GetYourGuide is an online travel booking platform that specialises in unlocking unforgettable experiences for travellers. Anyone can experience a bus tour—but no other bus tours are quite like GetYourGuide’s. GetYourGuide wanted to grow brand awareness and to get people talking about it as the home of unforgettable travel experiences by breaking through the barriers of conventional tour guides. Billion Dollar Boy proposed to do so by creatively leveraging a celebrity’s social buzz.
Objectives:
Raise brand awareness of GetYourGuide in the US by creatively leveraging a celebrity’s social buzz and reach
Grow brand relevance to get people talking by driving earned social media and PR potential
Solidify its brand positioning as the home of unforgettable travel experience
We created and executed a one-of-a-kind campaign, while pushing the boundaries of creativity, to differentiate this influencer activation.
We needed to find an influential person with a big personality who was both an online influencer and a real world celebrity, and the right brand fit. BDB engaged the now-late and still-great Emmy-award winning actor and comedian Leslie Allen Jordan to stage a wild but very authentic tour of New York City, taking fans and tourists on Leslie’s very own personal tour of the city. A large part of Leslie’s appeal for this role was his approachable style and his ability to command people’s attention for the entire duration of the bus ride, making his fellow passengers laugh all along the way!
It was unique, ambitious and a challenging ask from a talent perspective. In working with a celebrity of his size, we had to navigate requirements set forth by SAG AFTRA re: special fees, logistics, contracting etc. This created many delays and complications, as well as added cost.
We developed a 360 media marketing mix to drive awareness, engagement and relevance. This included: a dedicate landing page, a booking page, press coverage, paid social, influencers, posts on GYG’s owned social platforms as well as Leslie’s Instagram.
Together, GetYourGuide and BDB planned a three-phase activation for the brand’s once-in-a-lifetime tour:
Phase 1: Tease
- Leslie announced the partnership on his own social as well as GYG’s social via Instagram Reels and static posts, driving fans to GYG’s product page to purchase tickets.
- GYG launched a competition, offering the chance to win tickets along with a two-day trip to New York for themselves and a friend to kick-start the buzz.
Phase 2: Tour day
- BDB managed the day of production and coordinated efforts between agency partners.
- With his approachable style, Leslie gave his own wild personal tour of NYC, dropping names, stories, tips, reviews and more — converting a traditional tour into an unforgettable experience presenting the iconic city authentically through his own lens, while sharing unfiltered opinions and making his fellow passengers laugh all the way!
- Surprise hijacking of bus from mega influencer and Leslie’s personal friend, Robyn Schall
- Supporting micro influencers joined the tour + press and interviews
Phase 3: Amplification
- We repurposed tour content on GetYourGuide’s owned social and Leslie’s feed to maximise reach
- Landing page goes live
- Organic influencer content is amplified via display ads —cost-effectively reaching a larger and more targeted audience keyed in and ready to hear GetYourGuide’s message
- Further press coverage
- BDB managed creation of all assets pre- and post-production to repurpose for PR and marketing efforts.
Leslie’s campaign deliverables exceeded expectations and generated fantastic results. The results showed buzz around not only Leslie and the campaign but the GetYourGuide brand. The tour tickets sold out in just a few hours after the first announcement.
With only 1 influencer and 5 contracted Instagram posts, the campaign generated:
More than 55M total reach, more than 3M total impressions, more than 90k total engagements and more than 1M Reel plays.
150 pieces of press coverage, including People and Forbes, resulted in 255M press reach.
All social media comments were positive, with almost 50% being brand-related positive sentiments.
Leslie Jordan’s social generated a CPM that is 60% better than target CPM and a CPE that is 20% better than target.
Leslie’s content generated almost more than 1M views, more than 2x his median sponsored play count.
Consumer reactions told a story of major success. Those that attended were thrilled with the experience and countless consumers expressed their excitement and anticipation for more of these tours in the future. One attendee wrote, “This was beyond awesome! Thank you @thelesliejordan for such an awesome experience!”
