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How Campus Creators Is Flipping Influencer Marketing On Its Head
In 2021, Iffy Alade launched Campus Creators alongside co-founder Jack Copeland. He'd just returned to Canada from the U.K. where he’d spent four years as an event manager for one of country's largest event companies.
The playbook he brought back with him was simple but powerful: recruit socially active students to promote – first events, and now, brands.
“This is the model that I brought back with me to create Campus Creators,” says Alade. “Recruiting students and having them use their social media and networking to promote.”
Their approach flips traditional influencer marketing on its head. Campus Creators focuses on everyday students with real-life social influence, not internet fame. “We don’t hire influencers,” Alade explains. “We recruit real people with real influence over their friends, peers and immediate networks.”
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The company runs campaigns in every major city across Canada, with Ontario as its strongest market. They vet new ambassadors every two weeks based on offline and online activity, content style and interests. “Follower count doesn’t matter if we can see that you’re active socially in real life,” says Alade. "We look for outgoing personalities who have strong networking skills. We look for involvement in extracurricular activities and an eye for good content."
Iffy AladeSienna Reid
It’s a model that’s not only scalable, but personal. “Our community manager truly gets to know a little about the ambassadors,” Alade says. “It makes it harder to scale but it also gives us an edge and trustworthiness.”
Campus Creators now has over 600 active ambassadors in its network. Brands like HelloFresh, Billboard Canada and Twisted Tea have tapped into their student-led campaigns, but they also love working with emerging businesses. “We really love helping young businesses starting out that are launching something new and exciting and just need to get eyes [on] what they’re doing.”
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One memorable early win came during a campaign with Carlsberg back in 2023.
“We helped Carlsberg Canada launch a hard lemonade brand called Seth & Riley’s Garage,” Alade recalls. “We did a guerilla style campaign… driving all over Ontario delivering samples to ambassadors and sponsoring parties and events. We distributed over 4,000 bottles.”
A more recent success? Their NXNE partnership. “We helped them boost engagement on a giveaway,” says Alade. “Then we had a team of creators attend the summit to share content… We saw over 60 content pieces shared over the course of NXNE resulting in over 50,000 eyes on content published by Campus Creators.”
As the business grows, Alade remains committed to the personal nature of their work. “The plan is to keep growing, keep supporting small businesses looking to get ahead and keep providing an opportunity for students to make some money, have awesome experiences and grow their social presence.”
Find more information on Campus Creators' website and Instagram.
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