Last Updated on July 24, 2026
TikTok content made by store colleagues
7 million likes, ~200k followers
Organic TikTok beat paid ads on ROI
Measured properly with econometrics
The move
Currys is a 100-year-old electricals retailer, which is roughly the least fashionable thing a brand can be on TikTok. Instead of hiding that, Currys handed the channel to the people who actually work in its stores.
The videos are skits and memes filmed on the shop floor by real colleagues. Staff deadpanning through Gen Z slang. A team jumping on whatever trend is running that week, with a washing machine or a laptop in shot. No studio, no agency polish, no celebrity. The running joke is that the staff are funnier than the products, and the products still get explained along the way.
Then Currys did the part almost nobody does: it measured. In 2024 the marketing team put organic social into its econometric ROI model, the same maths used to judge its paid media. The result, reported by The Drum, was that TikTok content delivered a better return than paid advertising.
Why it worked
People do not open TikTok to watch adverts, and the platform’s users can smell a media agency from the first frame. Content made by recognisable shop-floor staff reads as human, and the format quietly demonstrates the one thing Currys has that Amazon does not: real people in real shops you can actually talk to.
The strategy is entertainment first, product second. Currys’ brand director Dan Rubel describes it as engaging people first and linking back to the brand second. That ordering matters. The skit earns the attention, and the laptop spec rides along inside it.
The measurement is the unglamorous half of the lesson. Plenty of brands post silly videos. Currys proved the silly videos outperformed its paid media, which is why the approach survived budget reviews instead of being killed as a gimmick.
The principle
Your staff are a content advantage no competitor can copy. An agency can imitate your ads, but it cannot imitate your fitter, your receptionist or your Saturday lad explaining something in their own voice. Personality plus product knowledge is the one format where a small business out-guns a big one.
Steal this
A five-person firm can run this playbook better than a plc. The staff-to-customer distance is shorter.
Pick the person, not the platform. Someone on your team is naturally funny or naturally clear on camera. It is often not the owner. Ask who the customers already love, and build around them. Willing beats senior every time.
Steal formats, not scripts. Watch what is trending in your feed this week and remake it inside your business. The trend supplies the joke structure. Your trade supplies the twist. A tiler doing a running trend beats a tiler explaining grout to a tripod.
Keep the product in shot, not in charge. Entertainment first, then let the expertise show up naturally. One genuine tip inside a daft video sells harder than a straight sales pitch, because people actually watch it to the end.
Judge it on enquiries, not likes. Ask every new customer how they found you, and write the answer down. Currys needed econometrics; you need a notebook and the discipline to check it monthly before deciding the videos are or are not working.
Sources & further reading
- Currys’ TikTok videos now deliver better ROI than paid advertising · The Drum
- Currys’ TikTok fame: there is smart strategy there too · The Drum
- Behind the campaign: Currys social media · Famous Campaigns
Where they are now
The account keeps growing through 2026, staff faces have become recurring characters with their own fans, and the approach is now cited across retail as the benchmark for employee-led social.
The Whito verdict
The clever part is not the humour. It is the honesty about what Currys actually is: a shop staffed by people. Everything in the content flows from that one true thing, which is why it works and why copying the jokes without the people would fail.
Most small businesses sit on the same asset and never use it. You have staff, they have personalities, and your customers would rather watch them than your logo. The only question is whether you will press record before your competitor does.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Currys’ TikTok strategy?
Store colleagues make entertainment-first skits and memes on the shop floor, riding current trends with products worked in naturally. The account has built roughly 200,000 followers and 7 million likes, and the strategy is run on an engagement-first, brand-second principle.
Does employee content actually deliver sales?
Currys added organic social to its econometric ROI model in 2024 and found its TikTok content delivered a better return than paid advertising, which is rare for organic social and the reason the strategy kept its budget.
How can a small business copy Currys on TikTok?
Choose your most natural performer, remake trending formats inside your trade, keep products visible but secondary, and track where new enquiries come from so you can judge the effort on revenue rather than likes.
