After last week’s episode of Southern Charm, fans became even more confused that while Landon had a launch party for a business called ROAM, with her intern, Anna, after the show aired, Landon called the travel guide Trovare, and Anna the intern’s title had been changed to co-founder and partner of Trovare.
And the comments and questions from Southern Charm fans and the media didn’t stop there, because even though a travel website does now exist, it doesn’t really deliver what Landon had promised from the beginning, like for example, the ability to use ROAM or Trovare or whatever, to find “the best burger in Austin,” because for now, users of the website cannot do a search of any kind.
And while on the second episode of Southern Charm, season four the person who puts Landon on the spot at her ROAM launch party was her former crush, Shep, Landon was also called out in the media by Southern Charm star Kathryn Dennis , who suggested that Landon’s attempt at a business were just to make men think she was actually doing something other than riding around Charleston on her golf cart, and traveling on someone else’s dime, says the Inquisitr. Kathryn is suggesting that ROAM, or Trovare, is simply a vanity project, and that is why Landon was so upset when Shep called out her snotty behavior.
But Thomas Ravenel, who seems to support Landon unconditionally this season on Southern Charm, is very impressed with Landon’s travel guide efforts, despite making dirty jokes about her at her party, referring to her “oral skills.” Ravenel made a point of mentioning Landon’s site on Twitter.
“Trovare is a damn good travel guide website. Well done!”
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But Landon and Anna’s ROAM, now called Trovare does have quite a few very pretty photos, and reportedly changed the name from ROAM to Trovare for a few reasons, including market confusion (there were several businesses called ROAM, related to the travel industry) and the threat of lawsuits. So it was changed to Trovare, which is Italian for “to find,” which can mean to find a thing, a place, or even to find oneself. Landon and Anna wrote an introduction for their site, telling fans what they can find now, and what they plan to add.
“Trovare was born from our passion for living life to the fullest. No matter what the final destination, we revel in the people we meet, foods we eat, beverages we drink, and new things discovered along the way. We recognize it’s the little things that ultimately make life worth living. Here, at Trovare you’ll find guides to, and dispatches from, our journeys.”
At this time, Trovare is only covering a few places, mostly all on the east coast, including Charleston, but the site reads more like a travel blog, where you could read about a place, but not put much into action. At this time, Trovare isn’t a tool. But the bigger question is this: How does the Southern Charm star expect to get paid with this site or blog, as that was reportedly her intention. Even travel blogs, the better ones, include advertising on their pages to derive some income, but at this time, Landon and Anna have no advertising. Another way to make money would be by subscription, and again, at this time, Trovare can be accessed by anyone.
There might be another problem for Landon, as there is another business in Charleston already using the name “Trovare” and that is a place that sells furniture and housewares, and their name on Instagram is “Trovare Charleston.”
Vulture perhaps said it best when breaking down why Southern Charm star Landon Clements shouldn’t expect much from Trovare. In breaking down the Southern Charm episode where Landon has her “soft launch” for ROAM, Vulture calls is a “big and sad disaster.” While watching Southern Charm , anyone who took a moment to run a search on their phone for ROAM got an error message, which said that Landon’s site could not be found. And though Landon was throwing the party for her business, and getting a bit of help from her interns, namely Anna, Anna made it clear that she did all of the writing.
But Vulture’s biggest criticism of Landon is that she is, well, delusional. People interested in travel thoughts and suggestions can go to a lot of other sites that give a lot more thorough information and suggestions than Trovare can in its current format. They say that there are many bigger and better “influencers” out there, who have better name recognition (Gwyneth Paltrow, for example, with GOOP , which has a travel component, and a thorough city guide for locations around the world). Town & Country also hits the same mark that Landon is aiming for, but again, they do it better. Bottom line, the Southern Charm star seems to be either trying to reinvent the wheel, or at least trying to find a way to write off her travel expenses.
In the Vulture review of Trovare, they still couldn’t figure out if Landon’s business was real, or just something invented for an episode of the show, filmed in Charleston.
“So, yes, this thing isn’t even for real. And thank God. This is one of those ideas that pretty young rich girls have that they think they can pull off because they don’t know any better. There are plenty of travel sites in the world; the fact that Landon thinks that people will care about her “curated” recommendations from her trips around the country is just completely asinine.”
Many of us in the business of writing, PR, and promotions could perhaps go further than the guy who met with Landon last season to at least advise her on how to create a brand, and the most important word when it comes to that is consistency. Consistency in branding, and consistency in staying on message, and for now, Landon has seemed unable to nail those down.
Do you think Landon’s travel blog/guide on Southern Charm is a real business, or essentially just a hobby?
[Featured Image by Bravo]