Are Influencer Brand Trips Making A Comeback?
In February, the makeup cosmetic company Tarte shocked the online world by having an extravagant, exorbitant influencer brand trip featuring top social media stars to Dubai. This trip was filled with drama, intrigue, lots of sun, makeup, and fun. It was showcased through YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and other smaller social media platforms. There were over fifty influencers promoting the trip, and some very famous ones like Alix Earle and Monet McMichael posted content from the trip. The trip on the surface may have looked like a success, but it also stirred up so many conversations on whether or not the trip was necessary, especially during the midst of a recession, or if it was marketing genius.
The Dubai trip was a throwback to the older days of influencer marketing and brand trips. Back before the pandemic, influencer trips were common and plentiful. There were lavish beach trips thrown by the online clothing company, Revolve. These trips tended to be a mix of high-profile influencers and more mid-range influencers. Over the years, the company took influencers on over a hundred trips to tropical locations like the Dominican Republic, Bermuda, and Turks and Caicos. The locations and hotels were often expense-paid villas or suites. On the surface, no one had to worry about anything; everything was taken care of. You were on vacation with your best gal pals and girlfriends; what’s not to like?
These influencer trips had the appearance that, if you work hard enough, maybe one day you might be invited.
The caveat was that although the trip on the surface was free and extravagant, you had to also be working. You had to be constantly promoting the products associated with the company sponsoring the trip, and you also had to be constantly engaging with your audience to do so. The purpose was to sell, promote, and prompt others to buy. The purpose was to create an aesthetic and be aspirational. Influencers on the trip wanted others to believe that this lifestyle could maybe one day be attainable, but also that buying these products could possibly be life-changing for the consumer too. These trips always featured young women with sun-kissed skin, who were skinny and often blonde. These trips often included influencers with at least a few hundred thousand followers, if not millions. These trips were not always the most accessible to the micro- or nano-influencer. These trips were meant to promote the brand and also promote the influencer, but only if you were already an exclusive influencer.
The return on investment for these trips was that the brands sponsoring them would get exposure by using influencer marketing. They would quite literally tap into these influencer networks, which had hundreds of thousands (and sometimes millions) of followers. The trips would garner millions of views and eyeballs on the brand's website. The hope was that the eyeballs would somehow magically convert into sales and the brands would make five times—or more—as much money as they did on the expenses for the trip.
The influencer who promoted the brand to their audience would also get a free networking opportunity and brand connections that could last a lifetime. These trips had the quintessential quality of being exclusive but also like a girl's trip, except everyone was exceptionally beautiful. Because of this quality, the trips, influencers, and brands all represented a symbiosis of sorts. And the viewers and consumers ate the content all up. These were the days when YouTube and long-form content were the staples. The videos could be twenty to thirty minutes long, and everyone watched. The influencer would talk in depth about the products that they were using and the clothes that they were wearing. The influencer would like the products in the description and cross-promote them with other creators.
These were the days before TikTok took off. And these were also the days of the pre-pandemic era. The pandemic changed the landscape of these particular events. In the beginning of 2020 and in 2021, brand trips and business travel came to a halt. People had limited contact with others, and brand trips were not being promoted. In fact, if there were any branded events happening, they were hush-hush or super local. There were not many people going out, and brands had to respect that. PR packages and having virtual events became the norm, and that is what brands transitioned to. Of course, virtual events can be great with the right moderators, but, to be honest, they don’t have the certain oomph or quality that brand trips had, so they were lackluster at best.
2022–2023 changed all that. 2022 was the year that brand trips started popping back up. Things across the globe were on the same page about reopening, and travel was returning slowly. For popular brands, that meant going back to regularly scheduled programming, hosting events, and inviting influencers to promote their brand both online and in person. It meant conferences, talks, workshops, and trips were all back on the table. and with that, anything was game. The thing about the reintroduction of branded trips, especially in the early part of the year, was that they came at a time when people were also documenting rolling layoffs and widespread record-speed inflation. The optics of seeing layoffs on one side of your social media feed and people living it up in Dubai and Tahiti on the other side were jarring for some folks. The timing felt wrong, and it felt out of touch with the reality of the moment. Tarte acknowledged some of these criticisms and said they would do better with future events. Except it kind of got worse.
In a branded Formula One event in April, a prominent influencer talked about how they felt left out and sidelined for a Tarte event in Miami. This prompted intense discourse on whether or not brands (like Tarte) are taking care of all the content creators fairly. There was discussion on how some brands might show favoritism to certain creators versus others. It prompted people to look at race, class, and appearance and how that might impact the perception of one content creator or influencer over another. While various spokespeople from Tarte stated that the incident was an oversight and mistake on their part, the conversation still continued. The discussion took on a new life as people questioned the motives of the creator, the brand, and just brand trips in general.
