But here we are. Because the Staples Baddie (@blivxx) has taken over TikTok with her genuinely wholesome content about office supplies. The wild thing about this whole scenario is that she was never hired as a content creator. She’s just someone who works at Staples who loves to gush about planners, calculators, and all the things she can help you print. Her whole strategy is literally “stop overthinking and just post the video.” And, if her success is any indication, I’d say brands should be taking a page out of her book right about now…[Here’s how]

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

Meanwhile other brands are going viral every week. Their secret? They're not working harder. They're using a system (and you need one, too).

At this workshop, Stanley Henry (1.4M followers, 1B+ views/year) teaches you that exact system live in just 90 minutes.

You'll learn:

✅The 1 thing you need to never run out of content ideas
✅How the biggest brands go viral on IG (plus what NOT to do)
✅How to create a repeatable content system (that doesn't take hours every day OR a creative team)

26 March | 11am NZDT | 9am AEDT | $79 NZD

Find out exactly how the biggest accounts are blowing up on IG (and how your brand can become one of them) 👇

Are you ready to face another day of atrocities with sheer grit and a full face beat that says: I might be crying on the inside, but on the outside I’m sexy and that’s all that matters? Okay then! Starting off, we have a war update for the astrology girlies – first in my bloodline to say that sentence, btw.

Did you know that three of the leaders that are involved in the current war, were born on an eclipse? Not around, but on the exact day. All three. Now, hear me out. I’m not one of those die hard, blame all my mental health issues on the moon girls, but statistically – this is pretty crazy.

Trump was born on the 14th of June 1946, during a total lunar eclipse, or blood moon. Netanyahu was born October 21, 1949, during a partial solar eclipse in Libra. And finally Ali Khamenei was born April 19, 1939 on the day of an annular solar eclipse. Professional astrologer Chris Brennan initially posted the findings to X, which sparked a range of theories and conspiracies surrounding the leaders. I just think it’s crazy. The odds, according to one X user, are 1 in 440,000.

Less crazy, but equally as interesting is all the laundry content that’s trending – the world continues to burn, but we want clean fresh linens. That’s so funny to me. Because like, of course we do. Laundry scams? Jeeves has you covered. Stains? Melissa will get those out. Crisp, fresh sheets that smell like a spa? Sir Candle Man will tell you how. Listen I know that the idea of LaundryTok trending seems high key ridiculous right now, but if I’m honest, it’s got me hooked. We worry about the things we can control, and if those things are how well I’m doing washing, I’m okay with that! Plus, some of y’all should be more worried, in my opinion.

One final end times indicator for the day: the UFC will be training the FBI this week, in some ungodly crossover of media to IRL. Kash Patel says it will be a “historic seminar”, and they’ll be “even better prepared to protect the American people.”

Sounds very manosphere coded.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Kaeden Rowland, a print specialist at Staples who posts under the handle @blivxx, has been at her job for eight months. In January, she started posting TikToks about what Staples actually does. Things that most customers probably don’t know about; custom mugs, ornaments, shirts, signs, tax services, direct mail.

One video, an ASMR-style stamp-making tutorial, has more than 765,000 likes on TikTok.

Staples reported measurable increases in store traffic and meaningful lifts in the exact products she featured. The nickname "Staples Baddie" stuck organically. She's now booked with events, photoshoots, and partnership deals with brands like CeraVe.

And her entire content strategy is literally word for word “don't miss out making whole meetings about one single video. Just do the video."

Rowland says she doesn't overthink what she wants to say. She simply talks about things that she’s genuinely passionate about in her role. She's also not afraid to experiment, like the ASMR stamp video. It's something that an in-house marketing team would not have suggested, but it received huge success. 

There's no content calendar or approval workflows. No brand guidelines restricting her personality. She has free rein on what she posts, as long as she's not promoting competing office supply companies.

Weeks of strategy meetings, multiple rounds of revisions, legal reviews and brand compliance checks. By the time the content finally goes live, the moment has passed and the energy is dead.

Rowland's approach proves that overthinking kills virality. The best-performing content often comes from people who just hit record and talk authentically about something they care about.

