Campaign summary
It takes teamwork to make a crazy campaign dream work. At Travelport, the 7 Wonders campaign was their biggest ever integrated campaign, so it’s no surprise it touched almost every department, including PR, Brand, Commercial Marketing, Sales, and Internal Comms.
They wanted to create a big moment to showcase their tech to the world in an entertaining, relatable way. And their goals? To grow product adoption among their existing travel agency user base, drive more leads, and improve consideration.
From their key driver analysis research, Travelport knew certain brand attributes drive up to 4X consideration. So, they set out to improve brand attribute scores for perception in these areas versus their competitive set. They targeted an uplift in aided awareness scores globally as Travelport has the smallest market share in the category
This Campaign was the ultimate product test, designed to launch their new modern retailing platform, Travelport+. The challenge was to get one traveler to all seven wonders of the world in under seven days. They worked cross-functionally — and with agencies — to pull off the biggest stunt travel retailing has ever seen. And, set a new world record to boot.
About the brand or client company
Travelport is a worldwide travel retail platform. Their next-generation marketplace connects buyers and sellers who share their passion for delivering exceptional travel experiences. Unconflicted and independent, they are reinventing a simpler future for travel’s complex ecosystem.
Their product, Travelport+, is an easy-to-use platform that helps agents transform their businesses and become modern retailers. Modern agency retailing also ensures suppliers sell more, grow global reach, and deliver a great customer experience.
Strategic context or business challenge
The backdrop for this story is a world in chaos. Travel is shaken, and bruised, but defiant in the wake of COVID-19. Many countries, including China and India, are still on shaky ground when it comes to lockdowns and borders reopening. Others are facing civil unrest at key tourist sites, like Machu Picchu and Petra. Travelers are raring to get back on the road, but are hesitant to go too far.
That’s the worldview. And the industry view? Well, it’s also a little bit chaotic. Travel retailing had failed to keep pace with other industries – their research showed booking a trip was about as enjoyable as applying for a mortgage. After two years of lockdowns, everyone has become digitally savvy. But everything in travel feels dated.
Overwhelming, hard, and overwhelmingly complex. Enter Travelport+, the modern retailing platform born like a phoenix from COVID-19, to help travel rise from the ashes and create better, faster, and easier outcomes for everyone: travel agencies, airlines, hotels, and of course, travelers too.
Amid the chaos, they set out to show that travel was back and open for business. And, that even the most complex trips are possible when you’ve got the right technology in place – Travelport+.
Objectives and strategy
The brief was to create a big moment to showcase their tech to the world in an entertaining, relatable way. And how about the goals? To grow product adoption among their existing travel agency user base, drive more leads, and improve consideration.
From their key driver analysis research, Travelport knew certain brand attributes drive up to 4X consideration. So they set out to improve brand attribute scores for perception in these areas versus their competitive set. They targeted an uplift in aided awareness scores globally as Travelport has the smallest market share in the category.
Target audience and customer insight
The research that Travelport had commissioned from Edelman DXI and Toluna showed that consumers loved traveling but hated booking travel (the ‘experience gap’), they visited 30+ websites before booking a trip and ranked booking travel as hard as applying for a mortgage.
The target audience was travel industry professionals, segmented into Supply (airlines, hotels, rail, car) and Demand (travel agents, online travel platforms, and corporate travel). Travelport used the more emotive narrative for broader targeting of non-users via PR, social media, and advertising to drive awareness of a record-setting program.
For more technical comms they used email, website journey mapping, trade publications, webinars, plus VIP events to tailor their message to different segments.
Messaging and creative
Travelport needed to dream up something monumental. So, they conceived the most outlandishly difficult task to put Travelport+ to the ultimate test — visit the 7 modern wonders of the world in 7 days. The route would be planned by a travel agent using Travelport+.
Something this complex would normally take days to plan and be impossible to service across so many airlines and hotels. And who would fit the bill for this sleep-depriving caper? Pride of Britain winner, ultra-marathon runner, and charity fundraiser Jamie ‘Adventureman’ McDonald, is who. He’d go 22,000 miles around the globe, taking 13 planes, 16 taxis, 9 buses, 4 trains, and 1 toboggan all to set a new world record.
Media and channels used
Paid media focused on YouTube, LinkedIn, and programmatic for brand-building. Product ads appeared on direct buys with trade publications and GDN. Travelport partnered with Buzzfeed and HuffPost, to create a travel-themed quiz and editorial. Organic social media was a mix of snippets and photography linking to the adventure hub.
The Travelport+ webpage was updated to include more technical, behind-the-scenes content. ‘Adventureman’ promoted the content to his audience, and they delivered bespoke material via airline/hotel partners and Guinness World Records. Their travel agency partner offered the same trip as a prize.
Key martech platforms or solutions
They used Hubspot for email marketing, campaign analysis, and reporting.
Timescales
The campaign ran from April to July 2023.
Testimonial
“The aim of the 7 Wonders Challenge was to create a campaign that put our platform, Travelport+, to the ultimate test by booking the most challenging trip we could think of, showcasing the amazing things that travel agents can do with modern retailing tools. And the results speak for themselves. The 7 Wonders Challenge achieved incredible results across our brand attribute scores, a 6-fold increase in new leads and inquiries as well as a 42% increase in new bookings on our platform. It was a campaign that truly got the whole world talking about B2B Travel Software.”
Judging Panel Comment
“This entry was a pleasure to read! The idea is super interesting and a direct response to the problem. And it was fun, which is what travel should be all about, so it spoke to the consumer and answered their needs/wants. Excellent budget management to deliver those results.”
