A Peek Inside My Notes App

Plus five post ideas, the class social managers should take, and more.

Anyone else noticing an increase in influencers playing “host” for brands?

Reformation is doing “Ref-in-Residence” where, from what I can tell, they rented a house in Ibiza and tapped influencers to host trips and invite their friends (well, at least their “influential” friends) to spend time there during different parts of the summer. Lilly Sisto and Sara Walker hosted a trip. Their “guests” included Hasley Pitman (145K followers), Sydney Silverman (73K followers), Clémence Lopez (308K followers), and more. Other trips have included Pia Baroncini (and her group of friends) and Lila Moss (and her group of friends).

@styledsarayour ref trip co-hosts reporting for duty 🫡 #matching #ibiza @reformation @Lilly

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Reformation very much feels like a background character with this set up—you never see employees or social managers—with the influencers simply wearing the brand’s clothes and posting about it. Reformation’s captions recapping certain trips use language like “wish we were there” and “vacationing vicariously”—completely removing them as any sort of host or even participant. It also potentially removes them from any backlash, which we all know can happen with brand trips.

More common is the influencer playing dinner host. The other week

Melanie Masarin

, founder of Ghia and writer of

Night Shade

, hosted an apéritif for Sézane. The email invite came from Mélanie, not the brand. The newsletter

PEOPLE BRANDS AND THINGS

recently wrote about Sézane’s hosting strategy here. A few weeks before, Mélanie hosted a different dinner with Rothy’s. While an influencer hosting a dinner for a brand is not new, it used to be reserved for more formal collaborations or announcements. Now it’s just another night.

I think having influencer play host works for a few reasons:

• Guests are more likely to attend and share—the invite feels more intimate and like you’d be letting a friend down versus letting a brand down

• Higher likelihood of a consumer seeing your brand “all over the place”—I think I follow 50% of people from that Rothy’s dinner

• The vibes are good—guests usually already know each other and have lots to catch up on and chat about

• It’s a deeper level of engagement with the influencer than just having them attend a brand event—their posts about hosting have a feeling of excitement and gratitude

My one flag would be that I think audiences have done a good job at holding brands accountable for making sure their brand trips and activations are inclusive and diverse. I would worry that by making the influencer the one responsible for the invite list (especially if the brand’s lineup of influencer hosts isn’t diverse itself) might undo some of that progress. Something to keep in mind if your brand does something similar.

Curious to hear what you all think about this model!

Okay let’s get into today’s newsletter! I’ll be covering:

• Social managers should take this class

• Five meme templates, video formats, and more that are trending right now

• Brands are riffing on Charli XCX’s album art

• A few ideas I’ve scribbled in my notes app recently

• The one place I’d be spending my influencer dollars right now

• 11 quick links and tips—like a fun cartoon from New Balance, a good teaser from Patrick Ta Beauty, and how BÉIS is trying out stakes-based social.

BTW I did two very fun interviews recently! I talked to

The Pleasure Lists

about my “nail sideburns”, watching other people’s wedding videos, and more. And then I spoke with

Thought Enthusiast

about my favorite martini olives, a corny quote I love, and inspiration vs comparison.