Submitted by Viral Talent

Tokyo Tourism Board Instagram Creator Itinerary Trip

Influencer Marketing

Viral Talent sent Lucie Donlan and Luke Mabbott to Japan on an itinerary-led Instagram trip for the Tokyo Tourism Board, and the agency reports 1.96M combined views.

1.96MCombined Views

Case in 60 seconds

The Tokyo Tourism Board wanted to drive UK awareness of Tokyo and its surrounding areas, with a focus on nature, sustainability and conservation, while giving creators creative freedom to document an itinerary-led trip.

Viral Talent read the brief as a question of where the chosen creators' audiences already were rather than which format the client named, because Lucie Donlan and Luke Mabbott hold their strongest engagement on Instagram.

Rather than follow the brief's YouTube focus, Viral Talent cast two creators whose content already carries nature, conservation and sustainability, and moved the whole activation onto Instagram so the content would feel organic to their audiences.

Lucie Donlan and Luke Mabbott travelled to Japan on an itinerary-led trip and documented it on Instagram through Carousels, Reels and Stories, with the Stories saved to a Highlights tab to extend their longevity.

Viral Talent reports that Luke and Lucie generated 1.96 MILLION views combined and a watch time of 503+ hours, figures published on the agency's own page with no reach or engagement rate alongside them.

Strategy Breakdown

UK audiences, reached through the Instagram followings of Lucie Donlan and Luke Mabbott, for awareness of what Tokyo and its surrounding areas have to offer.
Tokyo is a city destination, yet the brief asked for nature, sustainability and conservation, so the campaign needed creators who could carry the surrounding natural areas as convincingly as the city itself.
The page casts the Tokyo Tourism Board as a client that set the themes and the itinerary while leaving the creators creative freedom, so the destination is shown through their voices rather than the board's.
Viral Talent says the activation ran entirely on Instagram so the content felt organic, because Instagram is the primary focus of both creators and the place where their audiences already engage with them.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Instagram

Partners

  • Viral Talent

Creator role

  • Lucie Donlan
  • Luke Mabbott

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Combined Views1.96M views

Why Viral Talent's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Casting by the platform where a creator's engagement already sits, rather than the platform a brief names, keeps sponsored travel content inside the format the audience is used to seeing from that creator.

  2. 2

    Saving Stories to a Highlights tab turns a format that expires into a standing part of the creator's profile, which extends the life of an itinerary-led trip beyond the days it was posted.

Related Case studies