#2 The DNA Journey going local

Since 2014 me and my team have been working on defining momondo’s purpose and building it into a live and active movement. This is the second episode in the series. An episode about how we took the highly successful first campaign The DNA Journey, and made it an even bigger success by making it more locally relevant. If you haven’t read the first episode ”The Birth of a Purpose” then stop here, and go back and read that first one. Because the first episode will introduce you 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

The DNA Journey going local

With the launch of The DNA Journey June 2 2016 the world turned upside down. Overnight the momondo brand had become a global power brand with a deep and honest purpose rooted in the fight for a more open and tolerant world.

Travellers joined forces with momondo to fight for tolerance through travel. In what soon became one of a huge global travel blogger networks in the world. With it’s own award show - Bloggers Open World Awards.

Even the airlines and travel agencies loved it, and The DNA Journey was used in activations with them at industry fairs such as PhocusWright and Skift, and companies and schools around the world asked if they could use the film in employee training, etc.

If you haven’t read #1 The Birth of a Purpose yet then I urge you to go back and read that now and if you have already read it, you can just continue.

Could we reach even more people with this important message?

With the launch of The DNA Journey in 2016 we felt that we had delivered on the strategic challenges of #1 Recreate the true value of traveling, #2 Make the theme personal and engaging, and #3 Create a foundation that would last beyond a single campaign. But we also felt that we hadn’t reached all people with the message yet, and that we therefore could do more. Since the first campaign was in English only, we now in 2017 had the opportunity to localize the campaign more to the different markets, which should increase the reach and engagement of the movement – and potentially give a second wave for The DNA Journey.

Increased objectives

The communication objectives were clear. We wanted to double the reach and engagement while keeping the ROI high.

1. Increase focus on tolerance and diversity in the world -> double the reach, views, and press clips from 2016

2. Start a debate on the subject through earned media -> double social engagements from 2016

3. Convey the debate into an actual movement against prejudices -> increase travellers, celebrities, politicians, universities, etc. supporting the campaign.  

4. Build momondo as a vision driven travel brand more effectively than through the use of traditional media -> still at a high ROI even though we go local

Taking our purpose into local context

The strategy was still rooted in the momondo brand foundation:

”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" Let's Open Our World.

We wanted to make The DNA Journey more localized to engage more people in momondo’s purpose Let’s Open Our World. The strategy was therefore to bring the campaign even more into the local country context, and with the twist that the chance of winning your own DNA Journey - a trip of the lifetime to all the countries you are from – should be more prominent in the communication.

We got a little more tactical

The creative hook for this 2nd launch of The DNA Journey was therefore:

”Go on a journey where it is not you – but your DNA that decides where you should go”

In short we got a little more tactical to involve even more people.

We wanted even more to send in applications with how they would help opening the world if they won. And again we got overwhelmed with people participating in the competition, where they would first win a DNA kit, and when they then received the kit they should video film their own reaction when opening it, and then send the video to us to participate in the competition to win the trip of a lifetime – a travel to all the countries you are from – your very own DNA journey.

We ran the campaign in localized versions across 22 countries around the world (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, Austria, France, UK, US, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Romania, Ireland, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Ukraine). And in addition to these countries we succeeded in running the campaign in Russia and Italy, because we after a long process found local DNA kit suppliers that could support our campaign.

We therefore built fully localized campaigns for Italy and Russia with dubbed creatives, and re-edits of the film material to fit these markets even better. A good example of this is that during the filming we had seen that many people were really happy about finding out that they had Italian DNA. We therefore made a whole film for the launch in Italy, with people being happy when they found out that they have Italian DNA. This edit actually beat the main film, and was the best performing film in Italy.

Media still focused on earned & owned

With the performance learnings from the original DNA Journey launch we could assess in which markets and channels there was untapped potential to get more people involved. Still focusing on expanding owned and earned first – with supplements from earned media.

Especially Facebook was a key player in our media mix, and as an example we did Facebook Live updates with Carlos, a participant from the film, where he talked with the audience about his experience finding out his own DNA and all the countries that he now planned to visit.

Amazing results

The engagement we got in the campaign going local was amazing.

We were able to reach all our objectives, and still keep the overall ROI as high as 213. In other words we got 213$ back per 1$ invested.

1. Increase focus on tolerance and diversity in the world -> double the reach, views, and press clips from original campaign launch in 2016

3 months after the original DNA Journey: +397M Reach. +175.5M video views. +550 press clips.

3 months after the localized DNA Journey: 1.047M Reach. 483.5M video views. +1640 press clips.

2. Start a debate on the subject through earned media -> double social engagements from original campaign launch in 2016

3 months after the original DNA Journey: 95.2% organic dispersion. 7.5M social engagement.

3 months after the localized DNA Journey: 15M social engagements. 750K comments.

3. Convey the debate into an actual movement against prejudices -> increase travellers, celebrities, politicians, universities, etc. joining the campaign.  

3 months after the original DNA Journey: 170,000 competition participants. Positive reinforcements from travellers, celebrities, politicians, etc.  

3 months after the localized DNA Journey: 268,000 competition participants. Increased support for momondo’s purpose from even more travelers, actors, celebrities, politicians, etc.

4. Build momondo as a vision driven travel brand more effectively than through the use of traditional media -> still at a high ROI even though we went local

3 months after the original DNA Journey: PR/Social ROI 291.

3 months after the localized DNA Journey: PR/Social ROI 213.

The DNA Journey has beaten all previous momondo activities 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 2017, and later translated and edited by Per Christiansen.