Naomi Genota spent well over a thousand dollars to get to her first-ever Coachella.
Flight: $350. General admission tickets (with a California resident discount): $649. Shuttle bus to the grounds: $150. Hotel: Credit card points. Trendy outfits (mostly thrifted): under $100.
“I was originally only going with my friends and family for this,” Genota, a content creator with 41,000 Instagram followers, told Business Insider.
As the dates quickly approached, Genota was able to tack on Coachella content to a longer-term brand partnership, which will help cover the costs.
“It’s now a business trip,” she said. “It’s not the lavish, elaborate Coachella collab people envision, but I’m proud of it.”
Glamorous villas, free clothes, and makeovers: Influencers make Coachella seem like a dream.
It’s not always a mega payday, though.
Like Genota, many creators pay their own way to get to the festival. Some score free tickets or accommodations from brands. And a few get paid four or five-figure fees on top of other freebies, four talent managers told Business Insider.
Even if the money isn’t game-changing for the average working influencer, it’s worth it for creators to mingle in the California desert while the biggest music stars perform and Hollywood elite breathe the same hot air. Creators are often willing to accept lower fees than they normally charge, or no fee at all, if brands can open up access to one of the most important events of the year.
“It’s a huge networking event,” said Emily Brown, an associate director of strategy at influencer marketing firm Billion Dollar Boy. “That value exchange is a big one.”
Coachella, founded in the late 90s as a grassroots music festival, has been taken over by brands and influencers over the last decade. It’s the ultimate product placement opportunity. Companies like Starbucks, Poppi, and Medicube now set up luxurious villas to house influencers such as Victoria Paris and Jake Shane.
For influencer marketing, Coachella has become so important that some brands are including it in annual contracts, requiring creators to attend.
“It’s called the ‘Influencer Olympics’ for a reason,” talent manager Estella Struck said.
What influencers get paid at Coachella
Sam Saideman, who runs the talent management firm Innovo, has five clients going to Coachella this year — all of whom received benefits from brands in some form.
Across those five creators, they’d received 39 event invites, 23 gifting packages from brands, 19 deals to promote songs, and seven on-site collaborations at the festival. Saideman said his firm started pitching brands back in January for content in exchange for festival wristbands, and spent the rest of the weeks leading up to the festival pitching record labels and other brands on paid collaborations.
For instance, Jillian Webber, a content creator with over 4 million TikTok followers, repped by Saideman, collaborated with brands like SeatGeek and Revolve, which hosts its own “Revolve Festival” event.
The deals creators get for Coachella range widely, according to the managers Business Insider spoke with. Many come with the expectation that you post a few times about the brand on your TikTok or Instagram accounts.
Here’s a general breakdown of what brands are offering creators this year:
- Gifts! Gifts! More gifts! Coachella is a freebie wonderland for creators, who often receive gifted outfits from brands trying to get their clothes tagged on Instagram posts. In addition to clothing, influencers are sometimes given merchandise or access to experiences, such as a hair makeover. (For some creators, gifts are all you get, and you’re lucky if you get gifted a ticket to the festival.)
- Complementary tickets. Some brands will pay for VIP tickets or offer the more coveted artist passes, which unlock behind-the-scenes access and golf cart transportation typically reserved for performers or festival insiders.
- Free travel and luxury accommodations. Hotels and Airbnbs near Coachella charge thousands a night during festival weekends, so getting an invite to stay at a brand villa for free is a big perk for creators.
- Flat fees to top it all off. Some influencers with larger audiences get paid a fee, typically ranging from $1,000 to mid-five figures, on top of a ticket (sometimes VIP) with the expectation that they’ll make a few social posts promoting a brand, two managers said. Fees tend to be less of a focus than housing and priority access tickets, however. Some creators end up getting paid for Coachella promotions as part of a longer-term brand partnership set up earlier in the year.
While a few thousand bucks (or free accommodations) may not seem like much to influencers used to getting six-figure brand deals, when it comes to Coachella, access can matter more than anything else.
“Going to Coachella can be really strategic,” said JT Barnett, who works with creators and brands and grew up around Coachella. “You’re in arguably the most condensed environment of people that do social media as a career in the world.”
Why brands are spending big on Coachella
Brands flock to Coachella like 20-somethings trying to get a front-stage view for Katseye.
The event can be a prime opportunity to promote a new product, like Alix Earle’s Reale Actives, or rekindle interest in a brand that’s been out of the limelight for a while.
“Coachella has become a launchpad for so much,” Brown said. “It does really come back to the in-real-life experience of it all, because I think that that’s what people gravitate towards.”
It’s not only fashion and beauty brands tapping into the Coachella influencer craze.
Alaska Airlines signed on as Coachella’s official airline, while Method became its official body wash, shampoo, and conditioner sponsor. The vodka brand Svedka rolled out a limited-edition flip phone for the event, while Barbie built a Coachella dream house.
The return on investment is real for brands whose activations go viral on social.
In the first weekend of this year’s Coachella, Hailey Bieber’s Rhode Skin and clothing brand Revolve each earned around $5 million in estimated earned media value from hundreds of creator posts, according to data from the influencer-marketing platform CreatorIQ. Other brands like e.l.f. Cosmetics, Medicube, and 818 Tequila each pulled in between $2 and $2.5 million in estimated earned media value.
It’s not all business at the end of the day, though.
“The creators are also still trying to enjoy the festival,” Saideman said.
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