PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA — At one time, a photograph with the Coachella ferris wheel was essentially the most iconic Instagram standing image to come back out of the two-weekend live performance. Then, the Revolve Pageant carousel swing got here alongside. The style e-tailer’s carnival journey grew to become a flex that separated the influencers and A-list celebrities from the lots, signifying attendance on the invite-only occasion held yearly on Coachella’s first Saturday.
This 12 months, the swing was no extra. Hosted on the grassy grounds of the Parker Palm Springs lodge, the Revolve Pageant was noticeably smaller, and never simply because it was again to a single day, from two in recent times. Identified for its skill to attract attendees akin to Timothée Chalamet and the Kardashians, the occasion’s visitor rely was additionally right down to 1,200 from 5,000 at its 2022 peak.
There have been nonetheless influencers clad briefly shorts, tiny crop tops, see-through attire and cowboy boots, lining up for Havaianas flip flops, Quay sun shades and different festival-appropriate merchandise. A photograph sales space shelling out the cult Peptide Lip Therapy by Hailey Bieber’s magnificence model Rhode was by far the largest draw. A bar stocked filled with 818 margaritas and vodka Pink Bulls fuelled singalongs to performances of “Get Low” by the Ying Yang Twins and “What’s Your Fantasy” by Ludacris. Celeb appearances included Bieber, who additionally sponsored a frozen yogurt stand that inspired folks so as to add the “Hailey’s Approach” toppings of chocolate chips and peanut butter, in addition to Megan Fox, Emma Roberts and Charli D’Amelio.
However the scaled-back occasion is partly a mirrored image of how Coachella hype has pale. And Revolve, which helped invent influencer advertising and marketing as we all know it with over-the-top occasions just like the Pageant, is trying to new methods to leverage social media hype to be able to promote garments.
It was changing into more and more clear that one thing wanted to vary. Coachella events have made headlines in recent times as a lot for lengthy traces and ubiquitous promoting because the music or the seems to be. The influencer journey format, the place social media celebrities are despatched to unique areas and unique occasions, regularly generates backlash, and worse – boredom.
Revolve’s web gross sales, which crossed $1 billion in 2022, dipped 3 p.c final 12 months. The 2023 Revolve Pageant generated about half the earned media worth – a measure of consideration on-line – because it did in 2019, based on influencer advertising and marketing platform Creator IQ.
The corporate is responding by increasing its focus from competition outfits, occasion attire and beachwear to on a regular basis classes together with workplace put on and wonder. Its advertising and marketing can also be, if not precisely staid, definitely toned down from its pre-pandemic heyday. Total advertising and marketing spend decreased from $181 million in 2022 to $171 million in 2023, based on regulatory filings. Whereas Revolve despatched influencers on a visit to the Tremendous Bowl and to go to its pop-up retailer in Aspen this 12 months, it has not but completed any of its signature #revolvearoundtheworld world model journeys.
“We do have some journeys and occasions already deliberate, however I don’t know if we’re going to do as a lot as we did final 12 months,” stated Revolve’s chief model officer Raissa Gerona.
Based in 2003, Revolve hit its stride when it went all-in on influencers within the early 2010s.
It was one of many first e-tailers to carry influencer journeys, producing aspirational content material from luxurious locales like Dubai or Turks and Caicos. It additionally grew to become synonymous with bringing that aspirational aesthetic to Coachella, sending its first group of influencers to the California desert music competition in 2013 on the top of the flower crown period. That led to the creation of the Revolve Pageant in 2016, which ballooned right into a full-blown separate two-day music competition that introduced in performers akin to Cardi B, SZA and Travis Scott over time.
“Raissa made the entire ‘Revolve Across the World,’ and he or she’s a genius for that,” stated Megan Levy, head of expertise acquisition at influencer administration company Shine Expertise Group, which has influencer purchasers who attended Revolve Pageant. “It kicked off an entire new wave of influencer advertising and marketing.”
