The Vogue Hotel Montreal faced a marketing emergency in 2021: new ownership had failed to acquire the hotel’s social media accounts, leaving them starting from zero with no followers and no content. 

The hotel needed to quickly build a social presence while simultaneously reconnecting with Canadian travelers during the pandemic. This crisis became the perfect testing ground for a new breed of influencer marketing agency.

One player approached this challenge methodically, developing a multi-objective campaign with clear KPIs. Rather than simply inviting random influencers for complimentary stays, they carefully selected six content creators across Quebec based on audience alignment and content style. 

The hotel made each influencer feel special through personalized touches—even including photos of their dog in their room—which enhanced the genuine content creation process.

The results – Over 4,000 followers on Instagram, 1.1 million impressions, and 460 pieces of content created through six influencers. The architect – Anorak Travel.

“It was successful precisely because we addressed multiple objectives simultaneously – content creation, follower acquisition, and market awareness – through a structured approach,” says Anne-Julie Karcher, co-founder of Anorak Travel and Director of Development at Clark Influence.

Anorak Travel, founded in 2020, is a specialized division of Clark Influence devoted exclusively to the travel sector. The Montreal-based agency connects travel brands with content creators through data-driven campaigns, but with a critical difference—they build comprehensive marketing strategies before selecting a single influencer.

Strategy-First Influence

What makes Anorak Travel stand out in creator marketing is its specialized tourism industry knowledge combined with a methodical approach to campaign development.

“I’d say that the fact that we are experts and we know what we’re talking about—I come from the industry, we know the reality of the industry—this is a big part,” Anne-Julie states. “We see that this is a request from our clients. Many clients are coming to us directly saying, ‘We look for experts in the travel industry.’ And Anorak is one.”

This expertise allows Anorak to understand the unique challenges destinations, hotels, airlines, and other travel businesses face. But expertise alone isn’t enough. Anorak’s core differentiator is its strategy-first approach to influencer marketing.

“We don’t bring influencers and just make them come to your destination,” Anne-Julie emphasizes. “We think at the beginning with you. What do we want to do? We need to have a plan and make it for a purpose. Not just make pictures and hope it’s going to work.”

When clients approach Anorak, the process starts with an extensive brief to define objectives, target audiences, key messages, and services to highlight. Only after developing a full strategy document does Anorak begin identifying potential creators.

Anne-Julie elaborates, “We think about what the campaign could look like. We’ll make a full strategy explaining to the client in detail what insight is received from their key messages and who they are. What could be the concept of the campaign, what typology of influencers we should work with, what is our media plan to boost the eventual content we will be creating, what’s the agenda, and what’s the budget and KPIs for all of this?”

This detailed strategy document often surprises clients with its comprehensiveness. “This is a full deck, full document explaining and showing to the client what it is to do an influencer campaign,” she notes. “This is very precise in terms of details of where we’re going to go on the campaign.”

Travel Influencer Relationships

Anorak Travel employs a unique approach to working with travel brands and creators, and Anne-Julie observes a shift from reactive to proactive partnerships.

“Before, many influencers asked about the destination, ‘Hey, I’m going there. Can I have a hotel? Can I have anything?’—which is good,” Anne-Julie acknowledges. “Now, what we want to do is start with the strategy based on your marketing decisions and objectives, and then contact influencers accordingly.”

This method allows travel brands to align creator partnerships with broader marketing goals rather than responding to ad hoc requests. It also enables unalloyed content creation, as influencers are selected based on their genuine fit with the destination or brand.

Image credit: Julie du Page

Once strategic objectives are established and potential creators are identified, Anorak resumes collaborating in content development. Rather than dictating exactly what creators must produce, they provide guidelines while respecting each creator’s unique voice and style.

“We provide the influencer with a brief outlining the key messages, the do’s and don’ts, and information about the client,” Anne-Julie details. “From there, the influencers come up with a concept. They will inform us of their ideas such as specific concepts or an upcoming project that could align with the brief.”

This balance preserves the originality that makes influencer content effective. “We always tell clients, if you want specific branded content, very branded content, go to an ad agency,” Anne-Julie advises. “Doing influence is not creating traditional branded content. You need to understand the personality and artistic vision of the influencer to create authentic and meaningful connections.”

Years of experience have shown Anorak that overly controlled content typically underperforms. “From experience, if you force an influencer into a very precise way of creating the content, this is rarely the content that will organically work. Authenticity is the key to making it resonate with the audience,” Anne-Julie notes.

