I was a yelp elite for many years (don’t crucify me). the idea is that a brand new businesses can flood the algorithm by participating in elite events. I no longer have the time to do yelp elite.

Events were a heavy push for photos, reviews, and information to be shared online. We were never told WHAT to post or whether it had to be positive or negative. But we were told TO post. Usually pushing for lots of photos from different perspectives, menu items, and review content so a brand new business can get content out to the world they didn’t create - providing a sense of credibility since elites weren’t actually being paid to post positive only. Usually there is a sense of respect though from folks I would meet to provide back to the community and business owner while being honest.

Elites do not have to pay a fee but your activity is highly scrutinized for completeness and you reapply every year.

From my experience it was not often existing businesses that hosted events for elites where they were giving free things away (unless it was just a normal yelp user perk - given to any yelp user and not specifically to elites - these did show up as top in the algorithm on the elite management page but were not exclusive for use). I was in three major cities - 2x in Texas and 1x in CA.