How First Class Jerk Is Building a Travel Media Brand

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In this Skift Take Sessions episode, recorded at the Skift Creator Summit during Skift Global Forum, Sarah Dandashy sits down with Adam Lovick, founder of First Class Jerk, to discuss how he built a travel brand around irreverent storytelling, video, and photography. Lovick shares how his family’s history in the travel industry shaped his path and why he sees content and audience attention as a competitive advantage for travel brands.

The conversation explores the growing role of creators in travel marketing, First Class Jerk’s plans to expand into YouTube and long-form storytelling, and opportunities in luxury cruising, destination partnerships, and hotel openings. Lovick also explains why travel brands should collaborate with creators on ideas and authentic storytelling rather than bringing them in only for individual campaigns.

Watch The Episode

All right, so we’re here at the Creators Summit for the Skift Global Forum, and I’ve got Adam Lovick here. You probably know his brand, First Class Jerk, which, dude, it’s blown up. So we, I remember like we got in touch before you even launched it.

And like, as I’ve seen it grow out, I’m just like, I’m like, seriously, like cheering you on from the sidelines. Like what you’re doing is so awesome. Like it’s such a perfect brand.

So yeah, why don’t you talk to us like a little bit about that? Like how you even came up with that concept because it’s so unique and so you’ve just executed so well.

Oh, first I want to say thanks. Thanks for having me here. We met, I don’t know, it feels like six years ago.

Just about it was in the pandemic.

Yeah, it was during the pandemic.

And this is the first time we’ve actually met. We’ve had a variety of conversations prior to this. But yeah, thank you.

I mean, I appreciate the kind words.

0:55

Origin Story and Travel Roots

It’s been two years since we’ve really been full time into this project. The way I define it is we’re a travel brand, we’re a travel publisher. I worked in this industry prior to the pandemic.

My grandmother started the travel agency in 1984, then my father joined and then I joined. And the thing that really excited me about it was the content stuff. I mean, the storytelling.

And I guess at an early stage of what content was, what influencer is, what is creator, there wasn’t a lot of definition around that stuff. When the content for me was an interest. But it was a white space ultimately, right?

I think a lot of people were consuming blogs at that time. And for me, it was like I had an interest in video and photography. And I didn’t know what it was when we started this.

I mean, did any of us actually really know?

Yeah, it’s evolved.

It’s evolved quite significantly. So yes, we’ve been at this for two years. And how can we be a great storyteller in this space?

But this started a long time ago. It’s been in the blood. It’s a family affair.

So it’s been an exciting journey. And I hope we have a lot more in store.

Definitely.

2:01

Creator Summit Takeaways

So, okay. So we’re here. We’re at the Creator Summit.

And by the way, this is the first time that Skift has done this, which is cool. So have there been any key takeaways that kind of sparked your interest just as you’ve been there kind of listening?

I think I’ve been around travel shows and trade shows. And I think it’s just a fun nod to the creator community. However, there’s a lot of terms being flown around here, like influencer and creator, and how we distinguish the two.

But I think it’s just good to see that acknowledgement. And travel is an archaic industry. It’s so archaic.

And it’s not going anywhere.

And it’s not.

But it’s exciting to see the acknowledgement. It’s exciting to see a lot of the brands that want to be educated on it. We have a lot of these conversations on a week to week basis, educating why what we’re up to is valuable.

And there’s a real belief. And I think people are behind it. People are behind the mission.

People are behind the strategy. And it’s been an ever-changing thing. It feels like month over month we’re learning something new about this.

But I have so much belief. I’m so aggressive in saying that content and attention is like the ultimate business moat. And in travel, we’ve really kind of taken advantage of that.

And there’s a lot to be done. There’s a lot of stories to be told. And we just have this belief in great storytelling.

3:16

Why the Name Works

So, how did you come up with actually first class jerk?

Because that I actually don’t know. But I love it. And it lands so well.

Yeah, you know, early on, like when we were like, how can we make money off this business?

You know, there’s a lot of concern at the, you know, in the conference rooms around that name. But I think it’s just the origin. It’s a long story.

But I think the reason we wanted to lean into it was it’s a play on words. It’s a reverent. I think this industry takes himself quite seriously at times.

Very much so.

And we always say, like, if we were called First Class Travelers, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

100%.

No, I think you hit the nail on the head with it. And it’s like, and so it’s so just again, like how you’ve executed it.

