Why Béis Wants to Turn Its Employees Into Mini Social Media Stars

Béis, the six-year-old luggage company founded by actress and founder Shay Mitchell, is drumming up social media buzz from its employees. While competing luggage brands like Away and Monos give creators the keys to growing their social media followings, Béis is seeing the most social engagement from posts created by its own staff. For the past couple of years, Béis has turned its social media focus towards its employees to give followers a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into photo shoots. The approach is also aimed at turning the company's employees into social media stars. The brand mixes these posts with more traditional influencer campaigns like the recent launch of its Utility Collection in August. Béis has recently ramped up the amount of employee-focused content. Since September, Béis' employee-focused TikTok content has received more than 19.9 million views and 1 million engagements compared to 347,000 views and 2,600 engagements from non-employee content during the same time period, according to the brand. https://www.tiktok.com/@beis/video/7360746203153468718?lang=en The strategy is aimed at getting other brands to weigh in. In June, the Béis marketing team noticed a trend on social media where people were asking their boyfriends for bags. This led Béis' marketing team to make a video asking for 100,000 likes and an airline sponsor to go on a trip. The TikTok post went viral, with more than 200 brands commenting on it like Sol de Janeiro, Anthropologie, and Morphe Cosmetics. Béis' marketing team took the trip to Costa Rica in August, with Delta and The Four Seasons agreeing to pay for the trip. Brands like Monday Swimwear and Rare Beauty also sent free products for Béis' staffers. ADWEEK spoke with Shay Mitchell about the brand's approach to employee-driven social content. This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity. ADWEEK: When creating Béis’ social strategy, was there anything you knew you wanted? Shay Mitchell: I've always been so heavy on social myself [that] I kind of did similar things—just listening to what your audience likes and engages with. If you listen, they will tell you—sometimes a lot—and you're like, "Ok, I just asked for a couple of things." You engage with what gets you [and] whether you learn something from it. You have to be engaging with your community because that's who you're talking with. I feel like we always take our cues from them. Was employee-driven content always part of the plan? It just organically started happening where we were sort of pulling back the curtain. We were showing the faces behind Béis, and they loved that. When I love a brand, I love to see how certain brands work behind the scenes. Everything is smoke and mirrors with a final product photo on social but how did you get that? That is what I want to see. Before posting an employee-made post, do you figure out how it will be promoted? We have a loose plan, but then we're open to twists and turns. With social, if you have a launch, we shot those photos a while ago. You aren't shooting it the week before. You can't plan for that stuff. Of course, there's some sort of schedule to that, but it's not going to be hot in two months from now. So it's like playing the game, which also keeps it fun and interesting. It's not that serious. What platform do you all have the most fun with? I feel grateful that I have such an awesome team. It's a few girls that plan the scheduling of all of that. I think it's similar to how I do my stuff. Some stuff I put on TikTok. I don't put everything that I put on TikTok on Reels. I think you mix and match it. There are benefits to all different platforms. For example, we want to get more into YouTube. Béis also collaborates with brands like Universal Pictures' Wicked and Warner Bros.' Barbie. With the recent release of the Wicked collection, do you have a favorite piece? I'd have to say the Weekender. I just traveled with it, and I'm so obsessed with it.

Branding

Why Béis Wants to Turn Its Employees Into Mini Social Media Stars

Founder Shay Mitchell talks about the brand's TikTok strategy

Colin Daniels

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Colin Daniels