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:
Virgin Voyages made Jennifer Lopez their ‘Chief Entertainment Officer’.
Ridge Wallet made Marques Brownlee their ‘Chief Creative Partner’
Podia made Jill Dalton (a cooking show host) their ‘Chief Flavor Officer’ 👇
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:
💞 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.
😇 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.
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We did this at MAIA Digital
Meet Gaya - our CBO
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaya-the-dog