To capitalize on pent up travel demand and differentiate from competitors, in June 2022, Hilton launched an enduring new brand platform, ‘For the Stay’ that umbrellaed across every aspect of their business. Accompanied by a campaign, titled, ‘It Matters Where You Stay’, it brought Hilton’s signature hospitality and care to life through cohesive messaging that elevates the all-important role of the hotel within travel – a message overlooked by modern travel marketers.
Post the masterbrand campaign launch, Hilton was challenged to continue the story of ‘The Stay’ in culture and generate significant reach and buzz.
In the age of travel influencers and listicles, travel has become synonymous with picture-perfect, FOMO-inducing content. So much so that hotels have been relegated to the background. We had to find new ways that would not only broadcast the idea of ‘The Stay’ but allow people to experience it through their screens.
To prove to the world that wonderful things happen when you Stay, we set out to pioneer a new type of social format that rewards people for staying. To bring our idea to life, we created a 10-minute TikTok, a first for any brand on the platform. We partnered with creators, including Paris Hilton, to build an ecosystem designed to engage our audience, and surprise people so much that they couldn’t stop talking about it. We built the content to be dueted, stitched, or otherwise playable, while our beloved creators challenged viewers to watch until the end to win Hilton Honors Points, and more.
We took a storytelling approach to the media plan, seeding the TikTok over three stages with an audience primed to receive our message: adults with a curated list of interests covering travel, food and beverage, and TV.
Tease: Promote a teaser video featuring Paris, to prime the audience and build intrigue 24 hours before the full-length launch. Using TopFeed, a TikTok premium, we secured high impact placement that reaches users as the first In Feed Video they see during a viewing session.
Launch: The following day, we launched our 10-minute TikTok, securing the coveted Top Feed placement again, ensuring we’d reach people when they are most leaned in.
Sustain: The day following the launch, we used supplemental creator videos, talking about The TikTok You Stay In to further the conversation and encourage additional engagement around what it means to Stay, appended with a CTA button that drove viewers to the 10-minute TikTok.
We leaned on beloved creators to tell the Hilton story in a platform-native way. Alongside Paris Hilton, we featured the likes Chris Olsen and Boman Martinez Reid, who challenged viewers to watch until the end to win Hilton Honors Points, and more.
The campaign has been a huge success, with viewers indeed “staying” in record numbers. In fact, The Ad You Stay In received 86x more views than the average brand on TikTok. Within 24 hours of launch, it gained 2 million views — within a week it had 16 million.
It exceeded all benchmarks, with 6M minutes watched, total video completions reaching 182,837 with an average watch time of 18.02s (38% higher than platform benchmark), the 6s VVR at 15% (50% higher than Hilton benchmark), and engagement rate at 2.17% (2% higher than platform benchmark). It drew 28K comments, and 35% increase in new followers.
While the campaign was upper funnel, we also saw a CTR of 0.81% (145% higher than platform benchmark).
We also saw incredible brand metrics – a 21% lift in ad recall (one of the highest TikTok has ever seen in the travel category), a 5% lift in brand association, and a 3.6% lift in intent.
