One of Booking.com’s key brand values is to travel respectfully.
Booking.com wanted to elevate its commitment to the South African market, dial up programmes that support tourism to historically black communities, and invest in the promotion and growth of SME hospitality businesses that are black-owned and/or in black communities.
We wanted to bring this commitment to life, in South Africa and in key Booking.com markets across the world, through an authentic creator, talent, and partnership campaign.
Our campaign also reflected three longer-term activations and priorities for the brand – a purpose-led strand, showcasing the importance of ‘Doing Good Whilst Travelling’; showcasing Booking.com’s International Cricket Council (ICC) sponsorship; and helping to grow employment in the hospitality sector.
Our campaign also highlighted our partners within South Africa – from hotels, BnBs, homestays and unique experiences, to services like airport transfers, attractions and rental cars.
Strategy and Planning
Through a unique partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, we bought together an influencer squad from across Europe and South Africa who all share a passion not only for travel, but giving back to the world in their own way – including:
Our squad brought together creators with a passion for travel, with those who could demonstrate authentic advocacy for doing good while travelling.
Execution
In order to gain local cultural relevance, we worked with key creators and partners who reflected and supported our objectives:
Booking.com partnered with the Nelson Mandela Foundation to showcase the power of combining travel with volunteering, in a campaign around the theme of 'Doing Good Whilst You Travel.'
Developed by Smarts, this was one of the first commercial influencer partnerships the Foundation had ever done.
The #TravelForABetterWorld campaign was underpinned by authentic local partnerships and activations.
Smarts delivered key talent collaborations to amplify Booking.com’s work supporting and promoting the South African tourism sector – securing and managing three high-profile former rugby and cricket stars:
The brand launched a series of business masterclasses across South Africa to give SMEs an exclusive opportunity to hear from expert hospitality panels, network, and understand how they can promote their small businesses. Based in the breathtaking Kruger National Park this featured a Q&A panel with former South African national rugby team coach Jake White and former pro player BJ Botha.
And as a sponsor of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Women’s Cricket World Cup Final in Cape Town, Booking.com hosted an exclusive event with cricket legend Mark Boucher before heading to watch the final in action.
Finally, working with the University of Pretoria, University of Johannesburg & University of Stellenbosch, Booking.com funded a number of hospitality management scholarships for underprivileged South African students.
Across all of these activations, we adopted a creator-first ethos to every piece of content, dispensing with fixed briefs, and enabling authentic creative freedom – producing quality short form content, that not only drives engagement and brand loyalty, but also secures cultural endurance for Booking.com.
Booking.com’s campaign promoted South Africa as a destination, boosted SME hospitality businesses across the country, and reiterated the travel platform’s commitment to the South African market.
Overall, the campaign directly amassed more than eight million impressions with an average engagement rate of 4.23% on Instagram and 6.16% on TikTok, resulting in 3,836 engagements and positive sentiment (without paid boosting on any influencer content).
On average, creator content had an average engagement rate of 8% - with some posts hitting over 20%.
Our influencer squad had a potential reach of 12m – and secured over 8m impressions over a one week period of posting, with a series of stand-out engagement rates, with Instagram launch reels proving particularly successful. Highlights included:
