MADE TO TRAVEL

A four-year lead brand agency engagement: group portfolio strategy, a new partnership strategy, and a modular global brand platform running full-funnel across 60+ markets.

Brought in by a new executive and marketing team to help transform Expedia Group for step-change growth, we started at the portfolio level, not with better ads. Online travel had lost its soul. The proliferation of OTAs had turned one of the most meaningful things people spend money on into an endless, algorithm-driven scroll, while brand loyalty was collapsing and travellers increasingly booked direct. So we went upstream: taking the Group portfolio from 20+ brands down to three, developing the product ecosystem to match, and only then building distinct strategic foundations for Expedia, Vrbo and Hotels.com. We also replaced a traditional sponsorship model of big logos and gimmicky content with a Group partnership strategy designed to put travel at the heart of the passions people already love.

For Expedia, the insight was simple: travel matters too much to be sold like a commodity. Made to Travel became both a reminder of people’s innate urge to explore and a statement of Expedia’s expertise and purpose, setting aside obvious landmarks and travel clichés. It was underpinned by a modular Living Toolkit that gave 60+ markets the freedom to localise without diluting the brand.

Then we rolled it across the entire funnel: a Super Bowl launch with Travel the Ads, global OOH, partnerships spanning Liverpool FC, UEFA Champions League’s Destination Football and the Mexico National Team, since extended to Arsenal, the NBA and Jazz Fest, alongside physical activations and lower-funnel programmatic carrying the same system through to booking. The Liverpool work became the best-performing content of any club partner, lifting consideration 46% among exposed audiences and increasing share of travel bookings 92%. Group-wide, gross bookings rose 20%, with double-digit lifts in emotional connection and perceived expertise.