Her name tag says Kaeden. Online, she’s Oblivion. Two months ago she was a 22-year-old print specialist at a Staples in upstate New York — clocking in, making custom mugs, helping people with passport photos. Then she started posting TikToks in her red work shirt and lanyard. No ring light. No script. No marketing team. No strategy meeting. Today she has 491K followers, 11.5 million likes, and a pinned video with 5.4 million views. The official Staples TikTok has 47K. One employee outperforming the entire brand 10 to 1.
How It Started: Genuine Enthusiasm, Not a Campaign
Kaeden started posting because she noticed how few people actually used Staples’ print services — and it bothered her. So she decided to speak directly to TikTok in her own voice: “Come on, y’all, get some direct mail. We can print anything.”
That was it. No brief. No approval chain. No budget. No incentive beyond the fact that she genuinely liked her job and thought people should know what Staples could do.
Her videos range from ASMR walkthroughs of Staples’ custom print options, to highlighting reward programs and the latest deals — she even breaks down the pros and cons of Staples’ direct-mail service for everything from small-business owners to couples planning weddings. One video explained that Staples can print eight-foot banners. Comments filled up with people saying they had no idea. Then they went to the store. Then they told their friends.
The Numbers That Should Make Every CMO Uncomfortable
Kaeden’s pinned video explaining the full scope of Staples’ print services has over 5.4 million views. She now has roughly 491K followers and 11.5 million likes. She earns her hourly retail wage. She wasn’t briefed by a marketing team or handed talking points.
One TikTok user, Alexandra Hallman, posted a video — which racked up 1.4 million views — about how she saved over $1,000 on a skateboard wall art project thanks to Kaeden’s tutorials. According to Fast Company, that’s one example of dozens. People aren’t just watching. They’re going to the store. They’re switching their business print orders to Staples. They’re tagging friends.
Staples followed her account, had PR reach out to her store, and engaged in her comment section using platform-native language — the now-famous example being the Staples corporate account commenting “bogos binted queen” under her videos. That single move is worth examining closely. It said: we understand the joke. It joined the conversation without hijacking it. Most brands would have sent a cease-and-desist or filmed a polished co-branded response. Staples did neither, and it was exactly right.
What Made It Work — And Why You Can’t Just Copy It
A frontline employee with a TikTok account just did what years of expensive corporate repositioning couldn’t: she made Staples genuinely, virally cool.
But here’s the part brands want to skip over: it worked because it was real. Kaeden’s goal wasn’t to pitch products like an ad. She framed services as things she wished customers would try — talking about seeing unused print equipment every shift and feeling disappointed nobody ordered them. That emotional honesty is what landed. The moment it becomes a campaign, it stops being that.
The instinct for many brands is to bring viral employee content “in-house,” which strips out everything that made it work. As Parade noted, the algorithm doesn’t reward polished. It rewards human. No creative director can replicate what Kaeden built, because what she built was trust — earned over dozens of unscripted videos, in a red work shirt, with bejeweled nails clicking on a company lanyard.
The Bigger Lesson for Creators and Brands
Kaeden is what the marketing industry calls employee-generated content — and according to Evokad, it’s quickly becoming one of the most powerful formats in the creator economy.
For creators: you don’t need a niche, a ring light, or 100K followers to build something real. You need genuine knowledge, a clear point of view, and the willingness to show up consistently. Kaeden didn’t go viral once — she kept posting, kept engaging, kept being herself.
For brands: your best marketing asset might already be on your payroll. The people closest to your product — the ones who actually use it, believe in it, and can explain it in plain English — are more valuable than any agency brief. The question is whether you give them the space to speak.
Kaeden herself put it simply: “I really just enjoy it, it’s really fun. I hope to become a star.”
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