BYRDLI launches San Francisco campaign for South Koreans

BYRDLI and San Francisco Travel have launched a San Francisco tourism campaign for South Korean travellers centred on creator Sumin Kim and a bookable trip featured through her Travel Club on BYRDLI.

Called San Francisco: Live the Music, the campaign is BYRDLI's second collaboration with San Francisco Travel and its first aimed at the South Korean market. It follows Kim, who is known online as Sky Doraheee, as she documents a trip through the city focused on music, food, nightlife, neighbourhoods and culture.

Unlike a standard creator campaign built only around social media posts, this itinerary is tied to a booking function within Kim's Travel Club on the platform. Her audience can book the featured hotel stay and, later, a curated San Francisco package based on places she visited during the trip.

Founded in Australia, BYRDLI operates a travel commerce platform that lets creators and independent travel advisers run branded travel storefronts. Those storefronts can feature hotels, itineraries, packages and other travel products for direct sale to followers and clients.

The campaign uses music as its organising theme, with Kim's trip including the Outside Lands festival and stops tied to the city's broader live music and nightlife scene. The Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square is the featured hotel.

Kim said the city's appeal became clearer the more time she spent there.

"San Francisco is a city with a rhythm all its own. The more I experienced the music, food, different neighbourhoods, people and unexpected moments, the more I understood what makes this city so special. I'm so excited to share the San Francisco I fell in love with my community and that they can actually book and experience a trip inspired by the one I lived," said Kim.

Creator bookings

The campaign reflects a wider push by travel companies to tie creator marketing more directly to sales. Rather than using influencers only to generate awareness, platforms such as BYRDLI are trying to keep the booking journey within the creator relationship.

Vanessa Richards, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of BYRDLI, said the company was built to connect inspiration and transaction more closely.

"San Francisco is one of those rare cities that keeps revealing itself the deeper you go. There is the San Francisco the world knows, and then there are the neighbourhoods, music, food, people and unexpected moments that make you want to stay longer. Sumin is incredible at capturing that feeling," Richards said.

She added: "But we didn't want people to simply watch her experience it. We built BYRDLI so the inspiration doesn't end with a save, a like or an affiliate link. Sumin has her own travel business on our platform. Her community can discover San Francisco through her, then come into her Travel Club and actually book the stay and full trip she inspired.

"That changes the commercial relationship between creator, traveller and destination. The creator doesn't sit outside the transaction. They become part of the distribution."

Travel brands and destination marketing organisations have increasingly sought better evidence that campaigns translate into bookings. By connecting content to a storefront operated by the creator, BYRDLI is positioning itself as a way to show a more direct link between recommendation and purchase.

South Korea focus

For San Francisco Travel, the campaign is also a market-specific effort. South Korea is an important audience for the city, and the partnership offers a way to reach travellers through a creator with an established online following and a travel sales channel.

Radu Barbuceanu, Director of Global Tourism Development at San Francisco Travel Association, said the campaign was designed to pair trusted voices with a direct route to booking.

"South Korea is an important audience for San Francisco, and this campaign gives us an exciting way to share the city through a voice travellers already know and trust," Barbuceanu said.

He added: "Sumin captures the energy, creativity and culture that make San Francisco such an unforgettable destination, while BYRDLI gives her audience a direct pathway to turn that inspiration into their own visit."

BYRDLI says its platform is designed for creators, brands, media groups and independent agents that want to sell travel products directly, rather than sending users to third-party booking sites after they engage with content. The company argues that travel discovery now often starts on social platforms, while booking still frequently happens elsewhere.

Richards said that gap is the central commercial issue the company is trying to address.

"The way people discover travel has already changed. The way they book it is catching up," Richards said.

She added: "People are increasingly building trips around the recommendations of people whose taste they trust. Our job since launching in 2021 is to connect those two behaviours. If Sumin makes you want to go to San Francisco, you shouldn't have to start from zero somewhere else to make that trip happen.

"You should be able to book it with her."