Tarte’s Influencer Trip: What They Did Right + What They Got Wrong
Here's what happened on social media this week, January 27
Thanks for reading! I’m in Toronto collaborating on a fun project for marketing agency Viral Nation … I actually think one this will be part of a larger industry trend for 2023 but I’ll share more once I’m out of the NDA zone.
💻 ROADMAP
📲TikTok Updates:
TikTok is expanding Direct Messaging permissions giving you more control over who can DM you. (The option to adjust is under the Privacy tab in your Settings). Your new choices to accept messages will now be from Everyone, Suggested Friends, Mutual Followers, People you’ve sent messages to or No One.
📲Instagram Updates:
Instagram is rolling out a reversible profile which can flip between your profile photo and your Meta-created avatar.
Instagram is actively testing a Lead Form button on business and creator profiles. (Action buttons can be accessed and enabled through Edit Profile.) You can choose either a standard lead form, or add custom questions to collect personalized information.
📲 Twitter Updates:
Twitter’s updated its Paid Partnerships Policy to ensure creators and brands use the #ad #sponsored or #paidpartnership tags on any content where the user might receive some kind of benefit, incentive or reward.
👆🏻 CLICK THRU
🔥 TikTok confirms that its own employees can decide what goes viral
It turns out TikTok employees have the power to handpick content they want to promote with a “Heating” button. Flipping the switch puts the staff picks onto users’ For You pages and helps boost views by sidestepping the algorithm that supposedly drives the TikTok experience.
As The Verge points out, this isn’t exactly a surprise. Social platforms bend the rules for politicians, celebrities and ad partners all the time.
TikTok claims it was used only occasionally to introduce celebrities and emerging creators to the community but the lack of transparency could hurt the company’s credibility with brands and creators who still see the platform as their best chance of going viral based on the algorithm — not employee manipulation.
🔮 Influencer Marketing Trends: Experts Share 5 Predictions for 2023
I’m squeezing one more influencer marketing trends article into the mix since I shared my thoughts with The Leap on this one:
“I think we’re going to see a lot of first-time creators skip Instagram and TikTok and go directly to YouTube. Sure, they’ll cross-post videos to other platforms, but they’ll make and optimize content for YouTube first.”
It doesn’t mean people will drop TikTok or Instagram but I think we’re going to see an interesting shift as creators, such as TikToker JT Barnett and others, enter their YouTube era.
💰 Meta Pays BuzzFeed Millions to Generate Creator Content for Facebook and Instagram
It looks like BuzzFeed is now taking on the role of creator agency — or maybe it’s a production studio?* According to limited details in this Wall Street Journal piece: BuzzFeed agreed to help generate creator content for Meta’s platforms and train creators to grow their presence online as part of a $10M deal.
*If you’re a creator reading this, please don’t work for BuzzFeed for free when clearly they’re making millions off of this and using AI to create content.
Everything Is Content, Especially Tech Layoffs
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💡 WHY IT WORKS
Tarte CEO Maureen Kelly sets the record straight on the brand’s influencer trip to Dubai
Setting the Stage: Makeup brand Tarte took 30 to 50 beauty and lifestyle influencers (and their plus-ones) to Dubai for an extravagant three-day trip. The luxury getaway flooded people’s TikTok feeds and led to backlash for the over-the-top trip against the backdrop of a possible recession.
The marketing campaign really jumped from the Comments section to national news story after a campy “investigation” into the Tarte trip from TikToker Jack Mac, who works for Barstool. His video, breaking down the costs of the trip, prompted other news outlets to take the story seriously and question whether Tarte’s marketing efforts were out-of-touch.
So, let’s unpack what Tarte got right and where they could have done better.
Why this campaign works:
First, let’s establish a few details about Tarte’s financials and a larger economic trend at play: Tarte is valued at somewhere between $50 to $150M; Tarte was the second most popular brand sold through influencer affiliate links on LTK in 2022; All data shows Gen Z is on track to become the biggest buyers of luxury products in the next decade.
So… the company conceivably has a decent marketing budget; is popular with influencers; and is presumably aware there’s a potentially appreciative audience for this type of campaign.
