From Miami to New York: How Skinny Louie Generated Millions of Impressions With Storytime
See how Skinny Louie grew creator activity 23x and generated 500K+ impressions through Storytime’s NYC influencer marketing platform. Read the case study.
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“Storytime helps us save time and money, 100 percent.”
About Skinny Louie
Skinny Louie began nearly four years ago in Wynwood as a Miami-born smash burger concept with a strong identity and a clear understanding of what makes a restaurant brand memorable.
At the time, Wynwood offered everything from pizza to Latin cuisine, but there were few concepts focused specifically on smash burgers. Skinny Louie saw an opportunity to fill that gap with more than just a strong menu. From its visual identity and restaurant interiors to its captions, communication style, and social presence, every detail was designed to communicate the distinct Skinny Louie experience.
That attention to branding helped the concept build a loyal following in Miami and expand rapidly. By late 2025, Skinny Louie was ready to enter a much larger and more competitive market, opening its first New York locations in neighborhoods including the West Village and East Village.
Breaking Into New York Without an Established Creator Network
Skinny Louie entered New York with strong brand recognition in Miami, but without the local relationships and creator community it had spent years developing in its home market.
In Miami, the marketing team already knew many of the city’s food and lifestyle creators. The market was smaller, relationships were easier to navigate, and the team understood which influencers could deliver meaningful exposure.
New York required an entirely different approach. To identify relevant creators, the team manually searched neighbourhood-specific terms such as “West Village food,” “New York burgers,” and “East Village restaurants.” Each profile then had to be reviewed individually based on views, engagement, comments, audience quality, brand fit, and potential performance.
The process was not only time-consuming, but expensive. According to the Skinny Louie team, New York creators could charge anywhere from thousands of dollars for a single Story. For a growing restaurant opening multiple locations, relying exclusively on individually sourced paid partnerships was difficult to scale.
Turning Creator Discovery Into an Inbound Channel
Storytime gave Skinny Louie a more scalable way to build its New York creator network.
Instead of relying entirely on its internal team to search for creators, negotiate rates, coordinate visits, and follow up on content, approved creators could discover Skinny Louie directly through the Storytime app and choose to visit based on their genuine interest in the brand. Because creators were already vetted for content quality and local relevance, Skinny Louie could significantly reduce the amount of time spent reviewing profiles and assessing whether each creator was a good fit.
The model also changed the economics of each collaboration. Rather than paying traditional New York influencer rates for every visit, Skinny Louie could offer its food and in-store experience in exchange for authentic social content.
“I like how Storytime helps us save time and save money.”
For Skinny Louie, Storytime did not replace its existing influencer strategy. The team continued to work directly with selected creators for major launches and specific campaigns. Storytime became the scalable, always-on layer that kept new creators discovering and posting about the brand between those larger moments.
Monthly Creator Activity Quadrupled
Skinny Louie’s Storytime activity accelerated significantly as the brand established itself in New York.
From March through July, Skinny Louie averaged around 100 collaborations per month, representing a 272% increase in average monthly creator activity. From just four collaborations during its launch month in November to 93 in May, Skinny Louie’s monthly creator activity increased more than 23 times over. Skinny Louie’s creators also represented a combined social following of more than 15.7 million, giving the brand access to a broad network of food, fashion, lifestyle, and local New York audiences.
Rather than depending on one large creator to deliver a temporary spike in visibility, Skinny Louie appeared repeatedly across hundreds of individual accounts. That repetition helped create the feeling that the brand was becoming part of the New York restaurant conversation rather than simply running a one-time launch campaign.
“It helps us make noise in a good way and bring more engagement to our Instagram.”
More Than 500,000 Impressions From New York Audiences
For Skinny Louie, total visibility was only part of the objective. The brand needed to reach people who could realistically visit its New York locations.
Of the campaign’s 2 million+ total impressions, 500,000 came specifically from New York City audiences.
That means more than one in every five campaign impressions came from people located in the brand’s target market.
This local concentration made the content significantly more actionable. Followers were not simply discovering a Miami restaurant they could not easily visit. They were being introduced to a location in their own city, often through creators already active in the same neighbourhoods where Skinny Louie was opening.
Each creator post became a local recommendation capable of generating discovery, increasing familiarity, and influencing an in-person visit.
A Scalable Complement to Paid Influencer Marketing
Skinny Louie did not need to abandon traditional influencer marketing to make its strategy more efficient.
Direct partnerships remained valuable for selected creators, major openings, and campaigns requiring more control over attendance and deliverables. Storytime complemented that approach by creating a consistent pipeline of vetted creators who could discover the brand, visit its locations, and produce content without requiring the internal team to source every relationship manually.
The result was a more balanced creator strategy: targeted paid partnerships for high-priority moments, supported by an always-on community generating ongoing content and local visibility.
For a Miami-born brand entering New York, Storytime provided more than social posts. It helped Skinny Louie reduce sourcing time, lower its dependence on expensive one-off partnerships, and rapidly build the local creator presence needed to establish itself in a new city.
Skinny Louie’s Growth Over 5 Months Using Storytime
Frequently asked questions
What results did this brand get with Storytime?
From Miami to New York: How Skinny Louie Generated Millions of Impressions With Storytime. See how Skinny Louie grew creator activity 23x and generated 500K+ impressions through Storytime’s NYC influencer marketing platform. Read the case study. Storytime's local influencer campaigns drive measurable foot traffic, impressions, and ROI for brick-and-mortar brands in New York.
How does Storytime's influencer marketing work for local businesses?
Storytime connects brick-and-mortar businesses with vetted local creators who visit in person, post authentic content, and drive repeat foot traffic. Brands select influencer reach tiers, Storytime handles creator matching, content creation, and reporting — a full campaign in under 5 minutes.
How much does a Storytime influencer campaign cost?
Storytime offers tiered influencer reach packages so brands can choose their budget and reach. Campaigns start quickly with no ad spend required — creators are paid through the platform, and brands see ROI through tracked foot traffic and content impressions. Request a demo to get pricing for your location.