Episode 30: Influencer Brand Trips: How Gen Z is Reshaping Brand Engagement

00:01
Welcome to a limited series of real, raw, unedited marketing content, all in ten minutes or less. This is mini moves.

00:11
Ashtyn Morris
Welcome to another episode of marketing moves. My name is Ashtyn Morris, Senior Account Executive at VividFront. Today's episode is a fun one. Today we're talking about the rise of influencer brand trips and how they are becoming the norm for big brands. Today I am joined by McKenzie Clark, VividFront's Director of Consumer Marketing. We both have some hot takes on these brand trips, so let's dive right on in.

00:34
McKenzie Clark
Let's do it.

00:35
Ashtyn Morris
McKenzie, can you set the stage a bit for what has led to the rise of these influencer trips? What did brand trips look like Pre Covid?

00:42
McKenzie Clark
Yeah, so they used to be really popular on YouTube, actually, where brands would take mostly beauty influencers on these extravagant trips, and then the youtubers would kind of create a vlog that's much more long form content than short form content that we have on TikTok, and the key differences, you wouldn't see the content till the trip was over. There was no real time commenting on what was happening, so there was a lot less opportunity for discourse because someone would go on the trip, they'd post a vlog about it and that would kind of be it. There wasn't the real time impressions that were happening, but they're really common, and in the last couple of years they've kind of picked back up now that TikTok is much more popular, everyone is seeing it unfold in real time.

01:23
McKenzie Clark
And the comment section is such a crucial part of TikTok that there's so much engagement happening, there's so much commenting, people are stitching videos and talking about it, so the kind of space around it has changed over the last couple of years just with people using TikTok more and having that really fast real time short form content.

01:42
Ashtyn Morris
I remember watching all those vlogs growing up when they went to IMATS or BeautyCon, whatever it may be, and I would get so excited because I knew they were going. They'd have like the pre vlog. And then about a couple days later, sometimes a week later, I'd see the vlog and it was just like, oh, I've been waiting for this. But now I feel like we're almost spoiled in terms of these influencer brand trips. We're getting content to your point immediately and we're able to see what they're doing in real time, even if it's just short snippets. And then sometimes we'll get more edited vlogs after. But it's really interesting how it's evolved.

02:10
Ashtyn Morris
And I think for people who are maybe chronically online, as we like to say, seeing the inception and now really the evolution of these brand trips, it's crazy because there's so much more.

02:21
McKenzie Clark
There's so much content out there.

02:22
Ashtyn Morris
Yeah, so much more. I think some of my favorites that I think about growing up were, like, around BeautyCon and IMATS, but really now it's crazy just to think about, like I said, how expensive these trips have become. One of these trips that's really come to mind to me is Tarte. Yes, of course. I feel like it's probably one of the biggest ones out there, and both in terms of exposure and also the cost. So what do you think about these Tarte brand trips?

02:50
McKenzie Clark
Yeah, so Tarte is definitely the biggest offender in this space, as I would say, just because, one, they're a huge brand, so they already kind of have a lot of that recognition. And I will say they do it really well when it comes to these, in terms of brand awareness. And I think the number one thing I hear people talk about in the comments online are usually speculating on how much it costs. And realistically, unless Tarte ever wants to share a case study on these, which I kind of doubt they will, we'll never really know how much these cost. But I think what we do know is that they're not as expensive as they look. They, for one, probably have travel partners where they're partnering with hotels or resorts or whatever it might be to have comp stays.

03:32
McKenzie Clark
But something I really think they utilize, which I haven't really seen people talk about online, is actually credit card points. When you're a huge brand and you're putting thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars probably on credit cards for even just your Google Ads and your Meta spend, you are racking up credit card points. And if you're smart, your company is using those credit card points for travel redemption. So for example, for Tarte, for the last trip, they went to Bora Bora and they flew everyone out to LA and had their own domestic flights to LA, and then had them stay in LA overnight, and then they all went on a private plane to Bora Bora the next day. So all those domestic flights, all of those one nights at the hotel, I can almost guarantee if they're smart, they paid for them with credit card points.

04:15
McKenzie Clark
So they're not actually, it's not an additional expense. And they're also not paying these influencers to go because they're getting the free trips. So they're definitely not as expensive as people think they are. I don't think we'll ever truly know for sure how much they are, and I also don't think we'll ever truly know what their ROI on the trips is. But I would imagine if they were losing a lot of money, they probably wouldn't continue to do them.

04:37
Ashtyn Morris
Yeah, I think that's a good point in terms of, I didn't even think about the credit card points coming into play, but hope if they aren't doing.

