We’ve been shortlisted for the Drum Awards 2025

drum roll, please

The Content Emporium has been named a finalist in the Organic Social category at The Drum Awards Festival 2025 for its work with Landsec, one of the UK’s largest commercial property companies. 

This recognition means a lot. It celebrates our employee-generated content (EGC) strategy, which is a key component in our human-first approach to social media.

Giving content strategy a human face

Working with our long-standing client Landsec, the UK’s largest commercial property company, we built a bold new organic social strategy rooted in EGC.

Across their 17 UK shopping centres, we spent time on-site to uncover hidden social stars and empower them to feel confident in front of the camera. Retail staff, centre teams, managers, and even a beatboxing security guard, stepped in front of the camera to create personality-filled videos that felt both local and genuine.

Each centre had its own tailored content plan, and crucially, every piece of content felt like it came from the community it represented.

We aimed for authentic production over polished perfection, which allowed for real connection, bloopers and a community-led feel. This led to viral moments, fan-favourite creators, and tangible business impact too.

Over the past year, we’ve seen:

• 32% growth on Instagram followers

• 196% growth on TikTok

On our EGC content alone, we’ve seen:

• 19.4 million combined reach

• 8.93% average engagement rate 

Why employee-generated content works

This approach proved that EGC is so much more than just a budget-friendly content format, it’s a powerful trust-builder that boosts visibility and turns social channels into community-driven spaces. 

“When you turn the lens to real people and raw moments, the results are more powerful and entertaining than anything you can script,” said Molly Martin, Director of Social at The Content Emporium. “Unfiltered, organic moments will resonate with audiences far more than curated, polished, branded content ever could.”

At the heart of this strategy is a simple belief: the people closest to the brand are the ones best equipped to tell its story.

About The Drum Awards

The Drum Awards Festival celebrates the best in modern marketing, bringing together creative agencies and brands from around the world. The Organic Social category highlights exceptional use of social platforms to grow communities and drive engagement without use of paid media.

People powered

We’re incredibly proud of this work and even more proud of the partnership that made it possible. Huge thanks to our brilliant clients, Landsec, for trusting us to experiment, and to The Content Emporium crew for bringing relentless energy, creativity, and care to every single post.

“This international recognition is testament to the creativity and hard work of our team, and to the incredible collaboration we’ve built with Landsec,” said Charlotte Laing, Founder and CEO of The Content Emporium. “Our data shows us that authentic, people-powered content is what cuts through on social, so we have placed that at the heart of our strategy this year. To see our work celebrated on a global stage via The Drum Awards is really rewarding.”

Roll on awards night — we can’t wait!