Behind the Screen is a series on Following Up, featuring the minds behind brand’s influencer + community strategies. We often forget that there is a person or team behind the paid partnerships we consume, so I wanted to bring these people in front of the camera for a change.
Where are you based?
Los Angeles, California
How long have you been working in the creator industry?
Over 5 years now! It’s something I do on the side because I love taking and creating content and also connecting with people online.
In your creator journey, when did you start Heaven Mayhem, and how did the idea come about?
I had been posting on social media for years and built a small following of around 20K. During lockdown in 2020, I started taking content creation more seriously, and after moving to Los Angeles in 2022, my audience began to grow quickly across Instagram and TikTok.
I started Heaven Mayhem out of a genuine obsession with building a brand—I saw so much opportunity to do things differently. What began as a fun side project quickly became something that really inspired me.
Has the influencer changed since you first started your career?
I was never a full-time influencer or content creator, so I can’t speak to every shift in the industry, but I’ve definitely noticed a change. When I first started, I was genuinely excited and honored to receive any kind of gifting. Now, that feels like the baseline. The industry has grown so quickly and become quite saturated, which makes it even more interesting to see which creators really cut through and why their content resonates. Early on, I said yes to almost every opportunity, whether it was gifting or paid. Now, I am much more intentional. Everything has to align with Heaven Mayhem and my personal brand. It needs to feel authentic and ideally be a product or brand I already know and love.
Does being a creator yourself influence the creator strategy for your brand?
Absolutely. We approach our gifting program very intentionally. We are not sending out high volumes of mailers or excessive product. We want every package to feel special and for creators to be genuinely excited to receive it. Those kinds of thoughtful relationships are what make me value brands as a creator, and that is exactly what we are trying to build with Heaven Mayhem. Beyond that, being a creator gives me real-time insight. Whether it is conversations at events or feedback from other creators, I am constantly learning what resonates and what does not. I use that to shape our strategy, from outreach to briefing. I really value being on both sides. It has given me a much deeper understanding of what makes these partnerships actually work.
How would you describe Heaven Mayhem’s influencer ecosystem and how it fits into your broader marketing strategy?
Influencer is a huge part of our marketing initiatives. The most important piece, and my personal number one priority, is always the content rollout, from teasers to engaging the community through the full campaign launch. From there, influencer activations come next, followed by paid ads and any OOH concepts.
Within influencer, we segment our approach based on a few key buckets. We think about UGC creators whose content we can repost or use across ads and our website, key sales drivers, and tastemakers we want to align the brand with. For every launch, we build a seeding strategy that ensures we are thoughtfully reaching all three.
For sales drivers, we use ShopMy exclusively. It is a tool for both gifting and running “Opportunities,” where we pay influencers in exchange for content with trackable links. These are very sales-driven initiatives where we can directly measure ROI at the individual creator level, and from there decide whether to continue or discontinue working with them. Our paid influencer budget is a relatively small portion of our overall marketing spend, so we are very intentional and primarily execute paid through ShopMy.
On the seeding side, we are constantly testing. For our recent ring launch, we created a PR mailer and seeded around 150 influencers in a more elevated, design-forward box. It came with a significant cost and was also a big lift for our team as everything was hand packed and shipped from our office. While we cannot directly measure ROI from something like this, my perspective is that it did not necessarily move the needle more than a typical gifting package would, but it likely enhanced brand perception.
Being on the influencer side, receiving mailers is always fun, especially when the packaging feels thoughtful and high quality. It definitely makes me think more highly of a brand. But at the end of the day, I probably only post around 5% of the mailers I receive, so it is something we are continuing to evaluate as a team. We are still learning with every launch and refining our approach.
Love how you strategically segment your influencer approach across channels. Are events a priority for the brand as well?
100%. We invest heavily in community events and are typically activating IRL on a monthly basis. It is a huge priority for us to make our community feel like influencers. Having real-life conversations, understanding their perspective, and learning what they want to see from us is incredibly valuable. It also allows us to build genuine excitement around new launches. That direct connection with our community is an integral part of our business.
I know you previously mentioned how your team reports on ShopMy, but are there any other ways you measure for success?
Qualitative feedback is a big part of how we measure success. We look closely at social comments, DMs, and IRL interactions with our community. We also gut check ourselves and ask, do we love it, and would we have changed anything? Depending on the activation, we also look at quantitative metrics. For sales-driven initiatives, we track ROI through ShopMy. We also use Triple Whale to understand what percentage of sales is coming from organic traffic. If we go hard on a campaign rollout, we typically see that number increase. Overall, it is not an exact science when it comes to measuring success.
You just launched into a new category, rings. Can you walk us through the marketing plan and how it came to life?
Yes, I actually just wrote a Substack outlining all of the details!
Love that you are sharing a behind the scenes of Heaven Mayhem in your personal content. Are there any influencers you have loved working with?
Honestly everyone - I love when we worked with Pirrie Wright to style our frame collection campaign. We worked on virtual styling and we love tapping tastemakers or ‘influencers’ to do more than just post for us but be a part of the brand.
Who would you love to work with?
Elsa Hosk and collaborate on Helsa!
Is there a Heaven Mayhem campaign or influencer post that you’re particularly proud of?
Our frame collection with Pirrie! The whole roll out of the campaign was amazing.
Any exciting partnerships or upcoming launches you are excited about this year?
We’re in the midst of planning our summer shoot at the moment and looking to tap another tastemaker to style for the props and clothing so we’re really excited about that!
Can’t wait to see the campaign rollout! Now for a few final, fun questions:
Favorite product from Heaven Mayhem?
Sloane Sunglasses - wear them every day
Book, podcast or music on your morning commute?
I listen to HSR with Maggie Sellers all the time!
You already are on the other side of the business as an influencer yourself, do you have any dream brands you would want to partner with?
YSL!!! My absolute dream.
Can you also share the last item you bought based off of an influencer’s post and who the influencer was?
I bought the Fara Homidi blue eyeshadow palette because I saw Georgia Fowler using it!
You can stay in touch with Pia Mance on Substack ( A Slice of Heaven ) & if you aren’t already, give Heaven Mayhem a follow! I highly recommend the laptop case, knot earrings and new rings!