#1 The Birth of a Purpose

Since 2014 my team and I have been working on defining momondo’s purpose and building it into an active movement. In this first episode that I have called ”The Birth of a Purpose” you will get introduced to our foundational work with our purpose, as well as our first campaign called The DNA Journey.

Hopefully the story will inspire you in your work with brands today, and please reach out with comments and questions. I would love to hear how you work with your brands purpose.

Enjoy, Per

Executive Summary

This is not a campaign. It's a movement. A purpose movement that has travelled the world and affected more than a hundred million people. And the journey has only just begun. The story begins in 2006, when momondo was founded with the aim of opening up the world and breaking down borders between countries, cultures and people. 

But how do you position your brand in relation to a good cause and create a movement on a global scale about something as big as breaking down boundaries and prejudices?

The question requires a different thinking. Based on what drives other movements we created a purpose platform where The DNA Journey is the first activation activity. The DNA Journey is a documentary like project and breaks with conventions both in terms of format and length. 

It took months of strenuous effort to create the 5-minute and 17-second video. The idea was to use DNA tests to show that we have far more in common than we think. Sixty-seven people were DNA tested to find out where in the world they come from. It was all recorded on video and cut together into an emotional film showing that a great many of us don't know our full origins as well as that it changes our view of other nations when we are told where we come from. 

The DNA Journey took the world by storm. With over 175.5 million video views of The DNA Journey (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyaEQEmt5ls) and +550 press clips in leading media such as the Huffington Post, Yahoo Finance, Travel Daily News, Dagens Nyheter, Børsen, Stern and Bloghizzle, the campaign reached more than +397 million people and started a global focus on tolerance and openness in the world. 

The DNA Journey generated explosive engagement and debate with as much as 7.5 million likes, shares and comment and an organic reach of 95.2% equivalent to 166.4 million people. The purpose of The DNA Journey is the fight for a better world.

It is estimated that the campaign totalled PR/social media value of DKK 436 million, equivalent to a ROI of 291, i.e. for each dkk invested in media, momondo has received 291 dkk again. And that's before we talk about increased sales and brand equity.

Business background

momondo is a travel search engine on a mission founded on the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to travel, meet new people and experience other cultures and religions. We have therefore created a travel universe that not only relies on functionality, but also provides complete price transparency on flights, hotel and car rental, as well as inspires everyone to explore our amazing world. But while technological developments have made the world feel smaller, many have an experience of intolerance in the world rising and creating prejudice between people. momondo has therefore set out to make an active effort to break down physical boundaries, but also the mental boundaries that separate people and lead to parochialism and prejudice.

"We fight against the boundaries, prejudices and comfort zones that continue to separate people and throughout cultures the world"

momondo – The DNA Journey is the first campaign execution based on momondo's purpose platform Let's Open Our World, and it is a serious attempt to reverse the negative development and inspire increased intolerance worldwide. The overarching objectives are 1) to set a global agenda focusing on increased intolerance and prejudice in the world and 2) to start a movement for a better and more tolerant world and to show that "there are more things uniting us than dividing". 

Strategic challenges

Tolerance and prejudice are very big themes. This is an advantage because they are relevant on a global scale, but at the same time these are themes on which there are a great many opinions.

It was therefore crucial that our communication concept was based on a core insight based on facts, so that it was concrete and legitimized – and so the projects and campaigns we launch respond to a specific societal problem that affects us all. 

The challenge was thus both to move and engage – to get under the skin of people so that they do not feel that the theme is too big, devoured or distant, but to relate personally to it and feel that it was and is a common concern that it is not impossible to do anything about. 

In order to succeed in this task, it was therefore necessary to address three key challenges.

#1 Recreate the true value of traveling

#2 Make the theme personal and engaging

#3 Create a foundation that lasts beyond a single campaign

Objectives

The three main strategic challenges were translated into three clear communication objectives, all part of a long-term process and requiring momondo to develop a platform that can serve as a foundation for building and developing momondo as a brand. A brand whose main purpose is to open the world, which makes a difference by putting tolerance and openness on the agenda through a positive and engaging angle that breaks down borders between countries and people around the world. 

1.     Increase focus on tolerance and diversity in the world

2.     Start a debate on the subject through earned media. The goal was a minimum of 18M views of hero film

3.     Convey the debate into an actual movement against prejudices

4.     Build momondo as a vision driven travel brand more effectively than through the use of traditional media

Strategy

Purpose foundation: Let's Open Our World

In other words, The DNA Journey is not just a one-off campaign, but should be seen as the start of a movement whose vision is a more open and tolerant world. 

