The global travel and tourism industry was valued at $695.9 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $2,001.1 billion by 2028, growing at an excellent CAGR of 13.2% between 2021-28.
Although the travel and tourism sector has been severely impacted by COVID-19, it is slowly picking up. However, travel brands would need to think of unique ways to create a good impression on their target audience in this fiercely competitive industry. This will require them to use the existing marketing avenues available to them just like these three brands that leveraged Snapchat to reach out to their target audience.
1. Hopper
Hopper is an airline-booking application that assists users in finding the best time to fly and buy.
Their Objective
Hopper wanted to drive more engaged users and reach a new audience of millennials who would book flights after downloading the app.
Solution & Approach
Hopper used a series of location radius targeting and geographically-relevant creatives to effectively reach Snapchat users who were most likely to engage with the app. It set airports across the nation as its central points and applied a radius around them to reach users who had a high possibility of booking travel out of each respective airport.
With this targeting in place, Hopper developed creatives for different flight deals with each airport as the route’s point of origin. This meant that Texans who were likely to use Dallas as their travel hub were shown ads for flight deals from DAL to Los Angeles. Snapchat users could swipe up to seamlessly download the app and proceed to watch the route or buy the flight via Hopper.
The Result
The Snapchat campaign turned out to be tremendously successful for Hopper as its Snapchat users were 37% more likely to watch a flight on Hopper compared to its users on other platforms. These Snapchat users also had a 4x flight booking rate as compared to Hopper’s users on other platforms. Moreover, the Snapchat campaign led to a 50% reduction in CPI by using radius targeting.
2. Dubai Tourism
With the travel industry completely shut down due to COVID-19, Dubai Tourism sought to make the most out of the lockdown period.
Their Objective
Dubai Tourism wanted to maintain destination equity amongst Snapchat users who were quarantined in the UK and France by leveraging Snapchat’s industry-leading augmented reality capabilities.
Solution & Approach
Dubai Tourism joined hands with Snapchat surprising and delighting Snapchat users with a bespoke augmented reality Lens experience. Once the Lenses were activated, the Snapchat user would be taken to four featured landmark destinations in the city i.e., the Burj Khalifa, Burj Al Arab, Al Seef, and the Dubai Frame.
These Lenses aimed to drive engagement, opt-in time spent with the brand, boost awareness, and encourage conversations around Dubai.
The Result
The Snapchat campaign turned out to be a major success for Dubai Tourism and reached 9M Snapchat users between the UK and France. The average share rate in the UK and France stood at 3.87% with the average ad awareness shooting up by over 35 percentage points.
3. Booking.com
Booking.com is an online platform that helps people explore and book a wide range of places to stay and travel, regardless of their budget.
Their Objective
Booking.com sought to reach a new and engaged audience and drive a new stream of incremental bookings.
Solution & Approach
Booking.com worked closely with Snapchat to employ a remarketing strategy that used dynamic ads to retarget users who had been actively looking for places to stay on its website.
It utilized Snapchat’s dynamic ad solution to directly pull images from their product catalog that displayed visually appealing property photos and features. This helped Booking.com to serve users ads with locally relevant listings based on properties that they had viewed.
The Result
The Snapchat campaign performed outstandingly well for Booking.com and raked in 16.6 million impressions. Also, its cost per purchase was 61% lower than other travel advertisers across Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the campaign delivered a 3.4X higher swipe-up rate than other travel advertisers in Saudi Arabia.
Bottom Line
Snapchat can be a great way to boost your brand awareness. However, you have to have a clear picture of how you want to leverage the different ad formats that Snapchat offers. Also, you need to be very particular about the content; it has to be something that your target audience connects with instantly. Only then can you fully leverage the potential of this platform.