If there’s one major takeaway from the notorious Fyre Festival, it’s that influencers hold serious power over consumers. When done right, utilizing social media to sell experiences can mean big money — and there’s a new travel service launching to extend this opportunity to all.
TRILL, which just launched out of beta, is the brainchild of founder and CEO Eric Shepard. It’s essentially a photo gallery of global experiences provided by influencers on Instagram. But don’t let the term intimidate you — in this case, “influencer” refers to any Instagram user with compelling travel content.
“The term ‘influencer’ keeps getting broader and broader. Now, we have micro and nano influencers,” said Shepard. “We have believed in this movement for a while and feel everyone is an influencer in their own way.”
With the help of social media, users are finding unique experiences that they wouldn't typically find on traditional travel sites.”
If you’re looking for fame, TRILL could be your big break into influencer status — kind of. The company is dual-sided, with consumers on one end looking to find their next “Instagrammable” travel experience and content creators on the other looking to monetize their social travel content. “Influencers” have a dashboard to see how many conversions their content is generating, and are paid every time someone books a hotel off their content. So, it’s actually the locations — hotels, restaurants and experience providers — that can benefit most from the service.
“If you look at a country like Iceland, Instagram and social media put that country on the map and increased tourism,” said Shepard. “With the help of social media, users are finding unique experiences that they wouldn't typically find on traditional travel sites.”
Shepard came up with the idea for TRILL while he was planning a ski trip and noticed that it was a challenge to get the “true, real” — trill, if you will — sense of what the experience would be like.
Content creators are driving billions in retail sales from their Instagram accounts. Why can’t they do the same for travel?”
“Travel content often features the same image of a bed and lobby on every travel platform,” said Shepard. “Meanwhile, on the social side of things, content creators are driving billions in retail sales from their Instagram accounts. Why can’t they do the same for travel?”
TRILL uses a proprietary image analysis AI tool that categorizes each piece of social content by hotel, activity or restaurant. The team also built an algorithm that matches each photo to the most accurate booking partner based on a number of different qualities, and enhanced it all with keyword- and location-matching capabilities.
Next up, the company plans to use this technology to become the go-to online destination for booking travel experiences.
“We want to be the largest UGC marketplace for travel accommodations and experiences, a data provider for travel brands and the leading content monetization platform for travel content creators,” said Shepard.
