I'm Cleo Yong.
A Media Curator, Writer
and Social Media Manager.
The Homeaway
Project
*All presented media, copywriting and designs below were created for University projects.
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One Pager:
The World Youth and Student Educational (WYSE) Travel Confederation delivered insights that youth travel market is all about experiential and immersive travel. With 57,000 travellers aged 18 to 35 worldwide, the New Horizons Survey (NHS) delineated that the average youth trip spend has more than doubled (WYSE Travel Confederation 2018). Millennials and Gen Z students still make room to travel—cutting down on everyday expenses and working multiple jobs just to save enough (Leonhardt 2019). They tend to stay longer, ranging from weeks to months, and spend more than a traditional tourist; desiring to and participating in activities that allow them to live like locals—an increase from 28% in 2012 to 51% in 2017 (WYSE Travel Confederation 2018).
Business Insider asserts that almost 90% of Gen Z travellers’ planning and inspiration comes from social networks like Facebook and Instagram (Varricchio, Kosciulek & Stickles 2019). They are the generation that spends less on hotels and is more likely to consider alternatives, especially if it is worth the money, and look to online sources. Therefore, clearly depicting how both Millennials and Gen Z are driving growth in the travel industry with their presence in and usage of social media platforms. It is apparent that HomeAway ought to start being creative with this information.
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With that, the new service for university students will be a new category, ‘The Student Traveller’, that has all necessities lined up according to their reason of travel—vacation, educational trips, overseas studies, and more. The new service will include varying packages at more affordable pricings with quality and safety standards still maintained. The Student Traveller system and website will have customisable packages where students can select core aspects such as duration, flights, accommodation, activities and even insurance. The main pull factor will feature HomeAway’s partnership with AIG for international and exchange students studying abroad, where the launch will include a special one-time promotion on student packages tied in with accommodation and travel insurance.
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Ultimately, to provide university students with a full-fledged and unprecedented customer experience with benefits that will appeal to first-time users and convince them to continue choosing HomeAway services for the long run.
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Narrative:
The Student Traveller Campaign, though with both digital and traditional elements, is designed to drive more online engagement for HomeAway Asia. The campaign aims to further transform perceptions of vacation rentals in Asia positively and start engaging younger crowds. This will be done through employing a marketing strategy and campaign with a wider variety of earned, shared and owned media, that is more prevalent towards the external audiences, specifically university students. Specifically, creating more conversations and building relationships with younger crowds on social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as having more regular and enticing online campaigns.
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The messaging to be communicated is to show that it is always a trusty, worthy and unique experience anywhere with HomeAway. It is an objective that HomeAway employees will work hard towards achieving for university students.
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An infographic will be sent via email to all HomeAway employees as a summarised and easy-to-read piece detailing both extensive sector and organisational research and a breakdown of the campaigns of the new service for university students. There will also be a mass presentation conducted.
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Externally, there will be a PR event, where the media will be invited. Here, HomeAway’s partnerships with CNA, 98.7FM, The Smart Local, Spotify and all Singapore universities will be featured. A short audio podcast ad will be produced which will be distributed to all media and to be played at university canteens. Most of the campaign details and communications will be done through Facebook and Instagram with regular postings, video stories and IGTV for longer videos. Additionally, a website will be created as the landing page for university students to manoeuvre with ease as they learn more about the benefits and services provided.
Visual - Infographic:
Audio - Podcast Ad:
Interactive - AIG's Travel Insurance:
