Erewhon influencer playbook

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I visited Erewhon (grocery store) for the first time when I hit LA and it was a mistake. So, it started when I saw the Represent x Erewhon smoothie collab. Then my fiancé saw the Hailey Bieber smoothie collab. Next thing I know I'm spending $350 on what feels like a loaf of bread and a bottle of water. And I must love to suffer. Because I went back every day. So, today I'm covering Erewhon's influencer marketing strategy and how I obviously was...influenced.

And as always, thank you to our partners North Star Inbound and SARAL.

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There’s over 6 billion pieces of content posted each day on social alone.

All competing for the same attention.

AI-generated blog content isn’t enough.

You need content that stands out, gets backlinks, and drives high intent traffic.

So here’s your options:

1. Ask your content manager to figure it out (slow)

2. Hire someone to focus on this full-time (expensive)

3. Work with an agency that promises results over the next 6 to 18 months.

Excuse my french - but f*ck that.

Which is where North Star Inbound comes in.

Their team has a track record of generating 6-figures in directly attributable revenue in a matter of months.

You don’t see those kind of results every day.

Erewhon is a grocery store in LA that was founded in 1966.

So how did posing with one of their smoothies on IG become a status symbol?

Influencer marketing.

And it’s not just your basic "trade for posts", "pay for posts", or “whitelisting” strategies. Erewhon took it to a whole new level.

It's a masterclass in creating hype through influencer marketing. And it paid off by turning a grocery store into a social club.

Limited Drop Collab With High-Profile Influencers to Generate Organic Buzz.

Erewhon's strategy revolves around collaborating with high-profile influencers and celebrities to create buzz and drive traffic to their stores through limited-edition smoothie drops.

These exclusive co-creations, available only at Erewhon, use ingredients sourced from the store and become viral with each launch.

Take Hailey Bieber's Strawberry Glaze Smoothie, launched in collaboration with Erewhon in 2022.

Hailey shared it with her 12.6M followers on TikTok.

The buzz was amplified by PR and headlines.

Then came the flood of organic content - photos and videos of people trying the smoothie.

The result? Hundreds of millions of people got to know Erewhon. The impact was so big that even today, the chain still sells 40,000 of Hailey Bieber's Strawberry Skin Glaze smoothies per month.

Erewhon drops a new co-created smoothie every couple of weeks.

It's a non-stop buzz machine.

And the genius of the strategy lies in its multi-layered impact.

The co-creation makes the influencer an integral part of the product, not just a face promoting it. This authenticity resonates with their followers.

The limited edition nature creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity.

And the in-store exclusivity drives foot traffic.

And when influencers and their followers start posting about the smoothie, it creates a snowball effect of user-generated content.

Erewhon reached millions of accounts via UGC.

Each new collab brings a fresh wave of buzz, a new reason to visit Erewhon, and a reinforcement of Erewhon's position as a social club of grocery stores.

Leveraging Community Leaders to Showcase the Erewhon Lifestyle and Lead by Example for Other Creators

Celebrity collaborations are great for generating awareness, but you can't expect them to post about your brand every day.

That's where community leaders come in - influencers who can seamlessly integrate Erewhon into their daily lives and content.

Chef Bae, a private chef who makes a "daily trip" to Erewhon for her groceries, is the perfect partner to embed Erewhon into her life and showcase it to her followers every day.

She consistently incorporates Erewhon into her content, like introducing new Erewhon products, doing taste tests, and providing recipe inspiration.

More importantly, she leads by example, showing other creators how to post about Erewhon in an authentic, engaging way.

Chef Bae popularized the #erewhonhaul hashtag (now with 68M posts on TikTok), recording her grocery shopping trip to Erewhon, turning it into a content theme that any creator visiting LA aspires to join.

These community leaders have become an integral part of Erewhon's marketing strategy. By living and breathing the Erewhon lifestyle, they provide constant, authentic exposure to their followers. They turn Erewhon from a grocery store into an aspirational lifestyle.

It works because it's not just a one-way street. Erewhon provides the products and the platform, while the influencers provide the content and the audience.

As Mr. Widener, Erewhon's CEO, said, "I think we leveraged the digital community, but the digital community leveraged Erewhon."

In partnership with SARAL

Grow Your Brand Like Erewhon

Let’s be real, if a 60 year old brand is crushing influencer partnerships ~ what’s stopping your brand from doing the same?

I get it, sourcing, and sealing deals with influencers using spreadsheets ain’t easy, and tracking deliverables can be a tedious task.

Thankfully, it’s 2024 and with SARAL you can:

1. Build lists of influencers (think: creator CRM).

2. Send automated outreach sequences.

3. Track relationships at stages of the funnel.

Brands are seeing an average ROAS of 5.12x on SARAL. We bet that's better than what you're seeing on FB right now. The best part? You can claim a Marketing Examined special extended free trial here.

It's the only tool you need for building an influencer marketing program. Check it out!

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