Las Vegas is renowned for its nightlife, fashion, and glitz, but in the era of social media, the spotlight moments aren’t limited to the venue in which they occur. Millions participate in that local nightlife in real time, over Instagram and TikTok. Vegas’s luxury hospitality brands have to take that broader online ecosystem into account when marketing their venues and events. 

That’s where Runway Influence comes in. This Los Angeles-based influencer marketing agency has partnered with Tao Group Hospitality to bring major influencers, luxury models, creators, and multimillion-follower social media personalities to some of Las Vegas’s most recognizable nightlife destinations. Runway Influence also works with luxury hospitality brands beyond nightlife, including hotels, resorts, restaurants, beach clubs, casinos, luxury liquor brands, real estate developers, and automotive brands. Founded by entrepreneur Ernest Sturm, Runway Influence connects premium brands with influencers, creators, agency-signed models, and luxury lifestyle personalities who can help a brand draw more attention over social media. The company specializes in high-end hospitality, nightlife, fashion, and luxury events.

Helping a luxury nightclub draw attention

For example, OMNIA Nightclub at Caesars Palace, known for its massive kinetic chandelier, celebrity appearances, and performances from internationally recognized DJs, wanted to grow its social media footprint. Building a nightlife brand takes more than a beautiful venue and headline performers; a venue has to compete for attention. For millennials and Gen Z, attention is driven by creators and influencers.

In this case, Runway Influence helped Tao Group Hospitality bring the influencers and models needed to spread the nightclub’s message through real-time content shared across Instagram and TikTok. Influencers attending events at the nightclub recorded snapshots of VIP experiences and performances at the venue. They captured the energy of the nightlife, examples of luxury hospitality, and spread excitement while giving millions of followers behind-the-scenes access to the club.

That nightclub was not the first successful collaboration between Runway Influence and Tao Group. The two companies previously worked together on campaigns related to another large-scale hospitality launch. They brought a curated group of models and other influencers to help promote the venue online and generate excitement about the launch weekend. Influencers shared footage from VIP cabanas, live performances, poolside experiences, and celebrity-packed events throughout the weekend. The resulting online content was widely viewed and widely shared, extending the impact and visibility of that launch weekend beyond Las Vegas.

A broader shift in how hospitality is marketed

The approach that Runway Influence and Tao Group Hospitality have taken responds to a larger shift in how events and venues are marketed across the entertainment and nightlife industries. Traditional advertising channels do not command as much attention as they did in previous decades. Today’s consumers and travelers discover and research destinations, restaurants, clubs, hotels, and nightlife experiences through the creators they follow online. Travelers are also checking in with ChatGPT, Gemini, and other large AI models with their questions about where to go, where to stay, and where to dance in a new location, and those AI models pull from high-traffic sites and viral content online in order to answer their questions.

This means that a single viral post, Instagram reel, or influencer video has the potential to generate more interest in an event or venue than a conventional advertising campaign that may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to execute. That is why hospitality brands are changing the way they reach out to potential guests and the way they create visibility for the experiences they offer. When viewers see creators, celebrities, and other influencers enjoying an exclusive event or luxury experience, they feel connected to that experience. They get to live it vicariously through their phone screen, and this encourages them to aspire to participate in that event or venue themselves. 

Digital natives don’t just want to see a venue advertised; they want to see how others have experienced that venue. That is the power of experiential influencer marketing. Done well, it can create social proof and help potential guests feel connected with a venue before they ever book a night or buy a ticket to that city.

Taking the nightclub viral

For the past decade, Tao Group Hospitality has been launching luxury restaurants, clubs, and hospitality destinations, with eighty locations in Vegas and around the world. The brainchild of two nightlife entrepreneurs, Jason Strauss and Noah Tepperberg, Tao Group has built a reputation for connecting its “vibe dining” experience and entertainment culture. Runway Influence has been striving to amplify that connection by bringing in more social media influencers. 

The hope is that campaigns involving well-known creators and highly visible social media influencers will continue to deliver value long after the event those influencers participate in. Photos, videos, reels, and social media stories generated during such activations can remain online for years, circulating across platforms and exposing luxury nightlife brands to new audiences. For creator-focused agencies like Runway Influence, that is what makes experiential marketing exciting; it’s the attempt to create the reel that will launch a million views, multiple times over the years.

The emergence of this marketing approach also reveals how nightlife itself is changing. Influencer culture, entertainment, luxury branding and nightlife are all intertwined in a way that could scarcely be anticipated two decades ago. Nor is it just that a top model’s photoshoot at a luxury event can be the highlight of the launch; today, it’s more likely to be the TikTok creator’s candid videos behind the scenes in the VIP lounge that prove immersive and compelling to audiences around the world who may never have heard of that venue before viewing. 

Today, Runway Influence works with luxury brands across hospitality, travel, fashion, automotive, restaurants, nightlife, spirits, and entertainment, connecting companies with creators ranging from micro influencers to celebrities and internationally recognized models.

With online visibility and social engagement driving attention toward competitive venues, creator-led campaigns are no longer just an optional add-on to hospitality marketing. They are integral to the nightlife experience and, for marketers, they are becoming the main event itself.