Why do Tarte keep sending influencers to exotic islands when their customers hate it so much?
Trippin' with Tarte is back and this time the PJs headed to Bora Bora
Somehow, this year’s Tarte influencer press trip, almost passed me by. That was until a video popped up on my TikTok of a girl opening a giant parcel from the brand.
Abby Baffoe is an influencer who made the cut for this year’s Tarte Bora Bora trip and she posted a video unboxing all the gifts, the brand sent ahead of time.
From previous years, I know how utterly obnoxious these trips are, so of course I wanted to see what the influencers were sent, in addition to a private jet to a tropical island.
In the box were two pairs of custom matching purple Nike Jordans “For me and my best friend”, matching Tarte tracksuits and a Canon G7X camera.
From there, it just gets wilder. Think chartered private jets serving caviar and Dom Pérignon and water bungalows full of pyjamas, workout clothes, every Tarte item you could think of and of course an extra suitcase to take it all home with.
A quick Google tells me Tarte has carried out more than 20 of these trips to date and every single time they cause controversy.
Last year, their Dubai trip made headlines around the world for just how excessive it was, especially considering the global economic crisis and who can forget their infamous Turks and Caicos season 1 and season 2 tier list.
This trip created controversy amongst the influencers themselves, as they were put into two groups (season 1 and 2). The idea being that season 1 influencers would arrive first and then leave the island when it was time for the season 2 cast to join.
However, some influencers from season 1 were allowed to stay on and weren’t sent home with everyone else. Instead, they were taken to Miami to watch the F1, while the others flew back.
So, you can see how these trips are just crass all round.
You only need to read the comments on any of the recent Bora Bora videos to get a taste of how these lavish trips appear to outsiders.
“I have never wanted to purchase from Tarte less”. “If this trip has done anything for me, it’s de-influencing”. “Ah yes Tarte. Keeping the rich, rich”. “My favourite thing is watching this luxury vacation footage while I struggle to afford Tarte”.
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Honestly, they are the same comments every single year. You might think getting comments like, “You know Tarte hates its customers,” would make the brand rethink these trips, but clearly not.
Obviously, they work for Tarte, but on what metric are they judging their success?
EMV is something that I’ve noticed a few beauty brands are obsessed with right now. It stands for ‘Earned Media Value’ and is essentially a performance indicator for brands to measure the value of their campaigns/launches.
This video describes it best, but essentially brands measure the engagement rate of a post (views/likes/comments) to come out with a number that reflects what that coverage is worth to them.
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Brands then have monthly EMV goals they have to hit. In order to reach these targets, they can either pay influencers to talk about their products, or hope that they get some organic, viral content from people posting their content without being paid.
The thing is, the more followers you have, the higher your EMV is going to be, because you naturally have a bigger audience to begin with. Which is why, you’ll see the same influencers being used over and over again in campaigns.
So, if Tarte use EMV as a metric of their success, it doesn’t matter that the majority of comments are negative, as they all count towards engagement.
Tarte is also a brand that doesn’t do any form of traditional paid advertising. So while the cost of flying 30 influencers and their plus ones via private jet to Bora Bora is absolutely wild. The brand’s considered return on investment, will be even higher.
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In the video above, the women gave an example of a brand having a monthly EMV goal of $1 million dollars. Now, I don’t know the exact formula, but it doesn’t take a maths degree to work out that 30 of the biggest influencers posting for 5 days continuously about your brand, is going to add up to some serious £££.
Not to mention, the videos and headlines that are then created off the back of these controversial trips, all get added to that number as well.
While I think it’s a mistake for brands to be so focused on EMV. After all, it’s a fictional number, no money is actually changing hands. Looking at Tarte’s sales, they aren’t doing too badly.
4% sales growth in 2024 doesn’t sound like much, but while other brands are seriously struggling and in the negatives, it’s a success story in comparison.
However, I don’t know if Tarte’s hyperfocus on these kind of trips, is good for either brand perception or a longer term outlook.
It isn’t great that they’ve become more well known for this controversy, than any of their products and while it wouldn’t necessarily put me off purchasing from them, it doesn’t exactly encourage me to want to explore the brand.
If anything I look at these trips and think, I’m not a Tarte girlie.
Also, in a time when people want brands to stand for something, I couldn’t tell you what Tarte stood for and honestly, I don’t consider them a company with good morals.
After all, influencers have spoken out about being bullied on these trips and the brand founder’s apology to a Black influencer, who felt she was unfairly treated, was embarrassing to say the least.
So, while Tarte, I’m sure will pat themselves on the back for another successful trip, I don’t recommend they rest on their Bora Bora laurels.
Wow, did not realise they did this myself. I must not follow enough of their prized influencers. I kinda agree it makes me want to buy their products less, but honestly I don’t think I’m their target audience anyway. It did prove to make me google what products they actually sell so I guess it drives traffic and some of those people will always be tempted!