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Challenge

Throughout 2016, Booking created content closely tied to data-informed travel themes, from Oktoberfest in October, to romantic city breaks in November. Data revealed that in December / January travellers plan ahead and consider using a holiday to bring balance to their lives. But how do we cut through the chaos of Christmas and lull of the new year to drive people to Booking?

Consumer data revealed that almost half of global travellers (48%) see going on holiday as a moment to reflect and make better lifestyle choices. Between December and January, ‘relaxation’ and ‘tranquillity’ were among the top five search terms on Booking.

‘Holiday research’ can often be the opposite of relaxing. But Booking is designed to help consumers find the very best places and book them.

Solution

Based on these insights, we created content that positioned a ‘wellness’ break or holiday as the best investment someone could give themselves at the start of the year, and turn that realisation into a purchase on the site.

The message: It’s not a frivolous expense, it’s a personal investment.

We positioned a ‘wellness’ break as a personal investment in people’s physical and mental health, instead of a decadent luxury holiday. The breaks featured a spectrum of activities, from surfing, cycling and hiking to serene meditation, yoga and spa treatments, all focusing on individuals’ passions and targeting them with relevant content.

Activity

Based on Booking’s data of top ‘wellness’ cities, taking into consideration the logistics of each place, such as weather, distance, footfall and range of activities available.

Goa, India, was chosen as the perfect ‘wellness’ break. AnalogFolk ran a small agency-client team filming on location filming on location and producing all content inhouse. With a focus on optimised mobile experience, we created a 30” vertical video that was designed to be played full-screen for an immersive user mobile experience.

In addition to content shot in Goa for the campaign, we curated social user generated content, a bespoke list of accommodation, and social posts that provided lesser-known travel insights into the different places available for a ‘wellness’ break.

Content was planned, managed and localised via Opal, and distributed via Spredfast for multiple markets: Global (UK), Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Brazil and USA.

All content was published across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, with media support in a sequential method.

Result

The AnalogFolk agile process allowed creative concepts to be developed, tested and approved rapidly. The team on the ground in Goa shot and created content that could be adapted to the concepts with little impact on post-production costs or timings.

Highlights:
The 30-second vertical video gained the highest engagement rate and view-through rate of any other social asset for Booking.
Within the Wellness campaign, the ‘Whatever your Wellness’ asset drove the highest click through rate to the site than other Booking social content running in the same three months.