Each year Lonely Planet’s team of travel experts, authors, and travel community select the hottest up-and-coming top 10 countries, top 10 cities and top 10 regions, setting the travel agenda for the coming year. These recommendations are published in a yearly title called – Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel.
In previous years, the annual list was announced through the release of the “Best in Travel” reference book, with marketing support from PR and traditional marketing channels. We saw an opportunity to harness the high levels of interest for this campaign to drive traffic to lonelyplanet.com and create one of the biggest and most ambitious online campaigns to date.
The online launch included;
The launch of a new interactive online hub for Best in Travel content featuring an inspirational image gallery and responsive design.
The launch of a Best in Travel digital eBook for sale through the Book Store in Apple Books (previously iBooks).
A data acquisition competition mechanic titled “What’s your travel destiny?” was integrated into the campaign to increase engagement and social reach of the campaign (in partnership with Booking.com).
Launch of additional socially engaging and shareable Top 10 lists designed to drive social reach amongst our community including “Top 10 destinations for cat lovers”.
Travel playlist created within Spotify’s Soundrop app celebrating music from our top country destinations.
Creation of Best in Travel video content showcasing each of the top winning destinations in a new engaging and shareable format.
Campaign results;
Best in Travel content drove 1.86 million page views.
The campaign received 4,388 pieces of PR coverage with a total media value of over #8 million.
Best in Travel content reached a social media audience of more than 2.4 million users.
The eBook was downloaded 1.2 million times and was included in Apple’s coveted “12 Days of Christmas” promotion.
The Best in Travel book delivered a 23% increase in sales YOY.
The playlist was featured by Soundrop who spotlighted it in a featured Room.
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