Fresh Success: Otera's new store openings powered by highly-targeted local influencer strategy

About Otera

What if you could shop at a market that’s super, instead of an ordinary old supermarket? Grocery retailer Otera, with its offer of seasonal, sustainably sourced fresh produce is offering exactly that. Founded in 2007, Otera operates 11 stores across France that leverage short food supply chains, and emphasise seasonality and pricing transparency. 

‍The Campaign: Expand Otera’s store network and reach highly targeted local audiences with tailored messaging

France is home to a growing trend that sees more consumers turning to local producers, looking to purchase sustainable products, and conscious that farmers and producers should receive a fair cut of the sale price for their products. 

Having taken the time to prove and refine its local sourcing and distribution concept in its home region of France’s North, Otera last year set its sights on conquering the rest of the country.  

But its focus on local, short food supply chains and physical retailing model meant it faced the challenge of building brand awareness in areas where the Otera brand and concept was effectively unknown to anyone locally. 

And with a concept so radically different from the general consumer experience, traditional marketing methods like TV spots or billboards would not suffice. 

Having the space to explain why buying imperfectly shaped vegetables is more environmentally friendly, or why some products are unavailable or more expensive than in conventional supermarkets, is absolutely crucial to the success of Otera’s business model. 

“In the context of the drive to open stores in regions we're not known at all, there was a real objective to develop the company's reputation through various communication actions. Influence, in particular, was key part of our store-opening communication strategy,” comments Otera Head of Communications Fanny Debrie.

Challenge #1: Find and recruit influencers who would resonate with relevant consumers living in close proximity to new store openings

A successful influence campaign always depends on two key points: having clear objectives, and leveraging the right influencers to achieve them. 

To generate awareness for new store openings in Brest, Merignac and Frejus, Otera’s Fanny Debrie was clear about the type of influencer required for the campaigns. They should be local to the area, have large local followings for maximum reach and be aligned with the brand’s eco-friendly and family values. 

With Otera stores also designed to be community hubs where customers can interact with producers through tastings, workshops and local events, the right influencers would also be foodies with families, interested in participating in and sharing information from local events. 

With such precise criteria, Kolsquare provided the tools to filter and identify the right influencers based on location, content type and audience interests. This targeted approach saved significant time and ensured that the influencers chosen were a perfect fit for Otera’s brand ethos.

“Above all, I was looking at location, but also about what and how they were communicating. What kind of content, was it more family orientated or about food? The filter selection of Kolsquare about the interests of the influencer’s community really helped us to choose the right influencers for the store openings,” comments Otera’s Fanny Debrie. 

‍The Solution: Use Kolsquare’s extensive filter options to drill down into a KOL’s content, audience interests and location

Otera’s ambitious growth plan included opening three stores last year: one in Brest (Brittany), one in Mérignac (South-West France), and a third in Fréjus near Nice in France’s south. 

Typical of France, each region not only has its local produce specialities, but core demographic and geographical differences that Otera’s Fanny Debrie needed to consider when developing communications plans and allocating budget for each campaign. 

For the opening of the Frejus store, for example, she struggled to find relevant influencers due to the region’s high ratio of vacation homes and older population demographic. The inverse was true for Mérignac, whose proximity to the business hub of Bordeaux meant there was a large pool of relevant KOLs to choose from. 

“Knowing this I was able to reduce the influence budget for Fréjus and allocate it elsewhere, and increase the influence budget for Mérignac,” comments Otera’s Fanny Debrie.

“Thanks to Kolsquare, we were able to target the right influencers and it really paid off in the end. We had a lot of good feedback on the content, and qualitative feedback from customers. Kolsquare also enabled us to have convictions about the types of KOLs that worked best of our objectives, and they were not necessarily micros, but macros with a large audience.” 

‍In detail: The runaway success of Otera’s store opening in Brest 

The store opening in the picturesque port town of Brest in October 2023 is a prime example of Otera's successful use of influencer marketing. With a total marketing budget of €15K, Debrie allocated a third to influence.   

Much of the campaign’s success was down to the activation of food and lifestyle KOL Jenny Gryffon (@ma.tribue.et.moi, 275K followers on Instagram), who was commissioned to create in-store educational and product testing Stories and Posts.  

Gryffon’s engaging content generated a positive local buzz for the store opening and drew customers to the store who recognized her from social media, again proving the effectiveness of activating KOLs anchored in the local community.  

In total, Gryffon produced 11 pieces of content that generated 7K likes, 949K impressions, and €50.36K EMV.

‍The Challenge #2: Limited budget, big ambitions. Justifying the success of influencer marketing to the boss

Debrie began incorporating influencer marketing into Otera’s marketing strategy three years ago, signing on with Kolsquare in 2023 specifically to support the brand’s ambitious store expansion plan. 

But understanding the value of influence at the operational level is a different game to justifying spending scarce marketing pennies to senior management who may have little direct experience of social media marketing. 

By leveraging Kolsuqare’s extensive data collection and analysis capabilities, Debrie was able to clearly demonstrate the impact her efforts had generated, and secure new funding going forward.  

“Using Kolsquare for the collaborations for the first store openings we did helped us get more budget from management for 2024. Kolsquare allowed me to demonstrate the impact. We invested €5K but it brought us €52K, this notion of ROI allowed us to challenge management on that,” comments Debrie.

Looking ahead, Otera plans to continue using influencer marketing as a core component of its store-openings strategy. The learnings from Brest — such as the effectiveness of engaging influencers with larger, dedicated followings over micro-influencers — will inform future campaigns.

Additionally, Otera aims to establish long-term partnerships with influencers to maintain brand visibility and engagement throughout the year, not just during store openings. This ongoing relationship with influencers will help in creating a sustained brand narrative and fostering deeper connections with the community.

Want to learn how Kolsquare can help your brand leverage the right influencers to expand and consolidate its retail footprint? Book a demo with one of our influence experts now!