- A two-day pop-up in Los Angeles showcased the freshest in beauty, wellness, fashion, and snacks to 141 influencers, facilitating brand connections and content creation.
- The event was invitation-only, ensuring a curated, intimate experience that fostered authentic connections between brands and influencers, yielding impactful content and brand engagement.
- Influencers generated almost 400 pieces of content across Instagram within days, and several brands saw immediate spikes in traffic and social mentions after the event, demonstrating its lasting impact.
BRANDEdit, a division of The Digital Dept., has taken a bold step in elevating the influencer experience. On April 10-11, 2025, BRANDEdit hosted its Spring Grocer Influencer Experience in Los Angeles, transforming a vacant Melrose Avenue storefront into an experiential pop-up designed to foster authentic brand relationships and create impactful content.
Strategically scheduled just before Coachella weekend, this exclusive event brought together 141 hand-picked influencers for a memorable, collaborative experience with brands.
The Spring Grocer Influencer Experience wasn’t your typical influencer event. Instead of traditional product displays, the space was reimagined with shelves stacked with the latest in beauty, wellness, and fashion items.
Influencers were invited to explore this grocery-themed gifting suite, which offered everything from skincare products to healthy snacks. The purpose? To create a fun, visually appealing environment for content creation, allowing influencers to engage with products in a way that felt natural, genuine, and immersive.
BRANDEdit’s focus was on building authentic connections, and this event was crafted with a clear goal: to facilitate meaningful interactions between creators and brands. By positioning the event as an influencer-only experience, BRANDEdit ensured that each brand could cultivate deeper relationships with creators and effectively engage with an audience that truly resonated with their message.
The Exclusive Influencer-Only Setup
Why did BRANDEdit opt for an exclusive, invitation-only setup? As Belinda Sztrom, Vice President of Events and Partnerships at The Digital Dept., explained, an influencer-only event allows for a more intimate experience that fosters “real engagement” and “controlled storytelling.”
With 141 influencers in attendance, the event was curated to ensure that each participant not only created content but also had an opportunity to form a lasting bond with the brands they engaged with.
The choice to focus on influencers with smaller, highly engaged communities was also strategic. As research has shown, smaller communities often have more significant impacts than larger but passive followings. These influencers were carefully selected to ensure their audience was genuinely aligned with the brands showcased at the event, guaranteeing that the content produced would resonate with the right people.
The Experience: What Was on Offer?
At the Spring Grocer Influencer Experience, attendees enjoyed much more than just products. The event was designed to be a multi-sensory experience, with multiple brands offering unique activations that would enhance the influencers' connection to the brand.
For example, MaryRuth Organics, a title sponsor, set up a smoothie bar featuring fruity, probiotic blends that included ingredients like acai, mango, and lavender. Influencers could also participate in on-site piercings by jewelry brand Lovisa or check out an interactive styling station with brands like Crocs, EyeBuyDirect, and Saysh.
The event offered a perfect blend of beauty, fashion, wellness, and personalized experiences, ensuring that influencers would walk away not only with new content but with a strong emotional connection to the brands involved.
Content Creation and Engagement
One of the core objectives of the Spring Grocer Influencer Experience was content creation, and BRANDEdit nailed it by designing a space that was optimized for this purpose. With thoughtfully placed lighting, stunning product displays, and easy navigation throughout the venue, influencers had everything they needed to capture high-quality content.
In the days following the event, BRANDEdit tracked an impressive 400+ pieces of content across Instagram—both stories and grid posts. The event’s influence didn’t end there. Many influencers showcased products they received at Coachella, integrating them into their festival content.
This cross-platform content integration is a testament to the event’s lasting impact on both the influencers and the brands involved.
Influencer Marketing Tips from BRANDEdit
The Spring Grocer Influencer Experience wasn’t just about product discovery and content creation—it was also an opportunity to glean insights into effective influencer marketing. According to Sztrom, the event’s success can be attributed to several key strategies:
- Leading with Clarity: Set expectations early regarding timing, deliverables, and what attendees can expect.
- Designing for Content: Ensure that the event space is optimized for content creation, with great lighting, easy navigation, and visually appealing backdrops.
- Prioritizing Event Flow: Keep the event seamless for influencers, with clear signage and well-briefed brand ambassadors to guide them through the space.
- Offering Meaningful Takeaways: Influencer gifting should be thoughtful and aligned with the brand’s messaging, ensuring influencers feel compelled to share their experience.
- Following Up: Post-event outreach is critical for maintaining relationships with influencers and encouraging future collaborations.
The Lasting Impact and Brand Integration
The impact of the Spring Grocer Influencer Experience went far beyond the event itself. BRANDEdit’s strategy of creating a space that encouraged influencers to integrate the showcased products into their ongoing content led to an organic form of brand integration.
Many influencers who received sunglasses, shoes, and beauty products at the event were seen wearing them during Coachella, effectively extending the life of the brand collaborations beyond the pop-up.
This type of integration is invaluable in influencer marketing, as it creates lasting, authentic connections between brands and their target audience. Influencers wearing or using the products naturally integrate them into their everyday lives, which resonates deeply with their followers.
A New Era for Influencer-Brand Relationships
BRANDEdit’s Spring Grocer Influencer Experience is a shining example of how experiential marketing can drive real, authentic engagement between brands and influencers. By focusing on intimacy, content creation, and meaningful interactions, BRANDEdit has set a new standard for influencer marketing events.
With post-event content continuing to flood social media, the experience is not just a one-off campaign—it’s a testament to the power of influencer-driven marketing that is built on relationships and trust.
This innovative approach to influencer marketing will likely continue to inspire new ways for brands to connect with their audiences, proving that in today’s digital age, influencer marketing is not just a trend—it’s a way of building long-term, meaningful connections with consumers.
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