04:45
McKenzie Clark
That, I hope they are, because it's smart. Yeah.

04:47
Ashtyn Morris
We're smarter, not harder. In this case. Whenever these trips roll around like we've talked about, I feel like there's a lot of pushback or criticism that they're doing these trips or inviting maybe specific influencers. Why do you think these brand trips get the criticism that they do?

05:02
McKenzie Clark
Yeah, I think the number one criticism that, you know, I've even felt it a little bit myself. And it's the number one comment that I think you see on TikTok because I live in the comments section on TikTok. The comments are the best part of TikTok. So I read all the comments on these types of posts, and I think the number one criticism is that they're just so extravagant. And the key is that they're taking these extravagant trips, and they're taking influencers with millions of followers who probably do pretty well for themselves financially and could probably afford this trip themselves, and they're giving it to them for free.

05:34
McKenzie Clark
So if you're someone who, you know, worked a long day, is maybe struggling in this economy, and you go to sit on your couch and scroll through TikTok to unwind, at the end of the day, it can be really easy to get frustrating and see this extravagant trip, the overconsumption that happens with it, of all this free stuff being given to these influencers who probably could afford it. And I think that's the number one criticism of just how extravagant and unnecessary it might feel also in a time where the economy is a little bit more difficult. So I think that's the biggest criticism. And I think the reason this is so critical for Tarte is that's their audience. They are not a luxury brand. They don't have luxury products. They are not YSL selling foundation for well over a $100. Right.

06:20
McKenzie Clark
Their number one product is their concealer, which I use myself. I will back the product. It's great.

06:24
Ashtyn Morris
Did you buy it due to a Brand trip or were you

06:26
McKenzie Clark
I sure didn't. I've been using tarte concealer shave tape for probably five plus years. So I'm, you know, I'm a fan. I use it every day. But their concealer tube, I think, is $30. They always have promotions, and it lasts, like, a long time. So the value of the product is there at the price point. So they don't have a luxury audience. They don't have a luxury consumer. And so if they were a luxury brand and they were taking these luxury trips, I think there's less dissonance between that and their audience where they're in the position to honestly piss off their audience a little bit more. And the other thing is that there's so many makeup brands out there, they don't have this product that no one else has.

07:06
McKenzie Clark
So again, if you're in the audience, you maybe use Tarte, you're frustrated in this economy, you see this content. It's really easy to say, okay, this annoys me. I'm done with Tarte. I'm going to jump ship and I'm going to try something else. So I think that's the biggest criticism on my end, just from the marketing perspective of it is it just feels like there's so much of a dissonance between what they're doing with the extravagant luxury trips and then their audience.

07:29
Ashtyn Morris
I agree. I also think to a certain extent, it's not necessarily criticism that influencers have this platform and, you know, get your bag, do whatever you need to do.

07:36
McKenzie Clark
Oh, my God. If I was an influencer and I got invited one of these trips, I'd be there in a heartbeat. I have absolutely no judgment towards any influencer who goes, I'd be there. Say less. I'm there. What do you need from me? I'll be there.

07:47
Ashtyn Morris
But I can imagine to a certain extent, for maybe their audience or maybe people who are loyal Tarte product users, that if this influencer gets to go, who's literally never mention tart in their life, word has never come out of their mouth. And you see them on this extravagant trip, it's almost like, what's going on here? So I think sometimes that also has a. It plays into it. It's not all the case. Some influencers do use their products, and obviously they're choosing them for a reason, but it adds up, especially to your point. You know, the economy can be. It's a little difficult right now, and for people, they just want to scroll, get some enjoyment.

08:22
McKenzie Clark
Yeah, exactly.

08:23
Ashtyn Morris
And they just have it shoved in their face.

08:24
McKenzie Clark
Yeah. And to your point of, you know, finding the influencers who actually use their product, they definitely don't do that. They just kind of take the biggest influencers they can get. And one of the other things that people have picked up on in previous tart trips is they'll have influencers filming, like a get ready with me on the brand trip, and then they're not even using tarte products. So there's just this dissonance, and again, it's all unfolding so quickly on TikTok, and everyone's picking up on it and then critiquing it.

08:51
Ashtyn Morris
Yeah. How do you think brands can do these trips better?

