Influencers and Fam Trips

As Instagram continues to grow, so does the flourishing industry of influencers. In the past few years, this social media trend has become a vital asset to many companies. My main following of influencers ranges from health and fitness to fashion and beauty. Through these influencers I have noticed a more specific trend used to increase awareness around a certain product and company. This social media trend is referred to as press tours or fam trips. PR practitioners will invite influencers to an all-expense paid vacation to promote their company’s new products. An example of this is 437 Swimwear, which invited their influencers to a trip in Tulum. This trip promoted the launch of their new bathing suit collection and created buzz around the product and company. The company used #Destination437 to further promote their business and products.

Similarly, Tarte Cosmetics invited their influencers on a fam trip to Bora Bora to promote their new products.

Some PR practitioners view such a practice as unethical as influencers feel the need to give glowing reviews of the product and post about it because the company invited them on an all-expense paid trip. In some sense I agree with these practitioners. I think it is unethical if they invite journalists or reporters who have never tried their product before and invite them on such glorious trips. However, these companies that I have mentioned above only invited influencers that they have worked with before and know love their products. If done correctly I do not think that press tours are ethical.

Organizations can benefit from doing press tours because influencers will constantly post about them for the entire time that they are there. Single posts can get lost in Instagram feeds or sometimes people are not present on Instagram at the time influencers create a post. However, when influencers are posting numerous days in a row their followers are bound to see at least one of those posts.