 ”At momondo we have a vision of a world where our differences are a source of inspiration and development, not intolerance and prejudice. Our purpose is to give courage and encourage each one of us to stay curious and be open minded so we can all enjoy a better, more diversified world"

 The vision is at the heart of the momondo brand and has been since 2006, when momondo was founded on the philosophy that everyone should have the opportunity to travel, meet new people and experience other cultures and religions. Travel opens our minds. Because when we experience something different, we start to see things from new angles.

The challenge was initially to create a foundation from which we could live out the vision and start a movement under which various projects could be activated that put openness on the global agenda. It was therefore decided to supplement the current pay off Stay Curious with a phrase that could elevate communication to a higher purpose level. Based on momondo's vision of opening up the world, the phrase was formulated as a call to be part of the very vision formulated with the phrase Let's Open Our World.

The DNA Journey 

As mentioned earlier, momondo with the first campaign, during Let's Open Our World wanted to highlight the growing intolerance in the world without pointing fingers. 

&Co worked on the insight that a journey is also a mental journey. Travel can break down our mental boundaries. If we are open and curious to the world, travel can change the way we look at others and ourselves. And by turning this realization upside down, the ultimate idea arose that if we are open to ourselves, we can change our view of the world.

The idea was to confront people with their own narrow-mindedness by showing that we actually have much more in common than we think, in order to thereby increase our tolerance for the unknown and alien on the the verys that an open world begins with an open mind.

No image – no matter how beautiful, authentic and diverse – can show the true value of travel: namely, how travel can open up our world on a mental level and break down boundaries between countries, cultures and people. So we had to challenge people's perceptions of themselves: DNA testing was the perfect scientific tool to make people see themselves in a new light. This technique made it possible to tell people something about themselves that they didn't already know. And how often do you get that opportunity? What's more interesting than one though? In other words, the ultimate way to celebrate diversity was to show that it is already in all of us.

The campaign consists of a documentary like project and consists of several films produced in collaboration with the advertising agency &Co, Bacon and documentary filmmaker Jeppe Rønde.

The DNA Journey is created as part of momondo's overarching goal of making the world more open. With The DNA Journey, we want to celebrate our diversity. We want to open people's eyes to the fact that there are more things that unite us than separate us. We hope that The DNA Journey can inspire people to explore their own origins and ancestry and experience how we are all connected to the rest of the world.

We invited 67 people from all over the world to participate in the project, and we documented it all. We interviewed the participants about their self-understanding: where they came from, how they compared their nationality, and what were their ideas about other countries and cultures? Some had sharp stances.

They were all offered to take a DNA test to find out more about their origins. And they told us what they hoped the DNA test would show. Two weeks later they were invited back and they received their results. It was a very emotional experience for the participants to receive the results that showed how culturally complex they really were.

 They experienced on a personal level that we are all part of one large family, and it turned out to be a solid tool for breaking down boundaries between people, cultures and religions.

The film invites participants to visit the countries they come from, and this is supported by a competition where you as a viewer can win a DNA test and a trip to all the countries you come from. It is important to stress that competition does not have a central part in the film. Contrary. We do not use words like "Win" – but rather "Join", as the goal is to get people to participate in the movement and not to create competitive activity.

The DNA Journey is in many ways a breach of conventions. It is an experiment and not a traditional film in which the lines are written in advance. Here it is the people who participate that carry the story itself, and therefore casting was an area that was given a lot of attention. We selected a wide segment of people who represented the whole world and who had stories that seemed interesting. The joker was that none of us knew their real story. Only their DNA could reveal that. We interviewed and DNA tested 67 people and then selected 15 people. The characters in the film were first confronted with their result when the cameras rolled. There was no manus. All lines and reactions are authentic, as this was the very idea of the project.

See the film + extra material here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyaEQEmt5ls

The director Jeppe Rønum created a setup where all the participants were part of the project and where they were gathered while each getting their results. This created a fantastic community and a special atmosphere around the whole project, which has undoubtedly helped to create the very open and loving atmosphere that arose.

