The pandemic compelled us to discover the vital role travel plays in creating meaningful experiences, bringing people closer together and sparking excitement.
The travel credit card category—especially in the digital space—tends to compete on functional aspects like miles, offers and benefits, creating a sea of sameness that often lacks emotion. As the world reopened, we saw an opportunity to position the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® card as the catalyst to renewed exploration, empowering travelers to get back out there.
Born of the insight that traveling helps us feel alive, we strategically positioned the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® card as the symbol of travelers’ passion for exploration and a tool to help them travel better and more often with AAdvantage® miles, loyalty points and travel benefits. This is the card that empowers travelers to get out there, with every swipe bringing them closer to their next adventure.
From this insight and strategy, our campaign idea Travel On celebrates the world opening back up to leisure travel and invites everyone to travel with the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® card.
In 2022, we set out to bring our new campaign Travel On to life with the goal of breaking through a saturated market to drive awareness and consideration for our card.
Travel On proved to be a highly successful digital campaign following a disciplined omnichannel approach. Our go-to market strategy helped move consumers through the purchase funnel with a consistent message wrapping rational benefits with emotional storytelling, encouraging all travelers to Travel On.
To drive digital awareness at the upper-funnel level, our anthemic video, The World Is On, helped stir up excitement and inspire people to get out there, encouraging them to dig up their passport and book their flights with the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® card. We brought energy, emotion and humor into the story, punctuating our rallying cry with inspiring travel motifs, a diversity of travelers and a motivating voice-over. We showed travelers that not only is the world back on, but all the things we missed about travel are too.
With a solid understanding of consumers’ digital-first travel behaviors, we were able to meet people seeking inspiration during peak travel-planning periods with homepage takeovers and content collaborations featured on BuzzFeed and Travel + Leisure to ignite exploration and build anticipation. Our words of encouragement pushing travelers to embrace the world again translated well to digital radio, bringing vigor and excitement to the audio medium.
Our digital OOH placements at the Moynihan Train Hall in NYC and American Airlines Center in Dallas celebrated the many destinations open to use with their Citi® / AAdvantage® card. Italy is on! Hawaii is on! Destinations were changed seasonally to stay relevant as consumers planned their upcoming trips.
At a mid-funnel level, we drove interest with digital video and dynamic display media, framing the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® card with a trifecta of benefits (AAdvantage® miles, loyalty points and travel benefits). With conversion-driving tactics, we kept the theme of igniting exploration alive by showcasing specials offers for travelers who are ready to realize their travel aspirations.
With this integrated digital funnel approach, we not only brought our campaign to life but created a digital world around Travel On, appealing to both mass and focused markets. By tapping into the emotional benefit of why we travel and highlighting a diverse set of travelers in every piece, we brought a distinct, human-first perspective to the category—we helped travelers envision themselves in the world of Travel On and bringing their travels to life with the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® card as their catalyst. We met travelers in spaces they’re already in and surrounded them with inspiring, emotion-led stories anchored in a trio of motivating benefits.
Every advertising execution across each media partner is tagged with awareness study pixels, allowing us to track exposed versus control product awareness lifts relative to one source of truth. Additionally, we tracked key performance indicators such as CPPV and CPA to measure our effectiveness against consideration within our target audience.
In the past year, Travel On exceeded our benchmark goal of +8% awareness lift by generating a lift of 11.4% (+3.4% YOY). Additionally, our campaign increased website visits by 7.5% (+32.68% YOY) and accounts grew by 13.5%, proving our campaign captured consumer attention, drove consideration and ultimately acquisition for the Citi®/ AAdvantage® Platinum Select® card.