It led to the influencer taking a break and people sharing their experience with the brand and with other brands that occupy a similar space. Though things have naturally cooled down now, people are still wondering about the intentionality of curating brand trips and what the future may hold for them and other branded events in the influencer industry. And, in all honesty, not all brand trips are good or thought-out. The recent brand trip to the clothing retailer, Shein’s, corporate headquarters brought up some mixed feelings and reviews about influencing, sustainability, and fast-fashion. The brand trip has made people question the authenticity of taking a bunch of influencers who may not know, or have read up about the issues that the brand is facing. These influencers were micro-influencers and do not often get invited onto brand trips. They may take on a trip without knowing if the brand is a right fit for partnership with them and their platform because they need money. Some take on the trip because they do not have opportunities with other bigger market brands and want to use the trip for leverage. It all makes you ask who is it all for?
It begs us to ask several questions. Who are these brand trips for? What can we learn from them? And what is the future of branded trips as we navigate this post-pandemic/post-lockdown era and space in time?
Recently, the company, Revolve, announced that they were pulling back from brand trips. The chief brand officer stated that brand trips were outdated and that they were focusing on other ways to promote growth and relationships with influencers. It does represent an interesting shift and pullback given that they were one of the first companies to implement brand trips and make them take off the way they do. Times are changing, and many brands are recognizing the cultural shifts taking place at the moment and are choosing to grow alongside them or evolve in their own direction.
The thing is, if companies are going to follow through with brand trips, they have to be honest about what the purpose of these trips is and what messaging they want to convey. The brand trips of today are not going to be the same as the brand trips of yesteryear. On one end of the spectrum, I do expect that some companies will lean toward having ultra-lavish and exclusive brand trips only reserved for the creme de la-creme or the top of the food chain of influencers. It is very possible that companies that swing in this direction will ultimately make brand trips similar to an episode of a reality show.
These branded vacations will be akin to seeing a ‘Real Housewives"-esque opportunity to take a trip to the Caribbean or to Dubai. The content will rely on the interactions of the influencers and how they approach each other, the activities provided, and really that interplay and exchange of dynamics. The purpose of these types of trips will be to provide drama (at least light drama) and theatrics to ramp up engagement and prompt the audience to share and comment on the content. The purpose of this type of trip or vacation would be to be talked about, and that promotion would be the endgame all by itself. Leaning into manufactured drama as a way to get more people to engage with the content could prove to be a great strategy. A little tug of war between influencers and hiring influencers with big personalities, if done the right way, can end up being great for a brand trying to make a name for themselves and can be great for captivating an audience who might say, '“I want to go on a trip like that one day.”
These trips will hinge on working with ‘it girls’ or upcoming ‘it girls,’ whether they are macro-influencers or micro-influencers. It would not be just about having one or two ‘it girls’ on a trip; instead, it would be about creating an ‘it group.’ An ‘it group’ would be a group of people that inspires others, but is also designed to create a little envy along the way. The opportunity here for brands, as things are opening up and people want to be outside again. It would be to sell the group, sell the products, and sell the location all at the same time. It would be aspirational influencer content, but turbocharged. There would also be an opportunity to make things interactive and fun for those tuning in. There could be a live component where the audience could comment on what activities the group could do next or create challenges for the group to complete either on the trip or after.
Of course, this comes with a lot of trial and error to strike the right tone and balance. There would be an emphasis on light drama without leaning into controversy or making other outside influencers feel so excluded that they wouldn’t want to work with the brand. Not everyone will lean into controversy, drama, or the marketing of ‘it groups,’ and some might find it tasteless, but at the end of the day, people leaning into this type of marketing won’t just want relatable content for their brand but also to make a statement, and a continuous one at that.
On the flip side, I also expect some brands to take the Revolve approach and move away from brand trips altogether. I expect that some brands, depending on brand identity and brand purpose, might lean toward smaller and more curated events. These events are not so much built on the name recognition of an influencer, but on how each person comes together and how each person plays off of one another's strengths. These events would be about a celebration of the brand, the products, and the influencers selected. It would be about the collection of people being elevated and leaning into a cohesive identity for all.
For example, a popular wellness brand might focus on working with wellness influencers, no matter what or who their audience is. This brand would work with various influencers because of a genuine connection and desire for collaboration, not just because they look good. The emphasis in this case would not be to prioritize influencers who have millions of followers- but rather to focus on the influencers who really embody the vision, mission, and goals of the brand. The events would be memorable because of the brand and curated space, not just because of who attended and who didn’t.
So were any of these brand trips by Tarte and Revolve a success? Tarte did make over $19 million from the Dubai trip, and now after the stint in Miami, more people have talked about the brand, probably sending impressions and website visits to the brand. There are more people subscribed to their accounts and people discussing the brand. Some would argue that even if there is a backlash, the emotional response led to Tarte being the subject of continued conversation for weeks, which many smaller brands can only dream about. So some might say yes, while others might say not so much. At the end of the day, brand trips and branded events won’t be going anywhere, but it is good to acknowledge that it might be time for a change in the approach of brand trips while still utilizing them as one of the many tools of influencer marketing.