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If there’s one thing I love, it’s writing a weekly newsletter that offers educational, entertaining insights into brands that use creator marketing to achieve impressive growth. But if there’s another thing I love after the newsletter and the edutainment and the creator marketing and the growth and all that, it’s savings. After all, who doesn’t love a deal?
And if there’s another, other thing I love, after the newsletter and the savings, it’s discovering, via my newsletter research, an area of the creator economy that I previously knew little about. Over the past year or so, one of those areas has been the grocery sector. Following my initial investigations into the space, including reports on Trader Joe’s and Costco, I feel confident in declaring that grocery is one of the next big things in creator marketing. The enthusiasm, brand affinity, and creativity in this space is off the charts—and you know how much I love charts, so me saying that is kind of a big deal.
And if there’s another, other, additional thing that I love, besides for the newsletters and the savings and the discovering a new and exciting area of the creator economy, it would probably be something that combined all those features: some kind of newsletter about a new and exciting area of the creator economy that also entailed savings. But come on now—one man can only be so lucky. Where would I find a magical, incredible, once-in-a-lifetime story like that?
That’s right: America’s favorite savings emporium with a vaguely militaristic name is also a creator marketing hotspot! Google suggests that the “general” in the name has to do with the fact that, you know, you can find a lot of stuff there, but I for one like to picture a dollar bill in an army jacket with a lot of medals.
That one’s for free, DG. Because no offense, you guys are doing great and all, but your logo isn’t exactly a paragon of creativity:
Sometimes it’s best to keep things simple, because that straightforward logo certainly isn’t hurting the General:
After holding pretty steady from 2018 to 2022, with the obligatory COVID dip in 2020 (even budget stores are affected by supply chain difficulties, folks), the brand has skyrocketed over the last two years, eclipsing a 3x EMV growth between 2018 and 2024.
Key to that growth? Not a drastically expanded creator population.
Dollar General Creator Count: 2018 - 2024
Don’t get me wrong: doubling your creator count in six years isn’t shabby, and Dollar General did just that, marching from 1.2k creators in 2018 to 2.6k creators in 2024. But compared to some expansions I’ve seen, this isn’t crazy dramatic. There must be another explanation…
Well here’s one potential explanation: even if Dollar General hasn’t seen a crazy creator count expansion, those creators are more generative than ever. After going the wrong way for several years, closing 2022 with fewer mentions than 2018, Dollar General led a bold new campaign, soaring to new heights by the end of 2024.
We see a similar pattern play out for the brand’s impressions, which proved middling from 2019 from 2019 to 2022 before expanding dramatically over the last two full years. That’s a roughly 2.5x improvement. Can we get higher?
How about an incredible 19x increase from 2018 to 2024? That’s what we saw for Dollar General’s engagements, which first started to spike in 2019—right around the time when brands began embracing TikTok for creator marketing.
Hmm…you don’t think those two things could be related, do you? Surely that would be too simple of an explanation.
Well, with credit to William of Ockham and his finely shaved face, sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct one.
Take a look at how major social platforms have contributed to Dollar General’s EMV over the last 12 months (June 2024 to May 2025). Four major platforms—Facebook (yes, Facebook, more on them in a bit), Instagram, TikTok, YouTube—fueled 99% of Dollar General’s EMV. Those proportions broke down as follows:
Okay, TikTok—we see you. And hey, Facebook isn’t far behind Instagram! And as we just ran through moments earlier, what does this look like from a creator count perspective?
Alright folks, there’s the twist: at 49%, Instagram still comprises a plurality of Dollar General’s creator population, ranking well above TikTok’s 36% proportion. But as we just saw, TikTok overindexes in EMV. Is it a matter of TikTok creators overindexing by post count, and producing a lot more content than Instagram creators?
Spoiler alert: no. If anything, this is where Facebook overindexes: there may not be many creators on that platform, but they’re productive. Meanwhile, Instagram and TikTok coexist in roughly the same proportion.
I’ve said before that TikTok tends to impact impressions most strongly, and here’s further proof of that. Each individual TikTok post is driving greater impressions than Instagram, despite the imbalance between total post counts between these two platforms. Is the same true for engagements?
Another twist! It’s a close one, but Instagram manages to maintain an edge over TikTok in engagements. This reinforces the notion that a balanced creator strategy includes both platforms—and that it pays to take an intentional, results-oriented approach to creator marketing measurement.
And what kind of content is moving the needle for Dollar General? As with those other grocery retailers I mentioned at the top of this newsletter, does one clear genre emerge?
Yes indeed, my friends. As you might expect, Dollar General’s army is composed mainly of coupon enthusiasts. Dedicated to savings, deals, discounts, and the love of the game, this army helped create a unique social media ecosystem for the General, evincing the creator passion that I’ve come to associate with grocery brands at large.
Take a look at Dollar General’s top five EMV-drivers from June 2024 to May 2025 and see what stands out:
While Liz the Clearance Queen might not have a Brandon-esque advantage over other creators, as we saw last week from Coach’s No. 1 earner, she was pretty dominant, driving 3x the EMV of the next-highest earner, Rae Coupons. Believe it or not, that’s not just her last name—she does coupon content. So does Couponing 4 Beginners, surprising as that might seem. Meanwhile, Kiersti Torok is perhaps better known as “The Coupon Hunter,” while Hey I’m Dee’s bio reads, and I quote, “Teaching you how to Save BIG! Your go-to source for the BEST tips, deals & discounts!” Also, Dee’s profile picture is literally her wearing a shirt that says “couponer” on it, which I would imagine is also owned by Liz, Rae, Kiersti, and, uh, Couponing.
Folks, sometimes brands present a complicated picture. This is not one of those times. Dollar General’s online presence revolves around couponers. And these couponers are dedicated soldiers, posting hundreds of times over a 12-month period.
One thing I didn’t see, however, was the level of brand-specific fervor evinced by top creators for Trader Joe’s and Costco. Those grocery retailers got the most play from fans who named themselves after their favorite brands and posted exclusively about those retailers. In contrast, Dollar General didn’t see many Dollar General-themed accounts, so much as coupon-themed accounts. It’s clearly a favorite among the frugal corners of the internet, particularly TikTok, but in order to make the next leap, the General needs to inspire loyalty among the troops. The way grocery is trending, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen soon.
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