Gross sales soared, 12 months after 12 months. Revolve went public in 2019, incomes a $1.2 billion valuation. In contrast to different e-tailers that held preliminary public choices round that point, its gross sales and income continued to climb, with compound annual income development of twenty-two p.c since its IPO. By late 2021, its share value had greater than doubled.
However the first cracks in Revolve’s technique began appearing the next 12 months. In 2022, the primary Revolve Pageant for the reason that pandemic confronted a brand new tradition of outspoken Gen-Z TikTokers. After the competition hit capability on its first Saturday again, disgruntled influencers took to the short-video platform to rant about being denied entrance. In 2023, Revolve diminished its competition measurement to three,000 folks and lower the size on each days.
Influencers at Revolve Pageant on Saturday appeared proud of the extra unique visitor record and simpler logistics.
“I believed it was excellent as a result of it wasn’t overcrowded, however there have been positively lots of people there and everybody was having time,” stated mannequin Marianne Fonseca, who gave out merchandise from her body-care model Gente Magnificence to influencers in Revolve’s gifting suite this 12 months.
Even the largest influencer occasions aren’t packing the identical advertising and marketing punch, and never only for Revolve. Different manufacturers, such because the make-up line Tarte, have additionally confronted scrutiny for his or her influencer journeys, whether or not for showcasing an out-of-touch life-style or an absence of range, or each. Past the controversies, customers appear to be becoming bored with watching social media celebrities frolic on the seaside or at Coachella. Gerona herself has stated that the normal influencer journey feels “dated” nowadays.
“This development for festivals and large competition manufacturers is much like the rising consensus round influencer journeys: they drive [attention] for the manufacturers in query, however there’s extra unfavourable sentiment,” stated Alex Rawitz, the director of analysis and insights at Creator IQ.
Influencers have additionally been evolving previous the 2010s Instagram aesthetic. Aimee Tune, one of many influencers identified for driving the Coachella influencer style increase and a daily attendee on the Revolve Pageant, is not doing her Tune of Fashion style collaboration with Revolve as she launched her personal standalone luxurious line final week.
Revolve is present process a mode makeover of its personal.
Whereas its activations have usually centred round event-based dressing like festivals, events or holidays, Gerona stated that influencer journeys have develop into extra centered on on a regular basis clothes like activewear, blazers and fundamentals. This additionally applies to its collaboration technique, which remains to be going sturdy – the corporate simply appointed Marianne Hewitt the inventive director of its in-house label L’Academie, which presents suiting separates and work-appropriate clothes.
Location selections have expanded from tropical hotspots to cities – final 12 months’s locations included Singapore, Tokyo and the Netherlands. Slightly than flying American influencers to worldwide areas, these journeys are more and more tapping native expertise in a bid to develop Revolve’s worldwide gross sales. The Singapore journey featured influencers from throughout Asia, whereas a Mexico journey final 12 months introduced influencers from international locations throughout Latin America.
In line with its newest earnings report, the corporate can also be specializing in increasing high-growth classes together with menswear, residence and wonder, which noticed a 49 p.c year-over-year web gross sales improve within the fourth quarter final 12 months.
“We travelled a ton within the final decade and it has been so enjoyable, and has been clearly so vital and pivotal to the model, however now it’s additionally making an attempt to consider ‘Okay, there’s so many alternative classes that we promote on Revolve,’” stated Gerona.
The brand new strategy has some converts. In March, TD Cowen analysts upgraded their outlook for Revolve’s inventory, citing “early indicators of enchancment.” For development to return to 2022 ranges, Revolve “might want to execute on reaching new clients whereas retaining their present Gen-Z and Millennial base as they get older,” the analysts stated.
The previous Revolve isn’t going wherever. Whereas Tune could also be completed with Revolve, influencer Camila Coelho was readily available at Revolve Pageant in a glance from her assortment with the retailer.
And at Stagecoach, the nation music competition held on the identical website as Coachella later this month, Revolve is launching its inaugural afterparty. Some 1,000 attendees are anticipated, together with loads of influencers.
“Pageant will all the time be a signature and simply part of what we do as a result of we’ve been doing it for therefore lengthy,” stated Gerona.