Like it’s a high level of standard, like, and then the places that you’ve been able to go and the experiences, it’s been so cool to see. And I just like know it’s going to go like that much further.

Yeah. Well, I appreciate that.

4:09

Access and YouTube Plans

We’ve been so fortunate over the last few years. I mean, I didn’t expect us to be in rooms like this. Meeting people like you, nonetheless, like visiting some of the best hotels in the world.

And we’ve traveled a lot and we’ve done a lot of amazing things. And we have big plans for what we want to do with some of this access.

Of course.

With amazing access. And that was sort of the goal when we first started this. It was like, how can we get our foot in the door?

Yeah. And now that we do, how do we take advantage of that opportunity? So YouTube is a big thing for us.

Long form storytelling is a big thing for us. So hopefully in 2027, we see a lot more of that.

4:43

Future Trends and Cruising

Okay, so that’s actually what I was going to ask you.

What are you kind of seeing for the future? Whether it’s for, you can share certainly what you guys are looking at, what you’re going to be leaning into, but also even where you’re seeing maybe the industry is heading that is exciting to you.

Yeah. I mean, for us, I think it’s simple right now. I think we’re still in gross stages.

I think how do we find more ways to tell better stories? And that sounds a little cliche, but YouTube is a big focus for us. We’ve seen a lot of success in some of the videos that we’re putting out.

We want to sort of serialize it, sort of create a show, if you will, on YouTube. Yeah, I love it. That’s a big focus for us.

As far as things that we’re excited about, I think cruising is an exciting thing for us. I think a lot of people have kind of turned their nose at that sort of style of travel. But that’s because they haven’t done it.

Yeah, and so that’s what we always say.

People that turn their nose are the people that haven’t been on a great ship.

Of course. We like to tell those stories and be a little bit more involved in that. I mean, there’s obviously this great resurgence of a small ship, Luxury Cruising.

And so we were just on Explorer Journeys, their third ship, and it was amazing. You see a lot of other things popping up with the Orient Express Sailing Yacht, the world’s largest sailing yacht. And so all this amazing stuff on the cruising side.

But I think we want to tell destination stories. So a lot more tourism board collaboration is something of interest with us. And yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of things.

I could ramble on and on, but there’s a lot of things. We want to be involved in every great hotel opening. I think that’s like an interesting thing.

And this all comes from just an energy and passion to be involved in this industry. You know, it’s nothing more than that. And so they talk about like building community and building loyalty.

I get really excited about long-term relationships with partners. And a lot of these brands here are talking about that. And so it’s good to see and it’s good to see it acknowledged.

Yeah, well, I mean, again, you just you do it so well.

6:30

Advice for Brand Partnerships

So finally, just before we wrap here, like any final thoughts to brands that are maybe they’re just they’re a little bit overwhelmed with like working with creators.

What are things that they can even think about moving forward for their brand and even how they can like have these partnerships with creators, whether it’s people like yourself or smaller creators?

Yeah, it’s a good question. I don’t know if I can answer it directly, but it’s tough. Yeah, it’s some of the some of the things that we’re hearing out on that stage is, you know, strategy used to be how do we bring people into campaign moments?

And now it’s sort of this like democratization of how do we bring creators in on almost every moment? Yeah, how do we how do we find different stories? How I think the biggest thing for me is, who has the best ideas and how can they execute?

I think leaning into creators ideas, leaning into influencers ideas is always a beneficial thing. You know, they talk a lot about like organic content wins and then amplifying via media.

I think it really starts with how can we collaborate with you, the creator’s idea, and how does that fit into our overall strategy?

So I think I don’t know if that answers the question, but I think that’s definitely a lot of the thing that we’re hearing over there, which is like authenticity, building community, loyalty. You know, this thing has been established. What is creator?

What is influencer? This is sort of an old conversation. So now it’s like, how do we get smart about this?

And that’s an exciting thing for us.

Yeah. Super exciting.

7:57

Wrap Up and Shoutouts

Well, thank you so much for like sitting down with me for a couple of minutes.

No, thanks for having me. This is so cool. It’s such a pleasure seeing you.

Yeah, I know. Likewise.

And again, I mean, everything that you’re doing, growing, building, I love all of it. For those that aren’t familiar, definitely check out First Class Jerk. They’re awesome and they’re everywhere.

So, congrats on all the success.

That means a lot, Sarah. Thank you so much for having me.

Of course.

Right.

Thank you.