'They Gave Us All the Free Stuff': A Look Inside Amazon's Lavish Mexican Retreat for Influencers The company treated influencers to a three-day trip that they called the Amazon Resort.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Social media influencers are known to promote lavish lifestyles, whether it's modeling designer clothing, unboxing free items they were gifted, or documenting tropical vacations.
But there's usually a catch, of course, and the essence of the influencer marketing industry is that these free items get posted to social media channels with a large base of followers. These tactics have helped businesses large and small, and even Amazon is no exception.
Last month, the company flew a dozen of the top Amazon Influencers to a private retreat in Mexico aptly dubbed the Amazon Resort.
Related: Amazon Is Plummeting by 13% — and It's Still Going Down. What's Going on With the Retail Giant?
The e-commerce giant took over the Paradero luxury resort in Todos Santos for a three-day, all-expenses-paid trip where even the most inexpensive suites range from $400 to $800 per night.
On the trip, influencers were treated to spa treatments, gourmet dinners, and cocktail hours; they took leisurely dips in the pool, shot content from the ocean (cheekily called the "Kindle Beach Oasis"), and took advantage of complimentary surf lessons, yoga and kickboxing classes, and farm-to-table activities.
Amazon Influencer Program
"The goal of the Amazon Resort trip, and all [Amazon Influencer Program] events, is to provide educational and networking opportunities for creators," an Amazon spokesperson told Entrepreneur. "AIP takes pride in being part of the creator community, not just as an opportunity for creators to earn revenue, but also as a facilitator of networking opportunities, sharing best practices, and supporting the growth of creators small and large. The Amazon Resort event in Todos Santos, Mexico was part of an ongoing event series AIP is hosting this year to bring creators together to network with each other, and provide educational opportunities."
Amazon also set up a pop-up shop with sections such as "Internet's Most Famous" and "Most Loved" where guests could pick and choose their favorite items and take them home for free.
"They gave us all the free stuff in this bag, we didn't have to ask for it," one influencer, Kirsten Titus, said during her vlog of the experience on her YouTube channel.
Related: Why Amazon and Jeff Bezos Are So Successful at Disruption
Titus, who boasts 6.8 million followers on her Hawaii-based TikTok account, documented the three-day trip with her sister in tow and featured other popular Amazon Influencers like Lauren Wolfe (768K followers on TikTok) and Hannah Harrell (3.3M followers.)
"I've never touched water in a foreign country in my entire life," Titus told her viewers on the second day of the trip. "Anyway, I know I always say this because I always mean it, especially when I'm doing things that I literally would have never done without you guys … it's just really awesome that I have the opportunity to do these things because of you guys so thank you."
However, creators were not required to post on the Amazon Resort trip.
Through Amazon's Influencer Program, content creators can earn commission by building out an Amazon Storefront and linking their URL and affiliate links to their respective social media pages.
"The Amazon Influencer Program is always innovating on behalf of creators to make our program better," said Meredith Silver, director, creator growth at Amazon in an email. "We provide tools, support, education, and inspiration so they can build successful and rewarding content creation businesses with us, promoting the Amazon products and services they love. Events specifically are a chance for us to connect in person, and facilitate a sense of community among our creators, to educate and inspire them, and to thank them for being part of our program."
@laurenwolfe There was a beach! #todossantos ♬ original sound - Lauren Wolfe
The Amazon Resort trip took place in mid-May, just days after the retail giant reported its less-than-stellar Q1 2022 earnings and saw a single-day 12% plummet in valuation. The company also reported a $3.8 billion quarterly profit loss, compared with an $8.1 billion profit gain in Q1 of 2021.
"We've received positive feedback from attendees, who let us know they had a great time, learned a lot about the program, fostered relationships with other creators, and would love to attend again," the Amazon spokesperson said.
Amazon was down just over 39% year over year as of late Tuesday morning.