08:56
McKenzie Clark
I think there's so much opportunity, and again, it just comes back to your audience, and I think tarte specifically every other trip, if they could change it up, you know, they'd probably do a trip a year, if not two trips a year. So I think they could continue to do what they're doing. But I think that there is opportunity, especially after getting the criticism that they've gotten to kind of rebound back in their audience's eyes. I think a couple ideas would be finding content creators in different niches. There's so many content creators, especially on TikTok, and every single audience in niche, they could do. They could take teachers over the summer and have kind of like a summer vacation trip. I think they should take healthcare workers. There's content creators with millions of followers anywhere you look, and all these different audience segments.

09:42
McKenzie Clark
So I think, you know, to rebound from a controversial trip where you're taking lifestyle influencers with millions of followers, why don't you take other types of influencers? Why don't you take smaller influencers? I think there's, you can still do the same concept, but I think they could help their brand credibility and that sort of thing if they kind of switched up what they did, where honestly, they've been doing, like, the same exact trip and concept for the last couple of years, I think they could have, they could improve their brand and people's eyes if they tried something new and tried to connect with their audience a little bit more.

10:14
Ashtyn Morris
I agree. And I think a brand that's doing it well and something we've talked about a lot is waterboy with Jenna Palek. So I'll let you speak to that because I think you do it best.

10:22
McKenzie Clark
Yeah, we're big fans of Jenna Palek over here. She's from Cleveland, even though she lives in Austin, and she got her start on TikTok. She was applying for TikTok a TikTok job. And so she made a TikTok. Smart girl made a TikTok, essentially telling them why she should hire her. And then she went viral with it and that got hired. She doesn't work there anymore. I think she is a full time content creator now, but her boyfriend is one of the founders of Waterboy. He was on the bachelorette and him and his friends started Waterboy, which essentially kind of like liquid iv. It's the electrolytes that go in your water. And she's posted recently, again, she's very smart, she pays attention to the trends, and she now does the social media for waterboy.

11:02
McKenzie Clark
And she's been posting that they want to do a waterboy trip where they take their customers. So essentially what they're doing is they're having people who use waterboy. So again, you're actually finding your customers that like your product, and in order to apply for the trip, you have to make content about why you love the product. So I think that is so smart. And it's again, similar to how she got her start kind of sharing it that way on the Internet. And I'm really excited to see how it unfolds. I think there's still kind of in the process of doing it. It's still new, but I think they'll get plenty of buzz still doing it that way. And I just think she's a marketing genius. I think she's does great with everything she does.

11:39
McKenzie Clark
And so smart to capitalize on the discourse of these influencer brand trips and say, okay, here's what we're going to do. We can do it better and we're going to take actual customers on the trip.

11:49
Ashtyn Morris
Absolutely. With this being marketing moves, we obviously need to tie this back to marketing, which we already have. But what are some of your marketing takeaways from these brand trips? What do you think makes them valuable from a marketing perspective?

12:02
McKenzie Clark
They're so valuable in terms of impressions. I think that's the number one thing people talk about. And people always say, no, you know, bad press is good, press doesn't matter, any press is good. But I think at the end of the day, if you're going to be investing in something, you're going to be spending money, you're going to be putting your brand out there. You have to pay attention to how valuable your impressions are and you need to pay attention to your audience. That is the number one thing that I just don't think Tarte does. I think all tarte cares about. For example, I know there's a lot of other brands that take trips, but Tarte, for example, I think they just want maximum impressions. They don't care if they're good, if they're bad. They just want as much brand awareness as possible.

12:39
McKenzie Clark
But I think at the end of the day, you have to think about how are you reaching your audience? How are those impressions reacting to the content that they're seeing? And I also think too, you got to think about the longevity of your brand. When people talk about tarte, do you want to talk about how they have a great product and you absolutely love it, or do you want people to talk about the controversial brand trips too? So I think you have to really think about the long game and how much you want to connect with your customer and how much you care about your customer. So I think people need to just consider their audience a little bit more.

13:11
Ashtyn Morris
I agree completely. If you were an influencer, what brand trip would you want to go on?

13:17
McKenzie Clark
I'll go on literally any brand trip that anyone wants to take me on. Just let me know when.

13:21
Ashtyn Morris
Fly us out.

13:22
McKenzie Clark
I will go anywhere first. But one of my favorite brands of all time is Brumate. I consider myself an early adopter of them. I have been a fan of theirs since they had one product that was the slim for like white claws and stuff like that. And now they have this huge product line. So if Brumate is listening to this, I would love to go on a brand trip. I will be there in a heartbeat.

13:44
Ashtyn Morris
I love that. Well, that about does it for us today. Kens, thanks for a great episode. We hope you all enjoyed learning more about influencer brand trips.

13:52
McKenzie Clark
Thanks everyone. Woo.