The brand trip is dead. Long live the brand trip.
From the 2023 Shein tour that some commenters compared to an influencer trip to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory; to Brandon Edelman’s ill-received trip to Coachella courtesy of a boycotted Starbucks; to, most recently, the debut brand trip for OpenAI to the idyllic Wildflower Farms in New York’s Hudson Valley, netizens have not shied from voicing their displeasure at seeing brands attempt to create good will through lavish influencer trips.
And yet none of those controversies have killed off the brand trip as a marketing ploy entirely. But while some brands, like Alo Yoga’s June yacht voyage to the French Riviera with the likes of Alix Earle and Jake Shane, are sticking to a traditionally extravagant model, others are attempting to evolve the brand trip with the times.
“It takes a while for brands and marketers to break out of something that has worked. And I think those kinds of influencer-sponsored moments have been very effective for a long time,” said Ellie Bamford, chief strategy officer of North America at creative branding agency VML. But consumers today expect more compelling, entertaining content on their social feeds, rather than just pristine aesthetics.
“They have to rebrand the brand trip. You can still do brand trips, but you need to think about how the content you’re asking people to make is curated,” said Bamford. “My advice for any brand at the moment would be to steer very clear of doing something that feels fairly superficial, like these trips have been, and to think about more creative ways to show your brand in action. Show some failure. People don’t mind it — actually, they want to see it.”
One creative workaround to avoid the negative feedback that can flood the comments on typical brand trip content is to invite the commenters on the trip themselves.
When the brand trip first emerged in tandem with 2010s influencer culture, the genre’s lavish getaways exemplified the kind of aspirational lifestyle many users tuned in to Instagram to see. But as audiences have grown weary of seeing mega-creators living in the lap of luxury, influencers no longer act as a stand-in for the average consumer the way they once did. And with an army of micro-influencers now having as much influence as top-tier creators, brands are refashioning the brand trip as an opportunity for their customers.
In July, Kourtney Kardashian Barker’s supplements brand Lemme announced a giveaway where every dollar spent on the Lemme website throughout the months of August and September earned consumers one entry to win a $20,000 vacation. For the 2025 U.S. Open, Dove invited a fan to attend the tournament and capture content in lieu of a professional content creator. In April, Urban Outfitters invited 200 micro creators on an all-expenses-paid trip to Joshua Tree.
“Consumers are like, ‘I’m the one buying your product and spending all this money. Why are these creators getting paid and getting all these things for free?’” said Sierra Moore, senior creative director at creator and influencer marketing agency Open Influence. “I think [sending consumers] is a good answer from brands to that kind of backlash to start bringing in these actual consumers, because they have stories to tell, as well.”
Some brands are taking a two-pronged approach of treating both creators and consumers. In July, Rent the Runway partnered with Air France to send content creator Candace Marie on a month-long “sabbatical” across France. Alongside Candace’s trip, the clothing rental company is also hosting a giveaway to award one customer with two Air France business class tickets to France and a year-long Rent the Runway subscription; according to the brand, 1,200 customers entered the giveaway in the first week.
“Traditional brand trips can be effective, but they’re so compressed. You have multiple creators, multiple moments, a lot of content in very short periods of time,” said Sarah Tam, chief merchant officer at Rent the Runway. “We wanted to experiment with almost the opposite model: Give one creator the time and space to actually live the experience, not just document it.”
Candace will be responsible for posting 37 pieces of content throughout her travels across France, which have already taken her to the likes of Provence and Marseille, but what and how she captures is up to her, Tam said. While Candace’s content is still unfolding, Tam said the response has thus far been positive — and perhaps more cost-effective than sending a dozen influencers on a weekend getaway.
“I think going deeper with one creator can actually produce better economics than going broader with many,” said Tam.
Indeed, between the travel fare, creators’ fees and additional production costs, Moore said major brand trips can easily top $1 million in budgets. But storytelling is taking on more importance than just glamor when it comes to trips; Moore said she is seeing brands tailor trips around cultural events, like sports tournaments or music festivals, or a particular creator’s background.
“I think it is really smart for a brand to format around the creator and do their homework on that creator,” she said. “So maybe a creator’s family originates from a certain country, so they’re going to send them specifically to that country. Or maybe they’re known because they love to cook, so they’re going to have a cooking class itinerary.”
But brand trips can offer more than just opportunities to capture content. They may also be a valuable conduit to relationship building.
“Something I’m seeing a lot of now in the last couple of years is brands coming to us to bring creators to an event or a trip as a kickoff to a long-term partnership, or as the end of maybe a year-long relationship or more,” said John Mathieu, vp and creative director at creator marketing company Pearpop. “And when that happens, usually the expectation isn’t that the entire point of it is to bring their audience along.”
But whether in a public-facing or more private capacity, brands treating influential individuals to lavish dinners and vacations is far from a new phenomenon, said Mathieu. Instead, the perks that used to be largely the domain of journalists or editors are now going to the creator class.
“I don’t feel like [brand experiences] changed at all,” he said. “It’s just who we’re inviting to document it.”
That’s likely why the brand trip, in some form or another, isn’t likely to go away any time soon.
“At the end of the day, people are still interested in seeing where their favorite creators are being sent by these brands,” said Mathieu. “I just think we need to tone down the opulence of it all, because that’s just not where we are as a society right now.”
