Influencer Trips Explained: Tips for Experiential Campaigns

Major brands are amping up their influencer campaigns with influencer trips. These trips are out-of-the-box ways to build relationships with creators and introduce products and services to the influencers’ audiences. In this article, we will explore what exactly influencer trips are and how you can create a successful experience.

Benefits of influencer trips

Influencer trips are costly investments. Are you wondering what the advantages are of offering free trips to influencers? Here are the four most significant benefits for brands:

Increased brand exposure

When an influencer shares a snap of a breathtaking vista or goodies left in their hotel rooms and tags the brand, it automatically boosts social exposure. It piques interest, engages followers, and gets them thinking about trying the brand’s products.

Authentic content creation

While some influencer trips require a certain number of social media posts, influencers often post additional value-added social media shares. Creators tend to capture as much content as possible during the trip, which means the brand could see additional posts tagging the brand. Also, when brands gift influencers free products and services in addition to the trip, the creators will likely make content about those freebies and share them with their followers.

Targeted audience segmentation

Connecting with the right travel influencer means you’ve aligned your campaign with a creator who shares your target audience. It’s not enough to work with any influencer; you want one who aligns with your brand’s mission and tone but who also speaks to the same audience as your brand. Influencer trips allow brands in all industries, not just travel, to bring together creators in different niches and with different audiences who are all creating content for the brand.

Relationship building with creators

According to Insider Intelligence, longer-term partnerships with creators can lower brand costs because more extended contracts can cut down on one-time negotiations on terms like usage rights.

Types of influencer trips

Influencer trips can vary in location and purpose. Here are a few different types of influencer brand trips to consider:

Destination-based trips

Influencers are most commonly asked to visit a specific location and share their trip on social media. 

Event-based trips

Influencers might be asked to travel and attend a special event, like the Barbie movie premiere. Influencers from around the country and the world were invited to the movie’s debut in Los Angeles. 

Product-focused trips

On product-focused trips, influencers would promote a beauty product, travel-based credit card, a certain hotel, or even a new flight accommodation. A certain product drives the trip.

Collaborative trips

When several brands team up to work with influencers, it’s a collaborative trip. For example, a hotel owner might partner with a luggage maker and ask the influencer to promote both in a series of social media content.

Which brands typically offer influencer trips?

• Hotel and lodging brands
• Beauty brands
• Transportation brands, like airlines or luxury trains 
• Excursion hosts, like fishing charters or skydiving companies
• Restaurants
• Tourism organizations
• Convention centers
• Sporting/convert arenas
• Brands that sell travel-based products
• Larger brands that host events
• Financial institutions
• Insurance companies
• Tech companies

How to plan a successful influencer trip

Planning and executing influencer press trips take time, resources, and money. To get started, consider these tips:

1. Identify the right influencers

The success of an influencer trip relies heavily on the creators you choose to collaborate with. The influencer should be a natural match for your brand and, most importantly, have a connection with your target audience. 

An influencer marketplace can help you search for influencers and narrow your results through filters like location, follower size, and preferred social media channels. 

2. Set clear goals and objectives

As you work with a travel influencer, create an influencer brief that provides the campaign’s goals, KPIs, content deadlines, and approval process. Be clear with your instructions, and ensure the influencer knows how to communicate with you by email, text, or phone call. 

3. Create a compelling itinerary

Inviting an influencer (or several) to a destination is not enough. Help them maximize their time and content creation opportunities by setting up an itinerary. You don’t need to fill every day, but make sure their trip includes specific highlights. Book them on a sunset cruise, treat them to dinner at the finest restaurant, or host a cocktail hour.  

4. Ensure a seamless experience

Influencer trips are meant to dazzle, right? So, you can’t disappoint. Try to troubleshoot potential problems from the start. Book direct flights to avoid delays, build extra time into the trip to accommodate poor weather, coordinate transportation, ensure accommodations will be ready, and give influencers a point of contact to usher them through their trip and manage any issues.

Challenges and considerations in influencer trips

Influencer trips can drive travelers to take action, but even the coolest influencer trips come with challenges, like:

Balancing authenticity and sponsored content

A successfully planned influencer trip is a fairly big undertaking for a brand, and as a result, a brand might feel a sense of control over the content being produced. Remember, there’s a delicate balance here. You can provide guidance as a brand, but the most effective influencer endorsements come from the creators themselves. 

Managing expectations

Brands and influencers often go into a collaboration with unspoken expectations. To ensure both parties are happy with the finished product, focus on clear communication. Be clear about your campaign’s goals, the trip’s itinerary, and what you expect from an influencer, and ask your influencers to provide their expectations, too. 

Handling logistics and budgeting

Before you plan an influencer trip, consider your budget. With a number set, you can figure out how many influencers you’d like to invite and what their trip will include. 

There’s a lot to plan, from booking flights and coordinating airport pickups to planning excursions and placing welcome baskets in rooms. Logistics and budget will likely present the most significant challenges. Insurance is a necessity as well.

Case studies: Successful influencer trips

Explore these campaigns to draw inspiration from:

Qatar Airways’ showcases its Q Suite

When Qatar Airways wanted to highlight its spacious new Q Suite, it reached out to influencers like Renata Pereira, a travel influencer with 299K subscribers on YouTube. Her nine-minute video showcases the brand’s luxury lounge in Doha and its deluxe airplane suites, including chairs that turn into beds.

World of Barbie brings influencers to movie premiere 

When the blockbuster Barbie movie debuted, influencers shared the experience. Key influencers attended the movie premiere and shared the glitz and glamor of the event. Influencer Ashyi shared this Reel:

Viajaway looks to attract new travels

Viajaway, a travel company that organizes trips to the Caribbean, brought influencers on several of its curated trips and asked them to share their experiences. The result was a steady stream of picture-perfect snaps like this:

Influencer trips are more than simply inviting a few social stars to a hotel. You have to ensure influencers easily travel, have access to picture-perfect locales, and are “wined and dined,” so to speak. While these trips are an investment, if executed well, they garner big rewards too. Influencer trips can increase brand awareness, introduce destinations (or products) to new audiences, engage customers, and drive sales, all of which are valuable efforts for any brand.