Brand
Costco’s Organic Social Buzz Is Pulling In Younger Members Without a Marketing Budget
Costco is picking up a following on social media without paying for it, and the pattern lines up with new research on why unpaid creator content converts.
As reported by The Seattle Times, a sponge cake replicating Costco’s waffle-cone ice cream, complete with chocolate and caramel swirls and mini cone garnishes, has gone viral across social platforms after an influencer’s video calling it “the most incredible thing” she’d ever seen drew more than 30,000 likes and hundreds of comments.
The retailer did not pay for the placement. “You’re seeing the waffle cone, but it’s not like Costco shelled out any advertising money for you to see that,” David Bellinger, a Director and Senior Analyst at Mizuho Financial Group who covers Costco, told the Seattle Times. “It’s more of an organic viral thing.”
Costco spends minimally on marketing but amplifies creators after the fact, featuring them on its Instagram account and praising their efforts in its member magazine, according to the report.
The unpaid, unpolished nature of the content is consistent with what martech platform Hummingbirds found in a November 2025 report on retail creator marketing: user-generated content shot in ordinary settings outperforms polished influencer content by 2.4 times on engagement, and shoppers are 79% more likely to purchase when UGC appears alongside a product. The Hummingbirds report also found nano creators, those with fewer than 10,000 followers, post a 6.2% engagement rate compared with 1.8% for creators with more than a million followers.
That dynamic already touches Costco directly. A campaign for oat brand MUSH activated 28 creators to promote overnight oats at Costco, producing 56 pieces of user-generated content and more than 2,000 engagements, per the Hummingbirds research.
The social traction comes as Costco works to bring in younger members. Baby boomers and Gen X still make up the bulk of its customer base, but a January 2026 Mizuho report found that more than half of Costco’s new membership growth is coming from consumers under 40, according to the Seattle Times.
Costco CEO Ron Vachris joined the trend of executives tasting their own company’s products on camera in March, and newer menu items such as chicken strips and a pretzel bagel have drawn attention on Instagram and X.
Kirkland Signature, Costco’s private-label brand, is also part of the pitch to younger, price-conscious shoppers. The brand generates $90 billion in annual revenue and accounts for more than 30% of Costco’s merchandise sales, Bellinger said. A recent McKinsey & Company report found that retail grocers are broadly expanding private-label offerings as consumers prioritize value amid rising food costs.
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