Travel content creators are racking up millions of views on city itinerary guides, hidden gem recommendations and flying hacks, and Expedia Group is tapping into their audiences by building a community of brand partners who regularly develop social media content promoting its travel properties and booking products.
Embracing the creators as a key element of its marketing engine has been a “game changer” for the brand, says Mallory Kuenzi, senior director-creators at Expedia Group, so to continue boosting momentum around its Ambassador Program, Expedia Group annually hosts an Ambassador Summit that convenes a small group of its global content creator partners at a trending destination.
This year, the brand invited 38 creators on a multiday brand trip to Greater Palm Springs, ahead of Coachella’s festival takeover, offering a stacked schedule of educational programming, local adventures, desert stargazing, receptions and dinners hosted at well-known restaurants and a private Vrbo estate in the Coachella Valley.
The Ambassador Summit is one of their biggest content gathering opportunities, and it’s a boon for both the participating influencers and Expedia Group, with this year’s event generating nearly 600 posts and a million dollars in earned media value, Kuenzi says.
“We want them to understand what our key values and drivers are at that moment, and so the event came to be to service three core goals,” she says. “One, to build trust in our relationships with these creators so they understand, as a business, how we’re putting creators at the forefront… Two, to create a moment where they can create content at scale that shows the diversity of our products in action. And third, to make sure that we’re mapping out the partnership timeline and deliverables.”
Now in its fifth year, the summit has previously traveled to Tampa Bay, FL; Los Cabos, Mexico; Park City, UT; and Sedona, AZ, so partnering with Visit Greater Palm Springs allowed Expedia Group to showcase its brand portfolio—which includes Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo—in a buzzy setting optimized for travel-focused content creation.
Over three-and-a-half days in February, the ambassadors stayed at Parker Palm Springs, a luxury resort, and spent the mornings in the hotel ballroom participating in learning sessions that presented brand overviews and delved into the Ambassador Program. In the afternoons, attendees were shuttled to activities, such as The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and a Modernism Week House Tour—and that was just day two.
For Expedia Group’s most ambitious Ambassador Summit yet, which welcomed double the number of attendees, Kuenzi and event marketing manager Nikki Guay talked with EM about what goes into developing a creator-first event in a desert oasis.
Defining the (Ambassador) Relationship
The Expedia Group team handpicked the ambassadors in attendance, who are contracted for six months to a year. Kuenzi describes the staff/ambassador relationship as a “camp counselor model,” where each team member works with five or six creators on monthly content plans and campaigns throughout the year.
“They’re not paid to attend, so how are we making this content-rich? How are we finding amazing experiences rooted in the destination? How are we hosting wonderful curated evening events that are making them want to create scroll-stopping content?” Guay says.
According to Kuenzi, the proven formula is “Let’s build something magical and hope they will post… We understand that when creators are posting content of our event or content that’s sponsored, we shouldn’t be the star of that. They’re the star. We know the second we come in too heavy-handed with branding and very intense messaging, we’re going to stick out like a sore thumb, and that certainly is not what we’re looking to do here.”
Designing a Balanced Program
That tactful mindset also influenced the event design, from the décor to the programming. The retro-chic, mid-century modern aesthetic that Palm Springs is known for was infused into the tablescapes, signage, gifts, wall installations and photo op backdrops, along with logos of Expedia Group’s three brands and the summit itself.
“It is a delicate balance. We want to show [the branding] in those photo ops because these folks are so excited to be Expedia Group Ambassadors, but we don’t want them to be overwhelmed with so much in-your-face branding,” Guay says. “The evening events are a little more subtle and playing into the destination, but we do weave in branding to help get it in the content that’s posted.”
Likewise, the summit’s schedule is intentionally crafted to prevent overloading attendees with too much information or too many outings. Over the years, the team has learned that ambassadors have different social batteries and appreciate having downtime to create and post content, as well as having multiple options for small-group dinners, events and activities.
“We know that these are highly creative people, and if we sit them in a classroom for eight hours a day, that’s not necessarily going to create fruitful content or have them feeling very warm and fuzzy about us as a brand,” Kuenzi says. “One of the things that I feel most proud of is the fact that we’ve been able to go from 20 people to 40 or so and not feel that on an event experience level. The creators got to meet everyone in the room, and they all still had a great sense of agency over their adventure while they were there.”
Curating the Right Vibe
The summit isn’t just about gathering content, it’s also an opportunity to connect with fellow ambassadors and the Expedia Group team in person. In the past, attendees have befriended one another, with some going on to take trips together or partner on content.
Staff members from Expedia’s creator team are embedded into the education program to have conversations with attendees and present brand priorities in a way that’s tailored to an influencer audience. There’s no set expectation that the ambassadors post about the summit, so it’s up to the team to make it a social media-worthy experience.
“We have KPIs that we want to hit and certain tiers of creators and certain niches we want to tap into,” Kuenzi says. “Someone on the influencer team has gone to bat for them with our executives and said, ‘This is a creator who’s going to help us solve this gap,’ and so we want to make sure that they feel like they have a friend or a phone they can call if they need help and support. Integrating us into that programming has been really successful, and we’ve been able to do that because our events team is so seamless in the back-of-house operations.”
The team has a strict “no jerks” policy, she adds, which guides the attendee selection process. After working in the influencer space for 15 years, Kuenzi has a pretty good sense of how different personalities gel and where cliques can form. As a result, seating charts are thoughtfully arranged, groups are switched up, and there’s no hierarchy of followers, which can range from 25,000 to 3 million, or experience, whether it’s their first brand trip or 10th.
“So many of these creators don’t have coworkers; they work as independent creatives. It’s creating a cohort of people who are all helping each other win in this space,” she says. “When they post content over the next six months, the engagement we’re getting on that post is from a net of 40 other influencers. And so it really creates a magical echo chamber where they’re tagging other people and helping to grow each other’s followings. It feels very community-rooted.”
Leveling up Content
Expedia Group will be analyzing the results and impact of the Ambassador Summit over the next few months, but the team is already looking at which areas of the program creators are featuring most in their social posts, and they’re thinking about how next year’s experience will best translate for content.
A new element that worked for this year was bringing Mattel’s Ken into the mix. As part of his 65th anniversary, Ken left the beach to head out on a yearlong adventure as Expedia’s newest brand ambassador, and one of the stops along his journey to try 65 new things was at the summit. Attendees enjoyed incorporating the doll into their adventures and group photos. Mattel’s studio production and social teams also joined the Expedia team on the ground as part of the partnership, and Ken released his own content on Barbie’s social media channels.
“From an event standpoint, a challenge is continuing to improve, refine and push the envelope to stay on the pulse of what is happening at these brand events, what creators are looking for, what helps them post and what sets those expectations as these brand trips can be very elaborate,” Guay says. “Staying true to us, our brand and our relationships is really helpful, as well as keeping an eye on what’s trending.” (Agency: Scout.; In-house: 2D design)
Photo credit: Miranda McDonald
