What began as gifting evolved into an intentional, data-backed strategy. With Kolsquare’s support, La Petite Étoile has restructured and scaled its influence strategy — blending human connection, creator casting, and campaign tracking for better impact.
Founded in Paris, La Petite Étoile brings a fresh, feminine twist to ready-to-wear fashion. The brand is known for its accessible Parisian style — playful, easygoing, and always on-trend. With a growing retail footprint across France and a strong e-commerce presence, La Petite Étoile has built a loyal customer base that resonates with its modern, spontaneous spirit.
With an eye to growing the brand in France while also boosting international sales, La Petite Étoile has moved to ramp up its influencer strategy, bringing a significant portion of it back in-house with the help of Kolsquare.
Like many brands, La Petite Étoile initially approached influencer marketing with instinct and improvisation. Gifting drove early collaborations, and an external agency managed most of the casting. While some long-term relationships emerged organically, the strategy lacked structure — and the brand had little visibility over ROI.
In 2025, that changed. “Since 2022, we’d built a small pool of creators… but we wanted to grow beyond it — refresh the group, meet new profiles, and make smarter decisions based on real insights,” explains Salomé Pailloux, Communication Coordinator at La Petite Étoile.
With more internal resources, a bigger budget, and a strong desire to deepen human connections, the team decided it was time for a shift… one that has delivered tangible results. Since the beginning of the year, More than 150 KOLs have mentioned La Petite Étoile in their content, delivering the brand €233.88K EMV and an impressive 5.08% average engagement rate of 5.08%.
Rather than launch cold collaborations, La Petite Étoile began inviting creators into its own world — quite literally. The brand hosted small showroom events in the heart of Paris to meet nano and micro-influencers in person, present the new collection, and let relationships form naturally.
“We really wanted to put faces to names,” says Salomé Pailloux. “We were missing that direct connection... La Petite Étoile is a small, people-oriented company with strong values. It's important to work with creators who share those values — and it was a shame that they didn't really know them.”
Each guest left these events with a gift card and early access to the collection — with no obligation to post.
“We wanted to observe who really connected with the brand,” Salomé adds. “That helped us spot creators who were genuinely excited to collaborate.”
With Kolsquare, La Petite Étoile shifted from aesthetic-first selection to data-backed casting. “Before, our agency would send us a list, and I’d pick based on Instagram grids and a few basic stats,” recalls Salomé. “Now we look at age, audience location, tone, and who actually speaks to our target customer.”
Using Kolsquare’s filters, she was able to identify creators with highly engaged French audiences — as well as up-and-coming profiles with traction in the UK and Spain, supporting the brand’s international ambitions.
“We mostly work with nano and micro-influencers — between 2K and 15K followers — because the engagement is stronger and we can really get to know them,” says Salomé.
With more creators and events to manage, the brand needed a tool to track performance, manage logistics, and consolidate insights. That’s where Kolsquare came in.
“It’s so much easier to manage big campaigns now,” says Salomé. “Kolsquare allows me to track precisely who has mentioned us, and which content was posted… and to clearly structure the entire campaigns, even working alone. When we do paid partnerships or start experimenting with affiliate links, I can see exactly what’s working.”
More than just campaign operations, Kolsquare also empowered strategic decisions. “What really sold us was the analytics,” she says. “We can finally see who’s talking about us, what kind of content performs, and which creators deliver real value — not just likes.”
And perhaps most importantly: “With Kolsquare, we’re not just guessing anymore — we’re making informed decisions. It helps us prove ROI internally, and enables me to be much more efficient in the way I work.”
“Before, I used to say I was working a bit on gut feeling — just going with instinct,” she adds. “Now I can actually justify our budget choices with real numbers.”
The summer collection event brought together 15 creators who were hosted at the brand’s Paris showroom. Everyone left with a gift card, and nearly all created content voluntarily. “Everyone posted something — a story, a reel, a post,” says Salomé. “Some did all three.”
And beyond the content itself, the relationships were strengthened too. “They met us, saw the clothes up close, and understood the energy of the brand,” Salomé explains. “When they get a comment like ‘You look amazing in that dress’, they know it’s really us behind the reply. That builds trust.”
Next up: the opening of a new Paris boutique in September, where the brand plans to invite its refreshed creator circle — this time, with 20% of them activated through affiliate links via Shopify.
For La Petite Étoile, building an influencer strategy isn’t about working with the biggest names — it’s about making the right matches and setting them up for long-term success.
“It’s not about finding the biggest influencers,” says Salomé Pailloux. “It’s about finding the right ones — and making sure they really get who we are.”
Ready to build a smarter, more intentional influencer strategy — without losing your human touch?
Book a demo with Kolsquare today →
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