Recently, the US-based beauty brand Tarte Cosmetics took some influencers on a trip to Dubai to launch a new product. The three-day trip was all-expenses-paid and included 50 influencers in the beauty market, along with their plus ones. It was created in collaboration with Sephora Middle east, and the guests flew in on Emirates business class. All the influencers stayed at private villas at the Ritz-Carlton Ras Al Khaimah filled with makeup from Tarte Cosmetics. The influencers also received various products from other brands.
Influencer trips
Since 2015, Tarte Cosmetics has sponsored more than 20 different trips for influencers. The only downtime since then without any influencer trips was during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The latest influencer trip, called “Glow Around the Globe” had the goal of promoting Tarte Cosmetics’ new line of foundation, Maracuja Juicy. The company was looking to support and lift up people. To do that, Tarte had a fundraiser, with all the donations made in honor of the attendees going to various Middle East-based charities.
Public reaction
Once influencers started sharing content from the trip, the public started reacting to it. Not all the reactions were positive, as some people took the campaign the wrong way. Tarte Cosmetics founder, Maureen Kelly, took the comments from social media monitoring in good faith. She said that the brand’s marketing budget would fare better on these types of trips instead of 30-second ad placements. Tarte Cosmetics hasn’t been a brand that’s known for pursuing traditional advertising campaigns. Instead, the company prefers to invest in building up communities and developing relationships. That’s why Tarte decided to spend its marketing budget on impressing social media influencers instead. The trip included a branded hashtag, #TarteDubaiTrip, which currently has almost 30 million views on TikTok. Another branded hashtag, #TrippinWithTarte has generated almost 180 million views. Most of the content shared under the branded hashtags came from the influencers that attended the trip.
Strategy
These types of promotional efforts provide brands with a high return on their investment. That ROI is mainly in the form of greater brand awareness. User-generated content, as well as content that influencers create, is very beneficial for companies. When used the right way, companies can even end up going viral. This is especially true when companies focus on sharing relatable and authentic pieces of content on social media platforms. This is what Tarte Cosmetics has managed to achieve for many years now, through these influencer trips. The best way for companies to promote themselves and their solutions during a time of economic downturn is to work with influencers. Companies have to create campaigns that will be authentic if they want to connect with audiences. Particularly younger generations of consumers.