Because let’s be real, Staples has one.

They have a CMO and budgets for campaigns, agencies, paid media, influencer partnerships. Yet none of that drove the kind of organic reach and measurable business impact that one print specialist posting from her phone achieved in a couple of days.

Seven million views on a single video. Store traffic increases, product lift on specific items she mentioned. Brand awareness reaching audiences who probably haven't thought about Staples in years. All from someone who wasn't hired to be a content creator and isn't getting paid to be an influencer.

Rowland genuinely loves her job. She finds the services Staples offers genuinely useful and wants customers to know about them. That enthusiasm reads as real because it is real.

Corporate marketing could never replicate that. No matter how hard you try. No matter how many influencers you hire talk about your products. Because your audience knows it's a paid partnership. You can create branded content that mimics authentic voice. But it still feels produced.

She's selling the experience of walking into a store, talking to a helpful person who's genuinely enthusiastic, and leaving with something you made.

Most Staples are full of creative people who have some passion for stationery, she explains. Getting people to understand that has done numbers for in-person shopping experiences.

She's repositioning Staples from a boring office supply store to a place where creative people help you bring ideas to life. That narrative shift is worth more than any paid campaign. Because it's coming from someone with actual expertise and genuine enthusiasm, not a marketing deck.

Stop having 4 meetings about whether to make the video. Just make the damn video.

Stop requiring six approvals before posting. Just post it.

Stop trying to manufacture authenticity through brand guidelines. Just let authentic people be authentic.

Look inward at your own employees. Who's already passionate about what you do? Who talks about their work with genuine excitement? Who has expertise that audiences would find valuable?

Give them the freedom to create without corporate constraints. Provide support, not restrictions. Collaborate, don't control. Let their personality and expertise shine through instead of forcing them into brand voice templates.

Other brands are already following this model. Starbucks and Ulta are both tapping employees to create content. The pattern is clear: authentic employee voices perform better than polished corporate messaging.

You can't buy employee enthusiasm or mandate employee evangelism. You have to actually create an environment where people feel good enough about their work to share it publicly.

Marketing teams have two options. Accept this reality and empower their passionate employees. Or keep running campaigns that get a fraction of the organic reach one enthusiastic print specialist achieved by just hitting record and being herself.

Sometimes the best marketing strategy is to get out of your own way. Stop overthinking. Stop overproducing. Stop requiring approval from people who don't understand the platform.

Just do the video. And if you're lucky, you might find your own Staples Baddie.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Today’s trending clip comes from the 2010 breakup anthem “Ridin’ Solo” by Jason Derulo. Despite the song being 15 years old, it’s found its way back. There’s a focus on the chorus, “Feeling like a star, you can't stop my shine, I'm loving cloud nine, my head's in the sky. Yeah, I'm solo, I'm riding solo”, Derulo leaning fully into that confident, carefree, nonchalant energy.

People are using the chorus with the “ur so funny” OST, followed by an overshare that explains why they’ve reached peak humour (but it’s lowkey concerning/unhinged/too honest). For example:

Start with the Ridin’ Solo audio. Turn the camera on yourself or make a photo carousel using funny/distress memes. Then, use the on-screen text “ur so funny” along with “thnx,” and your niche traumatic moment.

A few ideas to get you started:

-Fiona Badiana, Intern

😲WTF: Sharing a kiss can lead to what?
❤How wholesome: The magic word "please"
🎧Soooo tingly: Need your brain scratched?
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Creamy Lemon Chicken Recipe

Hey Lena,

Getting new followers and engaging current followers are two different jobs that your content can do. And mixing them up is one of the most common mistakes we see. Content designed to go viral and get you new followers is what we call “acquisition content”. This should appeal to the masses and might even have some sort of call to action or mechanism to get people to follow you.

Once someone follows you, what we call your “service content” is designed to engage them on a deeper level. These might be educational posts, behind the scenes stuff, product content. It’s what keeps people around and eventually moves them toward buying. The key is not trying to do both things in one piece of content. Otherwise, you water down both jobs and end up doing neither well.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.