Submitted by New MoonAgency IPI Score 14/100

Hotels.com Influencer Marketing Campaign

Influencer Marketing

New Moon runs Hotels.com's retained influencer programme around long term creator partnerships, work recognised with a Gold Award for Best Travel Campaign at the Influencer Marketing Awards 2020.

Case in 60 seconds

Hotels.com needed to inspire millennial travellers while separating itself from other online travel agents, a category where competitors sell comparable inventory, so differentiation had to come from something other than the offer.

The campaign appears to turn on the reading that millennial travel audiences follow accounts for the character and the aesthetic rather than the destination, because New Moon's cultural analysis surfaced Insta-animals and a film and cinema interest as the entry points.

New Moon works as Hotels.com's retained influencer agency on long term planned partnerships rather than product placement and transactions, using cultural analysis to find themes that let content lead with something other than a destination.

The 'Creature Critic' campaigns worked with cats, dogs, hedgehogs and a toad, while Accidentally Wes Anderson was sent to Japan for his first self-shot content series, with an itinerary curated by and for his audience from their recommendations, tips and tricks.

New Moon reports that the approach was recognised with a Gold Award for Best Travel Campaign at the Influencer Marketing Awards 2020 and a UK Social Media Award for Best Social Influencer Campaign.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Millennial travellers, described on the page as an audience that follows a range of Insta-animals and loves film and cinema.
Online travel agents compete on the same rooms and the same prices, so a travel brand that speaks only about destinations sounds like every other seller, which is the condition New Moon describes as the reason for differentiation.
The page states the challenge as inspiring millennial travellers while differentiating Hotels.com from other online travel agents, a category problem of sameness rather than of awareness.
Based on the available evidence, Hotels.com takes the role of the party funding somebody else's trip and point of view, appearing through the creator's subject matter rather than through a product message.
New Moon states that its cultural analysis found the millennial audience follows a range of Insta-animals and loves film and cinema, which set the casting for both the 'Creature Critic' work and the Accidentally Wes Anderson series.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • self-shot content series

Partners

  • New Moon (lead_agency)

Participation mechanic

  • For the Accidentally Wes Anderson trip to Japan, the campaign was driven by audience recommendations, tips and tricks, and the itinerary was curated by and for his audience.

Creator role

  • Accidentally Wes Anderson — creator

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
award, Best Travel CampaignOur approach has been recognised with a Gold Award for Best Travel Campaign at the Influencer Marketing Awards 2020creators_count

Why New Moon's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A retained agency relationship allows partnerships to be planned across a period rather than bought post by post, which is what lets a creator strand such as 'Creature Critic' accumulate a recognisable identity instead of resetting each time.

  2. 2

    Casting on what an audience already follows, animals and film aesthetics in this case, gives a travel brand a route into feeds that does not depend on the destination being the reason somebody stops scrolling.

  3. 3

    Handing itinerary decisions to a creator's own audience turns the followers into contributors rather than viewers, which gives the resulting content a claim on their attention that a brand-planned trip does not carry.

  4. 4

    Asking an established curator to self-shoot for the first time changes the register of the output, because the format shift signals that the partnership was built for this brief rather than fitted to an existing content template.

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