About: Amex Travel was having an identity crisis. As a new generation of affluent millennial travelers gained access to its premium cards, they were losing out on key benefits by not booking directly on the platform. We were approached to grow this audience, educate them on benefits, shift perception on Amex Travel and ultimately book directly through the platform.
Responsibilities: Over the course of four years, I led the charge to transform Amex Travel’s marketing, shifting their content from boring stock-images of hotel rooms to beautiful, unique and authentic creative. The project came to life through a new creative strategy, a comprehensive social media plan across paid and owned channels and a collective of diverse creators.
Impact: The campaign successfully ran for four years, winning industry awards and transforming the way the business marketed its services on social, digital, experiential and print media. It drove 218% growth in bookings, 25.6% awareness lift and 9.7% recall rate (96% over benchmarks)
Awards: Travel Weekly Magellan Award
Ogilvy Team: Adam Kornblum, Jessa Gianotti, Margaux Doucet
Creative Transformation & Creator Strategy
Our vision was simple– to use social media content instigate “travel envy.” To accomplish this, I designed a new creative platform, Magical Moments. The platform was a response to flat corporate imagery of empty hotel rooms and instead brought all of the moments, big or small, that make your eyes widen, skin tingle and heart skip a beat. The focus was on capturing the authentic and unexpected.
To bring this to life, I assembled a diverse roster of influencers, focusing on collaborating with unique voices that represented different needs for the audience. We brought together creators of different races, genders, orientations and life stages to create a campaign that celebrated inclusive travel.
In a hybrid role combining strategy and creative, I oversaw over 20 shoots across the globe, working with key Amex partners such as Hilton, Marriott, Accor, Celebrity Cruises, Delta One, Singapore Airlines, and more. For each shoot, our goal was go beyond fulfilling an asset list- I used social data to inform what and where content was captured and through our creators, carefully crafted subtle narratives to build a cohesive experience across influencer, paid and organic channels.
As the project evolved, I oversaw the creation of bespoke video assets– from defining the objectives and crafting messaging hierarchies to writing production briefs and leading script/storyboard development.
Impact: We were able to break free of stock-image based advertising and with beautiful, unique content, immediately driving best-in class results– EARR 9.7% (96% above bechmarks), and a CPE $1.36 lower than benchmarks, and thousands of organic engagments
Virtual Reality and Creative Innovation
To help show Amex as an innovator in the travel industry, I led the creation of a unique Virtual Reality experience. For this project, I concepted, scripted and produced an immersive VR video that used spatial audio, visual effects and prompts to immersed the viewer in the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills.
Working with the Samsung 837 space in New York, we incorporated tangible elements, such as the hotel’s unique scent and signature cocktail, to transport the viewers beyond beyond their headsets.
The VR experience extended beyond one IRL activation, we adapted the video across paid channels, creating multiple engaging mid-funnel consideration assets.
Content Distribution Strategy
Magical Moments quickly grew beyond its initial remit and began fueling other channels outside of social. To help create a cohesive experience across brand touch points, I designed a content strategy and ecosystem to respond to our audience’s specific journey. We experimented with different channels, platforms and units to help and helped integrate social-first and influencer creative into traditional digital, web, pr, print and long-form channels.
Impact: Experimenting with new channels and ad-units, we saw particular success bringing long-form content to platforms like Meta and Pinterest. Instant Experience Units earned 24 second average view time (50% more than video and 64% higher than unit benchmarks), and 39% completion rate.
We began serving as an engine across Amex’s enterprise account, with different business units seeking our content for their own marketing. To respond to these growing requests, I created a simple content management system that helped teams request images based off of needs such as location, aspect ratio, usage rights and subject.
Creators/Production Credits:
Aundre Larrow, Brian Cason, Dani Chase, Deejay Forte, Eric Urgiles, Holly-Marie Cato, Human Expansion Production, Karston Tannis, Noémie Marguerite, Three Strikes Productions