Influencer Brand Trips

What They’re About

Influencer Brand Trips are aimed towards Influencers who are brought to exciting locations by brands to promote their products. These trips include lots of shopping, relaxing, and posting on their various social media accounts. The reason they’re brought on these all-expenses-paid trips is that these brands hope that the influencers they bring will promote what they’re trying to sell, whether it is a makeup product or clothing line. 

Controversy

Behind all the glitz and glamor of influencer brand trips lies a high level of criticism from certain consumers. Recently, many Tarte users complained that their brand trip to Bora Bora demonstrated that the brand is out of touch with its consumers. Users complain that the brand’s flashy brand trips are “tone deaf” to the average consumer. They have also had issues with diversity in the past, as many of the trips would be predominantly white women. Overall, the company has been no stranger to backlash and controversy. 

Possible Benefits

Brand Trips have gained so much popularity in recent years due to the rise of social media and the organic reach that they have on all social media platforms, especially TikTok. These trips increase brand awareness in a very natural way as these influencers are constantly promoting the brand that bought them on this trip almost every week, but they do it in a way that doesn’t seem like an ad, initially, relying on the ‘relatable’ and casual nature of social media. Influencer brand trips, especially extravagant ones like the Tarte Bora Bora trip, are often the gift that keeps on giving for these brands. This is because these influencers just went on a once-in-a-lifetime, all-expenses paid trip, somewhat forcing them to be loyal to the brand. They will continue to use the brand in their daily routine and promote their products on social media, which allows the brand to utilize free advertising. 

Our Authors’ Opinions 

Lilly: I think that Influencer brand trips are both good and bad. These trips absolutely consume social media and get consumers talking about the brand and its products. However, they also create a large amount of controversy since many people believe that these trips are wasteful, sending already wealthy people on extravagant trips. Due to both of these reasons, I am pretty indifferent about these trips. The only thing is that the influencers create insane content on these trips, and I love to watch them. 

Lily: Ever since learning about brand trips through watching some of my favorite Youtubers in middle school, I have been fascinated by them. Why wouldn’t I want to go to Fiji with my closest friends for free? All of the content created for these trips has made them seem like a dream. Although, as I have grown up and learned more about the reality of these trips and the controversy behind them, I have become indifferent. They seem like a fun and exciting way to promote a brand, but are difficult to do ethically and with the influencer and consumer’s best interest in mind. 

Ava: I think that brand influencer trips could be super fun and exciting. An all expenses paid trip for influencers to relax and promote a brand’s products is a very interesting concept. As long as the brand is in check with their consumers and there is no real controversy between them and their audience, these trips are a very good idea for both the brand and the influencers.