Sudipto Adhicary
Marketing Initiative

Citibank inspires people to create their own travel stories with its Digital First campaign #WhatsYourSummerEscape

Citibank asks its consumers #WhatsYourSummerEscape.

Its summer time! People all over the country are on their annual vacations and enjoying the break from hustle bustle of their daily lives. Remember your childhood family trip to Shimla? While your parents enjoyed the cool climate , your fondest memory is of the softy from corner shop at Mall road. Even people who go to the same location together bring back different memories from their trip and this is what Citibank's campaign brings alive.

The core campaign insight was "Different people travel to the same place and come back with different travel stories."Citibank posted two brand videos, each one bringing this idea alive in a unique and refreshing way. One of the videos shows how a mother likes the snow covered pine trees and sub-zero temperatures of Switzerland while her son has an altogether different reason for liking his vacation. The videos were an instant hit and garnered more than 6 million views on various platforms.

Any guesses as to what people do the moment they land up at their holiday destination . Yes, you guessed it right . It's a barrage of check-ins and photos . Taking cue from this the folks at Citibank marketing thought "Hey ! This is a pretty natural behavior . Why don't we create a user contest around this ?" Hence after establishing the theme of the campaign through brand videos , Citibank started a contest on Facebook where it asked people to share their travel stories along with a picture of their vacation and use the hashtag #WhatsYourSummerEscape in their posts. People from all over the country shared their stories which were equally diverse. From beaches to mountains to parks to cityscapes, different people had different stories. The contest reached over 6 million people and engaged over a million people.

Citibank inspires people to create their own travel stories with its Digital First campaign #WhatsYourSummerEscape

The glam factor was added when the celebrities joined in and shared their travel stories. They were not just your regular celebrities from Bollywood but from various walks of life such as photography, sports, and reality TV. These celebrities acted as influencers and helped the campaign reach different types of fan bases and drive more conversations around the campaign. The campaign was an immense success in terms of driving engagement with a score of 1000/1000 which is the perfect score for Facebook engagement. With a highest ever Citi PTAT score of 10.3 %, we can safely say that the celebrity influencers definitely played their role well.

Citibank inspires people to create their own travel stories with its Digital First campaign #WhatsYourSummerEscape

Another unique content initiative done in this campaign was the introduction of 360- degree videos and images. Famous tourist spots like the Scottish islands, Norwegian forests, and Europe during spring were converted into the 360 - degree immersive format and posted on Citibank's Facebook page. The 360 degree videos and images were a massive hit, reaching more than 5 million people and engaging over a million of them. People found one particular image so awesome that it got shared over 1900 times on Facebook

For people who look for advice during their travel planning, Citibank used Tripadvisor integration to catch their attention and provide them with premium discounts over various hospitality services like dining and flights, thereby increasing their reach and creating association of the brand with travel at the penultimate step of travel booking journey.

Citibank inspires people to create their own travel stories with its Digital First campaign #WhatsYourSummerEscape

Brilliantly executed, this campaign was a massive hit with metrics that remain unmatched and first of their kind. The campaign's video views were over 6 million and just to prove how captivating the whole campaign was #WhatsYourSummerEscape was one of the most searched terms on Facebook during the campaign period. Tripadvisor integration helped create over 10 million impressions, gain over 9000 incremental visits to Citibank Online, and achieve a 3X click-through-rate as compared to normal CTR for Tripadvisor.

Great content, innovative and effective user engagement, and building a strong association of travel with Citi brand were the key ingredients that made this campaign a role model for anybody looking to use Facebook as the main platform for their large integrated campaigns in the future.

The results speak for themselves - the campaign supported the highest jump in overall Citibank Credit Card spends in May and June. Travel related spends on Citibank cards were also the highest ever.

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