Each year, The Points Guy hosts the annual TPG Awards, in which we present readers and editors’ choice distinctions to brands across the travel, aviation and credit card industries. 2021 once again forced us to activate the awards online through virtual events and engaging social content. In order to publicize a few select winners and keep our social channels fresh and dynamic during these three weeks of awards content, we wanted to gamify some of these announcements. To do so, we utilized Instagram stories to spark interest in the honoree, prompt followers to click into the on-site article, and, all in all, have a little fun with our brand.
Our strategy to meet these objectives can be summarized as follows: (1) We knew our audience. The TPG audience loves to flex their travel, aviation, and points & miles knowledge. Capitalizing on this insight, we developed an interactive method by which our followers could test this knowledge and add more interesting nuggets to their arsenal of miscellaneous facts. (2) We made it fun — and just difficult enough, while still remaining achievable. For the story, we tasked our users with guessing some of the world’s most unusual airport codes, guided by a visual snapshot and a brief written clue. We utilized the IG story question sticker for guess “submissions.” and the answer was revealed on the following slide, as the visual snapshot transitioned from hint to exterior of the airport and code filled in the blanks. (3) We made sure it made sense thematically. We tied the exercise together at its conclusion. After inspiring followers to ponder airports across the world for 16 frames, the payoff came in the form of the TPG article that revealed which of these airports had been voted the best in various categories.
In total, the Instagram story attracted 439,461 impressions with each frame averaging 24,414 impressions — up 38.56% from our established 2021 impression benchmark. The story also recorded a 97.44% completion rate, indicating that this information proved both timely and useful to our audience. Where applicable, the story linked to the TPG article "The votes are in — readers pick the best airports for the 2021 TPG Awards," which garnered 8,071 pageviews, averaging 0:41 seconds on engaged time on-site. 62% of the article’s traffic came from social media, namely the Instagram story. Engagement and feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The concluding frame’s sticker prompted “How many did you get right?” to which our followers said things like “0 but genius content,” “so fun!” and “You forgot the best of all. SUX. Sioux City, Iowa.”
