherwin said in a statement sent by social media and PR director Dina Mortada that the brand is “incredibly proud” of Rowland and is “exploring opportunities to collaborate and continue supporting her creativity and engagement with the community.”