The ‘Staples Baddie’ shares the secrets behind her viral success

“It’s come to my attention that y’all don’t really know the full scope of what Staples does,” begins a recent TikTok video from Staples print specialist Kaeden Rowland that now has nearly 7 million views and more than 776,000 likes. “We can make ornaments, we can make mugs, shirts, backpacks, signs, posters…whatever you could need.”

Rowland, who posts under the TikTok handle @blivxx and sometimes goes by the name Oblivion, has worked at Staples for just around eight months, but when she began posting about the company in January, it “only took a couple days to really start getting consistent traction” on those videos. It wasn’t long after that before she became known as the “Staples Baddie.”

“I loved how that organically developed and it just stuck,” Rowland told us of the nickname. “I was like, ‘I guess I can live with that.’”

As people increasingly share their lives, including their 9-to-5s, online, employees like Rowland are part of a growing cohort of de facto social ambassadors for the brands they work for. Not every employer is on board: in recent years, an employee at Chick-fil-A said she was asked to stop filming content related to her work, and one Sherwin-Williams employee was fired after growing a following from paint-mixing videos created while on the clock. Both employees subsequently worked with other brands.

Staples is taking a different approach. Rowland said that while she had some initial fears around how the’ corporate team would react, the response has been “overwhelmingly positive and truly unexpected.”

Staples CMO Bob Sherwin said in a statement sent by social media and PR director Dina Mortada that the brand is “incredibly proud” of Rowland and is “exploring opportunities to collaborate and continue supporting her creativity and engagement with the community.” According to the New York Times, Staples has reported “measurable increases” in store traffic and “meaningful lifts” in products shown in Rowland’s viral posts, including mugs and specialty print products.

We spoke with Rowland about her content strategy and what she thinks other marketers can learn from her success.

That was easy

Rowland said she began posting about her job in an effort to get more people to come into the store and take advantage of Staples services that they perhaps weren’t aware of. Now, she said, she’s seen the results firsthand, and has even been recognized from her videos.

“I never imagined to go and become this big face of the brand,” she said. “I just liked the job, and so I decided to post about it and just be positive and share what we have to offer, and it worked.”

Rowland credits her success to her passion for and expertise in her role, as well as her commitment to sharing her full self online. She said she doesn’t overthink what she wants to say in her videos, whether they’re about direct mail or tax services, and she’s not afraid to experiment. One idea, an ASMR-style stamp-making tutorial, has more than 765,000 likes on TikTok.

“I just [film] as if I’m talking to a customer I’ve known for years,” she said. “That’s what’s worked and I encourage other brands to do the same. Don’t miss out making whole meetings about one single video. Just do the video.”

“Baddie” habits

For the most part, Rowland said she has free reign on the content she posts and the brand deals she signs as a result of her newfound fame, just as long as she’s not promoting any other office supply companies. Since becoming a viral sensation, she said she’s now “booked and busy” with events, photoshoots, and partnership deals with brands including CeraVe.

That’s not to say she’s moved on from Staples or plans to change up her content strategy any time soon. Rowland said she’s brainstormed some new content ideas with Staples’ corporate team, but the general plan is to continue posting about services and products that come to mind each day based on what she sees people using—or, in some cases, not using enough.

Rowland said she sees the response to her content as evidence of people’s desire for third places and for in-store shopping experiences where shoppers can create something tangible and connect with others in real life, whether it’s a fellow customer or a “helpful baddie” guiding them.

“Most Staples are full of fun, creative people who have some sort of passion for stationery,” she said. “Getting people to understand that, I feel, has done numbers for in-person shopping experiences.”

As brands like Starbucks and Ulta also tap employees to post content, Rowland said it’s important that marketers and executives “look inward” and remember that the best-performing content often comes from the happiest employees.

“If you don’t have someone like me wanting to go out there and make content about your company, you haven’t made someone feel that way,” she said. “You have to be a good company in order for this to work at all because you need to have someone who authentically loves the company…It’s the best job I've ever had, and I want everyone to know that.”