Influencer trips have become a huge part of the influencer marketing world, providing exciting ways to connect with content creators and showcase your brand in a unique way. However, they can also easily lead to controversy online, whether that’s due to lavish spending, exclusionary casting, poor planning, and so on.
That means that if you as a brand are committed to making an influencer trip work in 2024 and beyond, you need to go into it with the right mindset and full resources behind you. There are a lot of benefits to a successful influencer trip—increased brand awareness, social media conversation, strengthening relationships with key influencers, etc.—so if your brand has the desire and the resources to execute an influencer trip, here are our 5 tips for planning a successful experience:
1) Plan With Intention
A great influencer trip starts with clear goals and intentions that answer why. Are you celebrating the launch of a new product? Celebrating a brand milestone? Giving thanks to your top influencer partners for their support over the years? Using the trip as an opportunity to create campaign content? Influencer trips are costly and require a lot of planning, time, and resources, so you need to be able to commit to investing in a trip beforehand.
When done half-heartedly or in a distasteful way, they can also generate a lot of backlash. Going into the planning process with intention will help your brand make it a positive experience for your team, your guests, and your audience online.
2) Cast Your Attendees Thoughtfully
Your attendees will serve as your brand ambassadors throughout this trip, creating content on your brand’s behalf and appearing in social content on brand channels. Do your due diligence in the influencer casting process and select guests who are representative of your brand and its values. It is also important to cast creators of diverse interests and backgrounds to reflect your diverse brand audience. No one wants to see a cast of cookie cutter creators who all look exactly alike in 2024.
3) Extend Your Brand Through Experiences
Your trip itinerary is a chance to communicate your brand through exciting experiences that enhance how both influencer attendees interact with your product and how customers watching at home view your brand. Think of creative experiences that bring in your brand and/or product in a fun, interactive way.
4) Celebrate Your Brand Values
Influencer trips can catch some flack for appearing out-of-touch, so this is something for you to consider as you plan out your trip. A lot of brands are using these trips not only as opportunities for increased social media engagement but to showcase their brand values. A clean beauty brand might organize a beach clean up day as part of the experience, for example. We’ve also seen several brands shift away from “influencer” trips and towards experiences for their own employees or even die-hard customers.
5) Collaborate With Like-Minded Brands
Expand the experience by collaborating with like-minded brands that share your brand values for things like gift bag items, experiences, snacks, and so on. This is especially helpful if you have a goal of increasing engagement and brand awareness, as the collaborating brands can share content to their channels and direct their customers, who likewise have similar interests and values, back to your brand.
6) Engage Your Audience Back Home
Influencer trips are a great opportunity for increased brand awareness, high social media engagement, and content creation opportunities. With influencer attendees sharing their highlights with their own audiences, a lot of consumers are keeping an eye on these trips as they are happening, so think of ways to engage those back home throughout. Maybe that’s hosting a giveaway with the products that the influencers on the trip have received, or polling your audience to pick out the itinerary for the day. Whether someone attended the trip or was just watching through social media, they should all leave the experience with a deeper appreciation for your brand and its values.
Ready to plan an influencer trip of your own? Chat with our team and let’s make it a reality!
