x The Travel Mentors
The challenge
For brands in the travel space, one of the toughest questions is: How do you prove the long-term impact of influencer partnerships?
Cotopaxi wanted more than likes and comments. They wanted a way to quantify how much value our ongoing collaborations were actually driving — across both sponsored campaigns and the organic moments when we naturally tagged and featured the brand in our adventures.
Our approach
Instead of focusing only on one-off campaigns, we focused on building an ongoing partnership. Every piece of content where we featured Cotopaxi, whether paid or organic, became part of the overall brand story.
By leaning into authentic storytelling, product integration in real travel settings, and consistency over time, we were able to build not just awareness but brand affinity. To measure that in an industry-recognized way, we turned to Earned Media Value (EMV).
Ongoing Partnership: Brand Content
So, what is EMV?
Put simply, EMV is a trusted way to benchmark the ROI of influencer marketing.
If you’re not in the PR or influencer world, EMV can sound like jargon. Here’s the simple version:
Earned Media Value (EMV) puts a dollar figure on unpaid media exposure — things like influencer posts, press mentions, or organic shares. It’s essentially a way of asking: “If we had to pay for this same amount of reach and engagement through ads, what would it have cost?”
For example, if your influencer posts generated $100K EMV, that’s like getting $100K worth of ad space for free.
Different analytics companies have their own formulas, but for this campaign we used Tribe Dynamics, one of the most widely recognized benchmarks in industries like beauty, fashion, and lifestyle.
The results
For every $1 Cotopaxi invested in this campaign, they received $10 back in Earned Media Value. That’s a 10:1 EMV-to-fee ratio; far above the 3:1 to 8:1 industry average. Anything above 10:1 is considered exceptional performance.
High EMV doesn’t just mean ‘lots of eyeballs.’ It signals stronger brand affinity and that usually translates into more sales opportunities. In fact, campaigns with above-average EMV ratios often see a halo effect on revenue, because the brand exposure feels authentic, not forced.
