How Caribou Coffee Grew Earned UGC on Instagram and TikTok by 500%+
Context
Caribou Coffee, a global premium coffeehouse brand with more than 800 coffeehouses worldwide, sought to create a brand ambassador program to bolster market awareness and consideration in the United States. The goal was to create a cost-efficient and scalable brand ambassador program that rewarded its best brand advocates in exchange for user-generated content (UGC) on Instagram and TikTok.
Solution
Caribou Coffee engaged LoudCrowd to power the Caribou Coffee Ambassador Program. All ambassadors are given monthly opportunities to earn gift cards for posting about Caribou Coffee on Instagram and TikTok. Plus, Caribou Coffee frequently hosts themed contests and challenges for ambassadors, offering them more opportunities to earn rewards for their content.
The LoudCrowd system offers an automated way to collect, measure, and approve ambassador content. The system also automates the delivery of all communications and rewards to Caribou’s brand ambassadors. Caribou Coffee actively recruits ambassadors who are authentically passionate about the brand and live near one of the brand’s coffeehouses across the nation.
Results
At launch, the new brand ambassador program was well received by Caribou’s passionate community of coffee connoisseurs — and after ten months, the results of the Caribou Coffee Ambassador Program are nothing short of incredible.
Between June 2023 and March 2024, Caribou Coffee grew its total earned UGC content on Instagram and TikTok by 503%. Caribou Coffee’s mighty group of nearly 300 ambassadors has generated 1,500+ pieces of UGC, 7.5M+ impressions (at an influencer CPM of only $3.87), and a best-in-class engagement rate of 3%.
The program has become an irreplaceable pillar of consistent content. In fact, ~1 in 5 pieces of UGC tagging Caribou Coffee comes from its ambassadors. Through the program, ambassadors grant permission for their content to be shared by the brand, allowing Caribou to showcase the ambassadors’ high-quality content across its various marketing channels.
The program also developed an extremely strong pipeline for brand awareness through specific themed ambassador contests and challenges. Caribou Coffee has run more than 20 different ambassador challenges, like “New Holiday Drinks” and “National Coffee Day.”