Against this backdrop, I asked marketing strategist Sara McCord to weigh in on the campaign from a strategic perspective. According to her, the Tarte influencer trip to Dubai absolutely makes sense:
“It’s a strategy the brand has executed for years (pre-Covid) that they’ve adapted for a new viral platform and a new generation of influencers by focusing on TikTok.”
Moreover, they’re making all the right moves assuming Tarte’s goal is sales, says McCord:
The influencers they chose are known to sell out products (#1 example of this Alix Earle)
TikTok is a platform where people who follow makeup influencers trust them and buy the products they use to replicate the looks
It created a viral brand awareness on TikTok that absolutely introduced the brand to potential new customers.
The bias of it all:
The public debate around this influencer trip got so loud, Tarte’s CEO Maureen Kelly felt she had to set the record straight, explaining to Glossy that the company prioritized putting its marketing budget into building relationships with influencers.
“Every day, brands make decisions about how to spend their marketing budgets. For some companies, that means a huge Super Bowl commercial or a multi-million-dollar contract with a famous athlete or celeb. We’ve never done traditional advertising, and instead, we invest in building relationships and building up communities.”
Seriously, if we’re going to complain about a beauty company spending its marketing dollars on a trip for influential young women, has anyone ever asked why beer, soda or auto advertisers spend $6.5M for a 30-second Super Bowl spot?!
3 Valid Issues to Consider:
That’s not to say the Tarte trip couldn’t have benefitted from some smarter planning:
People have pointed out that there’s a significant lack of diversity among the influencers who RSVPd. It’s a known fact that black creators are denied opportunities like this one and it’s disappointing to see this persist.
Tarte says they didn’t pay the influencers, but according to the FTC Influencer Marketing 101 guidelines, influencers still have to disclose a material connection to a brand whether they’re “paying you or giving you free or discounted products or services.” Which means every post should have had a #sponsored or #ad hashtag — even if the company wanted this to seem like an organic (aka unpaid) experience.
Since these influencers weren’t actually paid for their time or content, I asked Lindsey Lee Lugrin, founder of creator payments transparency platform FYPM, if this sets a bad precedent for unpaid collaborations:
“It seems like this trip was more of a one time thing for a product launch. Not paying influencers is more problematic if it’s their overall strategy and they’re relying on their brand being big enough with more hopefuls in the pipeline to sustain it sort of like Revolve does,” says Lugrin.
Furthermore, there’s clearly a difference in value in flying first class and staying at a luxury hotel than being offered a couple free meals or toothpaste, says Lee of brands trying to duplicate Tarte’s success. “Brands looking to copy this strategy should be mindful of this as well and try to approach influencers who are already their customers and want to work with their brand if this is the case.”
The Last Laugh: Tarte and its CEO are now having fun on TikTok with the (false) rumors that they fired their entire marketing department, which seems to demonstrate they’re just as funny as they are strategic.
📣 QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I think we were overfocused on video in 2022 and pushed ranking too far, and basically showed too many videos and not enough photos. We’ve since balanced, so things like how often someone likes photos versus videos, and how often someone comments on photos versus videos, are roughly equal, which is a good sign that things are balanced.”
-Adam Mosseri during his weekly Q&A with users
🔨 RESOURCES
The Creator’s Toolkit: 27+ Content Creation Tools for Every Stage of the Process -Buffer
TikTok’s Marketing Calendar 2023 for SMBs -TikTok
📖 ALSO ON MY RADAR…
Vloggers Hank And John Green Want You To Take College Courses On YouTube -BuzzFeedNews
The Biden White House Is Trying to Reach Young Americans Via Listening Sessions -TeenVogue
Mikayla Nogueira accused of misleading viewers with false lashes in sponsored mascara TikTok -Passionfruit
Welcome to the world of the influencer, the most sought-after career which can ‘vanish overnight’ -Yahoo
TikTok warns remote employees they risk losing jobs if their home addresses do not match their assigned office location -The Information (paywall)
TikTok rolls out its ‘state-controlled media’ label to 40 more countries -TechCrunch
A new study suggests teenagers who use Instagram are happier than we think -Fast Company
Why aren’t there any legal protections for the children of influencers? -Salon
Influencers share their 14 favorite creator-economy startups -Insider (paywall)
Hootsuite will no longer offer a free version of its tool from March 31 -Matt Navarra