"Thank you so much for the amazing opportunity to be part of your project. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I am so grateful to have live that experience, grateful for the way it changed me and how it is shaping my work today. Grateful for the journey into myself and for seeing others uncovering their beautiful journeys while carrying a bit of my own. I feel invincible, ageless and ready to face what the future is held."

"It was a profoundly emotional experience, and made me question who I am and who I thought I was. My family and friends were inspired by my journey, and loved the idea behind the campaign! Many of them are now desperate to undergo their own tests to discover their origins."

"I feel eager, impatient, excited, motivated, grateful, surprised, overwhelmed and filled with beautiful energy after the experience we've lived together in the studio." Quotes: Participants in 'The DNA Journey' film”

People from all over the world come together, experience each other's belongings and relationships with the world, and thus gain an understanding on a very human level, which breaks down boundaries and binds relationships in a very special way. In other words, the project itself was proof of what we wanted to communicate.

Precisely because the project is not a traditional advertisement, and because it is genuine emotion, momondo also decided to break the traditional digital concept, where one tells its story in max three minutes. The DNA Journey lasts five minutes, and momondo was aware that this was a chance to take and we therefore worked a lot to ensure that the story was captivating within the first three very crucial seconds. Two different beginnings of the film were tested and it turned out that it was crucial that we staged Would you dare to question – who you are? within the first three seconds to ensure that people were stuck.

The DNA Journey deliberately puts momondo on the scene, but rather momondo's purpose. Because that's what it's about. With the subtle reference to the competition, we get to put travel into play without giving momondo a dominant role. The purpose was not to get people to participate in a competition. The purpose was to get people to share the film and participate in our movement.

 In the first phase of the competition you can win one of 500 DNA kits to explore your lineage. We're 500 DNA kits in the first phase. In the second phase of the competition, winners from the first stage can submit a video of their reaction when they receive the DNA results. The video is the ticket to participate in the competition for the Great DNA Journey, which is a journey to all the countries from which, according to his DNA test, one originated. The competition started on 2 June at the launch of The DNA Journey. The final winner will be announced on 30 September. 

Platform Stages: 'Big Impact' and 'Conversation Gardening'

Launching The DNA Journey and Let's Open Our World can be divided into three phases and was executed in close collaboration with Radius, BeOn, Facebook and YouTube. 

As described in the section on strategic challenges, it was important from the outset to establish the fact that intolerance is an increasing problem in the world and to show that travel is part of the solution. 

The launch phase was the highlight of the campaign and was launched at the end of May 2016 with a focus on managing communication along the lines of "How Danish are we really?", "How Swedish are we really?" etc. This formed the breeding ground for the massive global launch of The DNA Journey on June 2, 2016. In the period thereafter, coordination meetings were held daily with the parties involved, so that all possibilities for publicity and dissemination were followed up. To keep the momentum, we continuously launched new films that deled into the stories of each person. By using Jay, Aurelie, Carlos, Yanina, Ellaha and Karen, we could put more layers on the narrative and invite even more people to participate in the debate. In September, participants' own submitted videos are activated in the light of the choice of the eventual winners of The DNA Journey on September 30. After that, there will of course be an opportunity to follow the winners on their amazing journeys back to their past. 

Media Strategy: Focus on 'Earned Media'

The DNA Journey was an integrated campaign that enabled both owned, earned, shared and paid media. The bulk of the budget was spent on earned media in the form of content development, PR and social activation as well as seeding and use of bloggers and influencers. Paid media was used to a limited extent, and solely to get the movement started, while existing momondo users were activated via momondo's sites, Facebook page, blog content and newsletter. The weighting of PR, Facebook, YouTube, influencers, etc. was carefully planned across the 35 countries momondo operates in and depended on how strong individual media were locally and thus where we expected the most impact. This distribution changed over the course of the campaign as we learned how it was taken in the local way.

momondo's own media

Since Let's Open Our World is the foundation of momondo and the vision we're working on, it's been important to get everyone in momondo to back both the vision and The DNA Journey. Long before the launch of the latter, there have therefore been interdisciplinary groups within momondo who have worked on how we live out the vision as an organization, in our product and in our everyday lives. It was therefore also natural that all employees were given the opportunity to be DNA tested, so that we could talk about diversity internally at momondo, as well as externally. 

The gathering place for the movement was Letsopenourworld.com, where it is possible to read more about The DNA Journey, download the entire Value of Travelling, read about our ambassadors living with an open mind, and gain insight into our sponsorship of CISV. In addition, the campaign has of course been on momondo's front page, inspiration page and in the newsletter. 

Editorial Media

momondo's PR team had a key role in ensuring the campaign's impact. This was done in close cooperation with country managers internally across momondo's 35 markets, 17 different PR agencies, where Radius played a major role in the development of concept and strategy as well as BeOn as seeding agency. 

The PR strategy had seven legs:

1. Media relations: Selected media were involved in The DNA Journey before launch to share them in momondo's vision and message.

 2. The Value of Travelling: A major analysis was conducted to prove the value of travel. It was prepared by Radius and used as evidence for stories about increased intollerance in the world and the connection between travel, trust and openness. The main purpose of the analysis was to prove a link between travelling and being trusting with other people. This correlation was never previously studied with such a large data set. A total of 7,292 respondents participated across 18 countries representatively across the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and pacific.

 3. Three news angles: During the tease phase, two main news angles were produced, which were versioned to 2x12 (a total of 24) different press releases in 11 different languages. During the launch phase, an overall news angle was developed, which was versioned into 15 different press releases and 13 different languages. In total, 39 different press reports were sent out during the tease and launch phase.

4. Advertorials: In order to ensure wide coverage and publicity in reputable media, advertorials were contracted in the Huffington Post in the UK, Spain and Germany. 

5. Seeding: In addition to the 17 local PR agencies, BeOn was a global seeding partner on the campaign.

6. Meta-PR: As part of the strategy, the international success and rapid spread of the campaign on Facebook was used as a starting point to spin more stories on the campaign globally. 

7. Bloggers/Influencers: Up to launch, a blogger and influencer network was established through which the message and the film could be spread from 2 June, and they simultaneously acted as opinion formers in travel, thus showing how they live and travel with an open mind.                              

Social Media

Social media and especially Facebook and Youtube were important focal points of the campaign. The purpose of the activities was to start dialogue around Let's Open Our World in close pairing with PR before launch, while Youtube and especially Facebook were key media in launching with 'big bang' as well as the following spread and debate. At the launch itself, the film was promoted via Youtube and Facebook ads. The DNA Journey quickly captured the audience that shared, liked and commented diligently, resulting in rapid organic dispersal. The hype and organic spread were so great on social media that it also gave rise to meta-stories about the campaign's success in editorial media. 

The task consisted in large part in 'conversation gardening', i.e. to follow the debate itself, answer questions if they were asked directly to momondo and then otherwise let the debate flow freely. The debate was almost exclusively positive and developed organically in a good direction. The questions put to momondo were all-importantly practical questions about the competition, DNA tests and participants in the competition. momondo's social media team, video experts and country managers internally across momondo's 35 markets played a key role in planning and orchestrating the campaign globally across 27 regional facebook pages, and with movies localized with subtitles in 20 languages as well as community management in 20 languages. 

Results

As described in the objectives, there were several success criteria for the movement we wanted to start. First of all, we wanted to focus on tolerance and openness in the world, with travel as one of the solutions, and since the budget was limited and the task international, the goal had to be achieved primarily through 'earned' media. In addition, we wanted to start a debate on the subject, which would lead to an outright movement that would help spread the word further through active sharing and attitude. And then it should help to tell the story of momondo as a vision-driven brand in a more efficient way than using traditional media.  

Will it succeed? And how far are we after just three months?

#1 Massive global attention. +397M Reach. +175.5M video views. +550 press clips.

Building on the detailed PR and social media strategy, the campaign resulted in massive global publicity. Just three months after its launch, the campaign has reached 397M people worldwide (M=millions), and the main film has been viewed more than 175.5M times. This was well above the target of 18M, and also at the high end compared to well-known campaigns such as Always – Like a Girl (62,395,408 views), Dove – Real Beauty Sketches (67,102,439 views) and Volvo Trucks – The Epic Split feat. Van Damme (84,359,831 views).

On social media in particular, the message was well received, and the massive attention on Facebook in particular helped drive the attention of the established media.

Globally, it became +550 press clips at, among others, Huffington Post, CNNTurk, Aplus, Reddit, Bloghizzle, Today News, Dagens Nyheter, Børsen, BT, MX, Stern, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, Cosmo.ru, 20minutos.es, Focus.de, 9gag, Uprox, Europapress.se, Yahoo Finance, Travel Daily News, Marketing, Contagious, Adweek, Adage and many more.

The total attention was 4.4B online readership (B=Billions), which is on par with Always - Like a Girl (4.4B) and Dove – Real Beauty Sketches (4B), and The DNA Journey was featured on AdvertisingAge as: 'Emotional DNA Journey Crushes All Branded Video Opposition'.

#2 Explosive engagement and debate. 95.2% organic dispersion. 7.5M social engagement.

Overall, the campaign has gained 175.5M views via Facebook, YouTube, Letsopenourworld.com as well as the media and the audience's own channels. But one thing is views. Far more importantly, the message was actively shared, debated and shared organically. The figures show that the campaign was widely shared, liked and commented on.

167M or the full 95.2% of the total number of views of 175.5M came via organic reach. Especially from Facebook groups with large reach, such as Blogghizzle, Brotherhood in Islam, W2 as well as large groups in Russia and China. With a total social engagement for the campaign of 7.5M likes, comments and shares, The DNA Journey ranks among the most viral campaigns in the world. By comparison, Always - Like a Girl had 3.2M, while Dove – Real Beauty Sketches had 3.5M. In addition, the debate on social media was very positive about the message, and most of the total 572,000 social comments were positive.

#3 Support for the vision from all sides: Travellers, celebrities, politicians, universities, etc.  

In the years we have worked on the project, we have always had good energy and positive expressions about the vision and the mission we were on. But it was nothing compared to the experience when we first went on air with The DNA Journey. 

As many as 170,378 (ift. the target of 5,000) have open-heartedly told how their participation in The DNA Journey will make the world a better place.  

"Boundaries are imaginary. They are created in our minds to protect us and to safeguard ourselves from fear. Taking this DNA test and seeing the rich diversity we are all born from will allow those boundaries to be shattered, permanently. Indefinitely."

"Breaking down borders is never easy, my father is a racist and I would show him that he shouldn't be a racist when his child is many races. I want to break down boundaries within my own family first and would show a video of him reading my results."

In addition, hundreds of travel bloggers have indicated that they will be part of the fight, but celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, Brooke Hogan, Katie Lee & Hoda, Nargis Fakhri and politicians such as Anders Samuelsen and Uffe Elbæk have also expressed sympathy for the vision. 

"If I could choose one thing to show the world." Quote: Brooke Hogan

"momondo's new video 'The DNA Journey' has a beautiful message about diversity." Quote: Katie Lee & Hoda

"'Yes, it's commercials. But come on, I was touched." Quote: Uffe Elbæk

The film as well as The Value of Travelling – A Global Report have also been used on various courses in schools and universities and even for internal development courses at larger companies, e.g. Boeing and Caterpillar. Most recently, Oprah has turned to being allowed to use The DNA Journey in her talk show SuperSoul Sunday, 9 October.

#4 PR/Social ROI 291.

The purpose of The DNA Journey is to fight for a better world. It is estimated that The DNA Journey has so far had a reach of +397M, an organic reach on Facebook and YouTube at 166.4M, a social commitment of 7.5M as well as 4.4B online readership. The many exposures on PR are valued by Meltwater, while BeOn has valued the other parameters, giving an estimated media value of The DNA Journey of $436,789,250. If this value is maintained against momondo's investment in PR, social and seeding, it gives a ROI of DKK 291, equivalent to momondo having re-received DKK 291 per invested.

In addition, knowledge of momondo globally has increased sharply at launch. Erand searches on momondo at Google globally increased no less than 59.3% compared to the same period the previous year (Google Trends for searches on "momondo" globally 1/12/2014-15/9/2016. Index 59 (7-13/6/2015) and index 94 (5-11/6/2016) representing 59.3% total. Here is not insulated for effects from other media, which are however reasonably comparable for the two years.).

The increased traffic also reflected the fact that traffic on momondo days after launch globally increased by 45% on Friday, 43% On Saturday and 21% Sunday. There were many first-time visitors who were in and read more about the campaign and momondo, but the real sales effect of the campaign is only seen over time when we see the future behaviour of the new visitors. We must therefore wait to conclude on the overall promotional, publicity and social impact. But even before we know all the promotional effect, The DNA Journey has beaten all previous momondo activities on ROI and created a starting point for a better and more open and tolerant world.

*This article was first published in Danish by Per Christiansen and Helle Goodstein in 2016, and later translated and edited by Per Christiansen.