How many of us have scrolled through Instagram during work and envied looking at the photos of our favorite Instagrammers traveling to exotic destinations? They seem to have it all! The abundant and colorful food, the picturesque landscape and the perfect clothes for the destination.
Ever wonder why brands take influencers on vacation? These brands seem to spare no expense on these influencers. These vacations consist of a group of people hanging out, relaxing and posting about it in fascinating destinations. So how do companies implement this as a consistently successful tactic? Let’s find out…
The intense planning
The companies plan the itinerary up to the exact detail. A lot of companies like Revolve, Benefit and even national tourist organizations of Australia, Abu Dhabi, Bali etc are heavily focussed on influencer based travel posts. These brands take along some of the highly-followed Instagrammers on trips which includes their stay, food, and even clothing credit.
These experiences are so perfectly curated that even the background of a photo will be planned sometimes days in advance. The team is usually proficient at coordinating picture-perfect moments. It is mostly about the location and the perfect colors. Every single shot is taken with the notion that it will be viewed by millions of users on Instagram. This kind of campaigns have been giving them direct access to hundreds of thousands of potential new customers
@thatbohogirl in Bali with a picturesque background
Some parts of these travel are co-sponsored by other brands too. Ever notice how they also mention the brands of clothing too? They reserve the best for these trips. Of course, these posts sometimes come with shoppable links. Many hotels, restaurants, and excursion companies are looking to build awareness and may be willing to agree on a “trade” for some free exposure. Businesses should plan these partnerships ahead of time with projected reach and mutually beneficial opportunity.
It is said that the fashion brand Revolve in 2017 made 70% of their sales from the influencer posts. This clothing brand Revolve is known for notoriously exotic trips where they take a bunch of influencers in a lavish, private jet trip and rely on their following for reach. Revolve makes sure that they get most out of their investment in a trip. It has successfully stamped itself as the cool-girl brand.
A bunch of influencers in one trip – the fashion brand knows what it is doing
How does the ROI pan out for these brands?
Any travel campaign is going to expect a hefty investment. But with the heavy investment, comes the returns too. It is key to know where the money is spent and keep tracking the results throughout the campaign.
Here are some of the metrics that can be used to track the success rate of these travel campaigns.
Engagement rate
Are you getting the expected amount of likes and shares for your post? If not, is it time to rework on the campaign content?
Brand sentiment
Are people talking about your brand in the comments? Are they inquisitive about the product or image you are trying to push through these posts? How can you make it better in the upcoming posts? Note what the followers note more! For eg, if you are a travel brand working together with a fashion brand for just one post which has done tremendously well for both brands, look to expand working with them for more than just the one post.
Traffic
Are the intended customers giving your traffic on your website/app? Is the shoppable link attached to the post? Is it easy for them to access? If the influencer only tags your link in his/her bio, you may not get a lot of traffic as compared to a “Swipe Up” link in an Instagram story.
Sales conversions and revenues generated
This is the main metric to calculate your ultimate numbers in ROI. As long as this is high, the campaign can be marked as an intermediate success. As with all of your social media marketing efforts, performance data should be measured to see what drove the best results (and why), and then used to inform how you construct future campaigns.
Here are some exciting campaigns that were done by influencers which lead to a lot of scenic travel.
Two of India’s leading fashion influencers Larissa Dsa and Krithika Khurana of the “thatbohogirl” fame traveled to Canada on an extremely scenic trip on behalf of Explore Canada.
Also, Bali has been a constant favorite in the list of exotic destinations to travel.
A look at these profiles and the amount of engagement on these posts will encourage any brand to look into working at a travel campaign which comes with a huge investment as well as returns. An extremely important factor to consider is that as lavish as these trips are, they still turn out to be cheaper than the traditional media advertising options. Simply put, these trips have proven to have an even greater return on investment for the brand’s target audience.
Your thoughts
We’d love to hear from our readers. As a brand, would you splurge on influencers for such a trip? Is it worth making the heavy investment? Do let us know below in the comments. Or you can peek at our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages and be vocal there.
Comments