Advocacy starts at home: Why team culture is your Brand’s secret weapon
We talk a lot about community, brand love, and loyalty but how often do we talk about what’s happening inside the brand walls?
You can’t build external advocacy if your internal culture is broken.
If your team isn’t aligned, excited, and ready to champion what you're doing, then no amount of creator collabs or UGC will save you.
This conversation came up recently on the Building Brand Advocacy podcast episode with Coryn Brisbane, Brand and Marketing Director (ex VIEVE, Charlotte Tilbury, Flannels and Glossybox), and it stuck with me. So, let’s talk about it.
1. Start With Your Loudest Potential Advocates: Your Team
We spend time mapping out Advocacy funnels and ambassador programs, but skip over the people sitting in our Slack channels.
Every brand has a goldmine of Advocates under their own roof. They understand the product, they see the vision (if you've communicated it), and they’re literally living the brand every day. Yet somehow, they're often left out of the Advocacy equation.
And here's the brutal truth: if your team can't explain why your brand matters, why would anyone else care?
What to do:
Map your internal Advocacy ecosystem. Start by asking: Who already loves what we do? Who's been here the longest? Who’s proud to rep the brand IRL? These people are your internal MVPs.
Create moments that foster brand connection. Team-only product previews. Surprise thank-you notes. Behind-the-scenes brand updates. All of it builds emotional buy-in.
Give your team brand storytelling tools. If someone on the shop floor, in customer care, or the warehouse can’t explain what makes you unique, fix it.
Tactical takeaway: Your team should be able to finish this sentence without blinking:
"What makes our brand different is __________."
If they can’t, start there.
2. EGC Isn’t a Strategy. It’s a Signal.
Everyone’s chasing employee-generated content right now. But EGC that feels forced? Audiences can smell it a mile off.
When your team genuinely wants to share what they’re working on, it shows. You don’t need to script it, approve it, or make a deck about it. It’s organic. And that’s what makes it powerful.
As Coryn put it: “EGC only works when it’s not forced.”
What to do:
Build an onboarding experience with emotional resonance. At Charlotte Tilbury, new starters are brought into the vision from day one. They aren’t just learning systems, they’re joining a movement. That’s how you create internal loyalty.
Give people something to talk about. Celebrate team wins, not just brand milestones. Encourage people to document their experience—what it feels like to work for the brand, not just buy from it.
Let people tell the story in their own way. No polished scripts, no awkward templates. Trust your team to show up authentically. Relinquish control.
Tactical takeaway: If you want more employee content, stop trying to manufacture it and start building a culture people actually want to share.
3. Stop Trading Long-Term Loyalty for Short-Term Wins
Short-termism is the killer of trust. We’ve all seen it, brands rushing to post something reactive, chasing this month’s sales target, partnering with whoever’s trending. But the damage that does to brand trust? It’s not always immediate, but it’s real.
Coryn said it clearly: “Short-term wins chip away at trust. You can’t buy that back with influencer posts.”
What to do:
Put a “brand filter” on every decision. Before you hit publish, ask: Does this feel true to who we are? If it feels off even slightly, rethink it.
Reinforce your values internally, often. Don’t assume everyone knows what you stand for. Use internal comms to remind teams of the long game.
Measure more than just reach. If all your reporting focuses on performance and none of it on resonance, you’ll keep sliding into short-term thinking.
Tactical takeaway: Your team will mirror your priorities. If you obsess over numbers, they will too. But if you anchor them in long-term brand building, that’s the kind of Advocacy you’ll earn inside and out.
4. Brand Isn’t a Department. It’s the Glue.
Brand teams often get put in the “make it look good” box. But great brand strategy isn’t just aesthetics, it’s alignment. It’s the connective tissue between every function. Coryn summed it up perfectly: “The brand team isn’t fluff, it’s the red thread between every customer touchpoint.”
What to do:
Make brand a shared responsibility. Brand shouldn’t sit on one deck or live with one team. It needs to influence everything from product dev to CX.
Empower cross-functional “brand champions.” Appoint people across departments to help uphold tone, storytelling, and emotional consistency. The more aligned the org, the more cohesive the customer experience.
Give the brand team a seat at the strategy table. They’re not just there to “make it pop.” They’re there to build equity, trust, and long-term impact.
Tactical takeaway: Great brands don’t feel cohesive by accident. They do because someone is fiercely protecting the vision across every touchpoint. Make sure that someone has the tools, trust, and visibility to do it properly.
If your team isn’t your first Advocate, you’ve missed the point.
Advocacy starts at home. Not with campaigns. Not with influencers. But with the people who show up for your brand every single day.
Your team should be your loudest supporters, because they believe in what you’re doing, not because they’ve been told to post.
So, here’s the question worth asking:
Would your team Advocate for your brand if they didn’t work there?
If the answer is no, that’s your real brand problem.
In true Advocacy style, share this with a friend, a colleague, or anyone who’s tired of making content that no one watches.