SXSW, TikTok & brand trips - Ludlow Social is on the move🚀

Tap, tap—is this thing on? After soaking up an incredible week at SXSW in Austin, TikTok’s latest event with Beacons, and Columbia Business School’s Future of Beauty Summit in NYC, I’m excited to drop into your inbox today!

Grab your matcha and keep on reading to tune into some major industry news on where influencer marketing is actually headed.

📍 PS: If you’re in NYC, don’t miss The Beauty Social on April 7! Save your spot here. Our events are heading West this summer so if you are LA-based, get on the waitlist here.

💡 Brand Trips & Entertainment-First Marketing Are Taking Over

The smartest brands aren’t just using influencers to push content. They’re letting them shape the brand itself. This is why Influencer selection is so important with who represents your brand in a positive light. Let’s unpack this with some examples:

🛫 DSW Brand Trip: NYC’s "it-girl" creators went to Paris and DSW actually used the content in real time. Finally, a brand that moves fast with sharing on owned social.

👉 Personally, this trip’s invite list was a bit plain Jane for me. There weren’t any body positive influencers, everyone looked the same (Kit Keenan, Danielle Carolan, Remi Bader), etc. TBH, I don’t think any of the influencers who went are believable for shopping at DSW.

🌮 Taco Bell’s Live Más Live Event: 400+ creators, a CEO-led product drop, and a social media takeover. The best part? They actually asked creators for feedback on the next menu. Very cool.

👀 Neutrogena & No7 at AAD: This used to be strictly for editors to get the scoop on the science first. Now mainstream lifestyle and beauty influencers like Acquired Style and Cassandra Bankson are getting invited. Plus, Snoop Dog was at AAD. Interesting shift, right? Seems like brands are trying to soften their clinical image to be more accessible.

💡 TikTok Live = A Sales Machine

There’s an $80M+ revenue stream sitting right in front of brands, and most of them aren’t tapping into it.

📲 300K+ creators go live daily.

💰 Some are making $20K+/month just from live gifting & brand deals.

Brands who still think of influencers as only content creators are missing the bigger opportunity. TikTok is building an entire commerce ecosystem around live selling. The opportunities to diversify brand partnerships across platforms is huge.

👉 If your brand has in-person activations, consider adding TikTok Live should be a no-brainer. The brands that figure this out now will own this space in a year.

TL;DR: If your marketing isn’t entertaining or collaborative, it’s about to be irrelevant.

At Ludlow Social, we don’t just "do" influencer marketing—we build smart, strategic campaigns that actually move the needle. Ready to make your influencer budget work?

📩 Book a Discovery Call or just hit reply—I’d love to chat.

xo, Lauren