Digital Analysis of BÉIS
Breaking down the wanderlust brand’s social media strategies and influence for modern-day travel inspiration.
A luxury-yet-affordable travel accessories company, BÉIS was founded by actress and influencer Shay Mitchell, who is an avid traveler, and wanted to create products for people that ease their vacation and adventure experiences, while simultaneously inspiring them to see more parts of the world.
Their Instagram page which has 330k followers and a 0.6% engagement rate according to heepsy.com, has 93% of real followers, and 7% suspicious followers or bots. Their audience also dominates female, with a ratio of 77% female to 23% male. Since this is a travel company, it makes sense that their followers would reign from a variety of countries: Japan, Italy, Belgium, Australia, Denmark, Portugal and Canada, Mitchell’s native country, as well as from the United States. What is most interesting about her followers is that of their interests, “travel” is the fifth most popular interest, trailing behind “dog owner”, “mommy”, “fashion” and “blogger”. Their audience also is predominantly English speakers, and ages 25–35, which is logical since that age group is likely to be the ablest to travel with few local ties and disposable income; The brand does not seem to target a specific age group- although their design and brand aesthetic are most synonymous with that of millennials.
BÉIS’s Instagram content mostly includes either models or customers with their BÉIS products and sometimes visually pleasing images of travel destinations. Their audience generally interacts with their content and page in a positive manner, aside from some commenters asking about restocks of certain products — however, no comments seem to be overly negative or harsh towards the brand. The content is clearly effective because not only does it seem to inspire their followers to travel, which is a pillar of their brand’s identity, but it also has their followers wanting to buy the products so they can use them on their next trip. They do not have a specific writing style for their posts, but rather cheeky phrases or cliches with the occasional emoji.
This brand does not utilize influencers, probably because their brand’s founder is an influencer herself. Mitchell regularly appears in ads or campaigns on the brand's page, alongside other models who are not necessarily famous, or as famous as her. A driving reason for the brand's creation was Mitchell’s popular trips #Shaycation, where she created a following on her personal Instagram and youtube page documenting her many vacations and travel journeys. She is essentially the influencer for this brand because she brought her excitement about her vacations from her personal life to the brand, which followers already liked keeping up with, and then translated it into selling products for her followers to travel with ease and in style like her.