How Success Looks for Anorak Travel?

A critical component of elevating influencer marketing from tactical to strategic, Anne-Julie notes, is establishing meaningful measurement frameworks. Anorak Travel customizes its approach to KPIs based on each client’s specific objectives.

“It depends on your initial objectives. There are several KPIs to consider, such as engagement, comments, likes, views, impressions, clicks, sales, and website traffic,” Anne-Julie explains. “But it’s very important to ask at the beginning, when we’re doing this strategy document to the client, ‘What are the KPIs that are important to you, where we should focus?'”

This tailored system ensures that campaigns are evaluated based on metrics that matter to the business. Anne-Julie stresses that different objectives require completely different campaign approaches.

“If you want to have comments or if you want to have views, the concept of the video shouldn’t be the same,” she notes. “And maybe even the typology of influencer is not going to be the same.”

For instance, when working with destinations seeking to diversify tourism beyond overcrowded hotspots, engagement metrics become particularly valuable. 

“I’m thinking about Japan, about Corsica. These islands, with vast territories, yet everyone visits the same few specific spots,” Anne-Julie explains. “In this kind of campaign, engagement is very interesting. We want to have conversations and make people say, ‘Oh, this exists in Japan. What is it? Can I know more about it?'”

By contrast, a hotel focused on direct bookings might prioritize website clicks as the primary KPI.

Fair Compensation

As part of elevating influencer marketing from tactical to strategic, Anorak Travel advocates for proper compensation of creators. Unlike some agencies that offer exposure or free travel experiences in lieu of payment, Anorak insists on fair payment for content creation.

“We rarely do influencer campaigns where we do not pay the influencer,” Anne-Julie states firmly. “We think that content creation is a job today. They need to be paid for it.”

While trips and experiences may be included in partnerships, Anne-Julie points out that these should supplement, not replace, monetary payment.

“Sometimes they have, of course, a trip included or a hotel room included or something depending on who the client is,” she explains. “But most of the time, we pay the influencer for our campaigns with them.”

Anne-Julie pushes back against clients who suggest compensating solely through free accommodations or experiences. “We can’t just offer them two nights in our hotels. Sure, it’s a nice gesture, but they can’t pay their rent with those two nights,” she says.

Content Reuse and Sustainable Marketing

Anne-Julie sees strategic innovation reshaping travel creator marketing. One emerging approach is the reuse of existing content rather than always creating new material through travel.

“There is something we’re forcing on more, and I see some clients doing it too—reusing content, not always traveling to create it,” she explains. “So much content exists in cameras of so many travel influencers. And sometimes if you want to push a message, you can just go there in this hardware and find the content and remix it to communicate the key messages you have.”

This approach not only reduces costs but also enables more sustainable marketing practices by minimizing unnecessary travel. Anne-Julie cites a campaign for Tourism Philippines that exemplifies this strategy.

“We didn’t want to send 10 influencers to the Philippines to create the content. But just ask people who have been there in the past to reuse the content they’d be doing to retalk about the amazing destination,” she explains. “When you’re asking the influencers, they’re like, ‘Oh my God, yes, I have so many assets about this destination.'”

Image credits: Scott Bakken in Japan (left), The Globe Wanderers in the Philippines (right)

Implications for Creator Economy Professionals

The travel industry continues recovering from the impact of the pandemic. According to research, the global tourism market was worth around $11 trillion in 2023 and is projected to grow to around $18.44 trillion by 2032. The global travel blogging market was valued at $4.72 billion in 2024 and is also projected to achieve double-digit compound growth in the next 8 years. 

Anne-Julie believes the strategic approach to creator marketing will only accelerate. “I think this will continue to move forward, and it’s gonna just professionalize more,” she predicts.

The days of purely opportunistic influencer trips with vague expectations are giving way to more structured, strategic creator collaborations. For travel brands, Anne-Julie shares, this means more effective marketing and better ROI; for creators, it means clearer expectations, fairer compensation, and the opportunity to make a more meaningful impact through their work.

“I hope that most destinations will see—and I think it is the case—the relevancy of using influencers to show authentically the destination, the specific activities, the specific key messages you want to share,” Anne-Julie concludes. “Today, I see it reflected in my own life, and you can ask anyone, regardless of their age, how they consume information — social media is clearly the most effective way to reach them.”