We’re Not Looking for Influencers

The people creating content with Salsa Shop didn't start with a campaign brief in their inbox. Some had already been coming to our restaurants. Some joined us through an event or collaboration. Others simply made something about Salsa Shop because they genuinely liked it, and we liked what they made.

Over time, that group has grown into what we now call our Content Creator Hub: a mix of creators we regularly work with, from bigger names to smaller accounts with a very engaged audience. The size of someone's following isn't where we start. We're much more interested in whether someone genuinely likes Salsa Shop, has their own style and can make something that feels natural to the people already following them.

Please Don't Send Them a Script

Working with creators gets a lot less interesting when everyone receives the same script. We obviously have things we want to communicate, but within that, we try to give creators plenty of freedom. They know their audience better than we do, and we'd rather see Salsa Shop through their eyes than ask them to make something that could just as easily have come from our own account.

That means the output can look very different from creator to creator. One might make something around sport, another around food, books, student life or simply whatever is happening in their day. As long as Salsa Shop fits naturally into it, that's usually where the best content comes from.

We Like Hanging Out Offline Too

The Content Creator Hub isn't only a list of people we contact when we need a post. We like bringing creators into the other things happening around Salsa Shop too. They join our Run Clubs, come to openings and events, take part in cooking workshops and get involved when we're working on bigger ideas.

It means we actually get to know the people we work with, and collaborations have the chance to develop instead of ending when a post goes live. A first collaboration might be one video, while a few months later that same person could be joining an event, testing something new or working with us on a bigger concept.

That works both ways. Smaller creators grow, their content develops and new opportunities come along. Salsa Shop is growing too, which gives us more things to involve people in. We're not trying to build the biggest possible influencer list. We'd rather work with a group of people who genuinely like Salsa Shop, give them the freedom to do their thing and see where we can go from there.