The "Chief ___ Officer" trick for influencers ⭐️

How to turn mega influencers into brand collaborators

Hey! Tom here 👋 Quick note about how much I appreciate all of you, for responding to these emails with love and inviting your friends to subscribe. I really appreciate it ♥️

---

🎩 The ‘Chief’ trick

Instead of just paying influencers to endorse you, try this:

🪄 Give them a fancy ‘Chief’ title that implies they co-created your product.

Examples:

1. Virgin Voyages made Jennifer Lopez their ‘Chief Entertainment Officer’.

2. Ridge Wallet made Marques Brownlee their ‘Chief Creative Partner’

3. Podia made Jill Dalton (a cooking show host) their ‘Chief Flavor Officer’ 👇

Jill also created a special ‘Creativity Juice’ recipe for Podia. Genius!

The trick is to announce the title on your brand’s social media + create a dedicated landing page on your website (like Podia’s example above) where the influencer can direct their followers.

My #1 tip: The weirder and more personalized to the influencer’s persona, the better. Like ‘Chief Adventure Junkie’ for a travel vlogger or ‘Chief Calorie Crusher’ for a fitness guru.

🧠 Why it works

Two big psychological reasons:

1. 💞 The Parasocial Interaction Effect: People develop imagined personal connections with influencers they follow. By positioning an influencer as a ‘co-creator’ with a ‘Chief’ title, their fans feel an even deeper attachment to both the influencer and your brand/product.

2. 😇 The Halo Effect: When people admire an influencer, they transfer positive feelings to anything directly associated with that person (=you). The effect is stronger with a made-up Chief Something Officer title.

You don’t actually have to give the influencer ownership or a real role in creating your product. It’s pretty clear this is a crazy fake role. Just giving them an unofficial ‘Chief’ title is enough to significantly increase the impact of your campaign together.

💡 TL;DR — Give influencers you work with c-level titles in your company (it’s OK if they don’t have a real role). Just make sure to get their consent.

See you next week ✌️

Tom

---

P.S. Take it a step further - create an actual LinkedIn profile for them using the wacky ‘Chief’ title. It’s unexpected and a great place to share content and updates.

mockup

—If you enjoyed this marketing idea, please tap the Like button below ♥️ Thank you!