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Vacay Gone Cray Cray

Presentation

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What is the Campaign Name?

Vacay Gone Cray CrayTrip Redo by Choice Hotels

What is the Strategy?

The goal of this campaign was to create a connection with younger travelers in an authentic and relatable way to demonstrate that we understand their values and can speak their language.

In so doing, we wanted to inspire them to think about Choice Hotels a little differently, making it easier for them to see us as part of their lives and future travel experiences.

We set out to do this by:

Creating a summer promotion that would capture the imagination of the target and motivate interaction and participation.

Partnering with a social-media “celebrity” who is a good brand fit and has a loyal (and sizable) social following that we could tap into.

Creating a steady flow of entertaining online content to fuel and sustain the campaign throughout the summer.

Designing a connection structure that enabled the target to stay in the native environments where they prefer to spend their time—in other words, be where they are versus trying to make them come to us to engage.

We turned the tables:

– Instead of focusing on the perfect, whitewashed vision of a vacation that is typical in the category, we asked people to share their stories of vacations that have gone horribly and hysterically wrong. The ones they’ve continued to tell long after the vacation is over.

– In return, we gave them the chance to win a $10,000 trip redo, compliments of Choice Hotels.

What are the innovative aspects of the campaign?

We found the ideal partner:

– We partnered with Rhett & Link, social-media “celebrities” who share Choice’s brand sensibilities and have a robust and loyal following. They helped create entertaining video content, generate excitement around the campaign and provide a preexisting, fully engaged social distribution channel.

What are the innovative aspects of the campaign?

We spoke to the target where they are, on their terms:

– The Vacay Gone Cray Cray campaign hub lived as a native experience in four distinct places (YouTube, Facebook, VacayGoneCrayCray.com and ChoiceHotels.com)

What are the innovative aspects of the campaign?

• This multi-hub platform created a better user experience by enabling the target to engage with the content wherever they happened to be (including on their mobile/tablet devices).

• The hub was designed with a centralized mechanism for executing updates and tracking metrics (visits, video views, uploads, likes, shares, ratings), so a single action in one location is simultaneously reflected across the other three.

What are the major assets of the campaign?

Vacay Gone Cray Cray Campaign Hub Animated GIFs

Reenactment Videos Featured Stories

Campaign Introduction Videos

Summer Music Video

What are the Major Targets?

The campaign was very specifically focused on young travelers (bull’s-eye 25-35) from all over the country and all walks of life.

The common denominator between them that we tapped into for this campaign is their love of travel and, more specifically, the value they place on life experiences over “stuff.”

When it comes to travel, in their view, the best trips are those that are unique expressions of their own passion for life.

They love to share those travel stories with others, and they do it in a variety of social media environments—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr and more.

For Choice, this social environment provides an ideal place to sow the conversational seeds that can grow into a relationship with this well-connected generation.

Vacay Gone Cray Cray

Quality and Scope of the Campaign

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How long did it take to create?

The campaign was conceived and executed in less than five months, from mid-February to the end of June.

How was the strategy determined?

The strategy was driven by insight into Millennials that has been gleaned from the vast amount of secondary research that’s available today on this increasingly important demo.

As a rule, they’re tough to reach because of their media consumption habits and they’re tough to influence because of their skepticism of marketing messages. So we knew that how we reached them was going to be as important as where we reached them.

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What media channels were used?

The campaign was activated via a steady stream of both paid and organic social posts/ads that utilized a wide array of entertaining and viral videos and user-generated content across all the major social channels.

We also tapped into the blogosphere through partnerships with 25 blog influencers that periodically called for entries, posted videos of their own vacation mishap stories and some even hosted a few Twitter parties.

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Was the campaign managed internally?

The campaign was a collaborative effort between Choice Hotels, our ad agencies—

Doner and Havas—and our YouTube partners, Rhett & Link.

What was the scope?

The campaign was run nationally in the US.

What was the duration?

The campaign continued throughout Choice Hotel’s peak selling season, June 30 –

August 31, 2014.

What is the budget?

The total budget was $1.2MM which covered paid media, video production, talent

fees, website development, content execution and PR.

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What was the scope? National

What was the duration? Campaign continued throughout Choice Hotel’s peak selling season, June 30 – August 31, 2014.

What is the budget? The total budget was $1.2MM which covered paid media, video production, talent fees, website development, content execution and PR

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Vacay Gone Cray Cray

Performances

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What was the estimated reach/impact?

The campaign, which was the first major social media effort from Choice Hotels, far exceeded expectations in terms of engagement:

– 186MM+ paid impressions

– 17MM+ video views

– 303K+ YouTube video likes, comments, shares

– 759K+ visits to the campaign hub

– Nearly 4K contest entries

– 30K+ engagements on Choice social channels

– 114+ engagements on Rhett & Link’s social channels

What was the brand impact? We conducted an InsightExpress brand study during the Vacay Gone Cray Cray

campaign which shows that the campaign drove a positive lift in awareness and consideration of Choice Hotels relative to those who were not exposed to the campaign—slightly among all exposed and significantly among Millennials.

Exposed Not Exposed Lift InsightNorms(%) (%) pp pp

OverallAided Awareness 70 67 3 3Consideration 45 41 4 3

MillennialsAided brand awareness 69 54 15 3Consideration 60 37 23 3

Did you reach your objectives?

The Vacay Gone Cray Cray campaign far surpassed our goal to drive engagement with this audience and exceed InsightExpress norms for brand lift among Millennials.

Do you intend to extend the campaign?

We consider the campaign very successful and, while it is a summer campaign and therefore not something which was extended, it will certainly be used as a model for future social campaigns.