Driving engagement with a new audience segment to meet business objectives

Dubai…the influencer capital of the Middle East. Perpetual sunshine, stylish pools and opulent hotels give visitors to the city state a glamorous ‘glow up’ as soon as they step off the plane. With the goal of reaching a younger, more media savvy audience, Travel Republic wanted to tap into this feeling of escapism and launch a competition to encourage millennial travellers to search and book a Dubai getaway.

The competition ran while the UK was still under COVID travel restrictions, making the idea of a glamorous poolside escape even more appealing to the public. Taking the concept of an instant ‘glow up’, we worked with Travel Republic to create a fun and engaging competition. Using custom filters built by our team, users could post a reel featuring themselves against a backdrop of Dubai with the hashtag #touchdownglowup. The prize? A trip to Atlantis The Palm, a truly luxurious experience.

By asking people to create and share Instagram reels, the competition had an important second focus; building a bank of user-generated content for Travel Republic to share on its own channels. To further deepen the engagement and create a buzz around the competition on social media we launched an influencer programme to coincide with the campaign and amplify the reach of the competition.

With a 100% increase in searches for Dubai during the campaign period and hundreds of trips booked through the Travel Republic site, the contest really struck a chord with the target audience.

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