Travel brand Contiki charts a new course with an audio video ad campaign on Spotify
Contiki, a group travel brand for young globetrotters, leveraged Spotify to launch an audio and video ad campaign that charted a course to higher engagement and impressive click-through rates.
- 0.97%
CTR for horizontal video
(exceeding benchmark of 0.8%) - 0.59%
CTR for audio
(exceeding benchmark of 0.23%)
Media mix:
Brand vertical: Travel
Objective: Drive website traffic
Target audience: 18-34-year-olds in Birmingham, London & Leeds, UK
Targeting used: Age, Location, Device
Market: UK
Flight length: 06/05/23 – 06/25/23
Activation channel: Ads Manager
Formats: Audio Everywhere, Video Ads
The Brief
In the post-pandemic landscape, travel brand Contiki wanted to encourage young globetrotters to get back on the road-less-traveled. So, the brand chose to leverage Spotify to educate 18 to 35-year-olds in the UK about its group travel programs.
To make headway, Contiki needed to craft a campaign that would captivate and guide young travelers—turning their clicks into the beginning of real-world adventures.
The Solution
For Contiki, an audio-video ad campaign on Spotify was a departure from the brand's typical marketing mix. But knowing how strongly the platform resonates with young audiences—check out our Culture Next research here—the brand was ready to chart new territory.
Contiki's ad creative featured user-generated content to give people a glimpse into real, relatable travel stories. Curated soundscapes helped pull Spotify users into a world of adventure they could both hear and feel.
The brand launched its “Make Every Moment Count" campaign with a platform-wide mix of audio and video ads, before experimenting with different creative executions to drive impressions. In the third and final phase, Contiki released a fresh batch of creative to optimize for clicks, driving to a strong CTA that directed users to the brand's website.
The Impact
The campaign saw an impressive payoff, with a 267% surge in clicks to Contiki's website and a wave of highly engaged traffic that outperformed other channels by 32%.
Contiki didn't just meet their own campaign goals—they set new benchmarks that exceeded initial objectives, including:
Our results with Spotify have been consistently impressive, and our campaigns have strengthened our belief in the power of this platform within our paid media strategy.
Anna Vine
Head of Marketing UK & EU
"We know our 18-35 audience loves their audio streaming, making Spotify a perfect match for us," said Anna Vine, Contiki's Head of Marketing UK & EU. "It strikes the right chord, connecting with our target demographics and capturing the vibe of travelling with Contiki through immersive audio. Our results with Spotify have been consistently impressive, and our campaigns have strengthened our belief in the power of this platform within our paid media strategy."
The Takeaway
Charting a course with an audio-video advertising campaign, complete with the compass of Spotify's new click goal optimization feature, can help travel brands explore new horizons—and land impressive click-through rates.