We dubbed 2020 the year of RV rentals. Our goal at RVshare has always been to provide a safe and accessible way for everyone to experience the great outdoors - and discover the gems hidden in our own backyards. As the world started to slowly reopen in late Spring, we observed a significant spike in interest in road trips and RV travel, and the discovery of US National Parks, at a rate* of:
248% increase in searches year over year for “road trips routes"
60% increase in searches year over year for “national parks"
1257% increase in searches year over year for “RV camping tips"
Compelled to join the conversation and engage with our guests, we launched an interactive National Parks Face-Off campaign across Facebook and Instagram from May to early June, 2020. Our campaign amplified informational resources including National and State park closures, and safe travel guidelines from the CDC. The Face-Off culminated in surprise, cross-platform RVshare RV rental giveaways that invited our audience to enter to win a visit to the winning National Park, and get back to nature. Giving back to our engaged community on social media, we were able to offer much needed socially-distant getaways, while shining a light on our product offerings and the natural beauty of our country simultaneously.
Our efforts were rewarded when Facebook approached us to be featured in a case study as one of their 2020 Resiliant Businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
*Above YOY metrics based on internal Pinterest Data
Kicking off the National Parks Face-Off campaign was a challenge we were ready to tackle, even with limited budgetary resources and lockdowns in effect across the nation. Prioritizing an organic approach, we launched the interactive National Parks Face-Off campaign across our social platforms. The campaign encouraged users to vote on which park stood at the top of their must-visit bucket list, making strategic use of the Facebook stories' platform engagement polling sticker to foster real-time interaction.
Eager to provide value to RVshare-ers and nature lovers alike, we took it upon ourselves to become a resource for the travel safety & logistics required to access National Parks. Noticing individual, differing, and constantly evolving sets of rules and regulations during the initial reopenings of State and National Parks, we created a streamlined microsite that posted the latest updates for park openings and guidelines, along with CDC recommendations in real-time.
Between seeing our own RV rental bookings rise 650% in just one month alone, and wanting to ensure our community members could access nature in a safe and secure way, our team worked tirelessly to research and provide daily updates.
In order to spread the information far and wide, and ensure travelers were hitting the road safely, we cross-promoted daily updates across social media, linking back to our resources site. We also did weekly park recap posts on Facebook, with longform engaginc copy assigning each park an emoji, and linking back to the resource microsite. Concurrently, we created educational, Eco-RVing and Eco-friendly travel long-form blog posts and social media content to address the surge in popularity of National Parks Travel, and do our part to raise awareness of the importance of showing respect to and protecting the land.
As the National Parks Face-Off campaign came to an end, almost all National Parks were fully reopened to the public, making it the perfect time to launch cross-platform, dual surprise giveaways:
A flash giveaway getaway to visit the winner, Yosemite National Park, via Facebook and Instagram comment submissions and supported by a boosted paid campaign to drive engagement.
A “Back to Nature” Giveaway encouraging our audiences to continue spending time outdoors, safely and socially-distanced. Entrants were asked to provide their emails and additional information for a chance to win an RV trip. Over the course of two weeks, a combination of paid promotional tactics and organic approaches through static and story posts, email, blog articles, and website notifications yielded one of our strongest social media campaigns to date.
The success of the National Parks Face-Off campaign came to life in a few different ways for RVshare, including increased brand awareness, website and blog traffic, and valuable social media audience engagement. The campaign also resulted in a feature case study by Facebook as one of their Resilient Businesses during the pandemic.
Campaign Success Metrics - Specific to capaign related posts over the span of May-June 2020
1.4m+ overall reach
113.5k+ social media engagements
24k+ entrants to RV giveaways
7k new email captures
164k+ Website visits
Including over 152k total visits to National Parks Face-Off and resources pages - which to this day remains one of the most visited pages on our website
5,732 new Instagram followers
10,182 new Facebook fans
11% net audience growth across all platforms
