Visit California Expands 'Road Trip' Campaign

• by Larissa Faw , February 26, 2020

Visit California and agency Mering are expanding the state tourism group’s Road Trip Republic campaign to five media platforms: Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify, Pinterest and TripAdvisor. 

Each activation is designed to reach travelers at various stages of planning a trip.   

“Travel and personalization go hand-in-hand,” said Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of Visit California. “We can meet users on their preferred platforms and deliver an inspiring, personal California road trip experience that will effectively motivate consumers to book a trip.”

These customized experiences range from the basic — a la TripAdvisor’s filtered regional recommendations — to the quirky, with polls and interactive games.

Spotify’s activation asks users to take quizzes to generate a customized playlist while an Instagram Story Poll poses road trip-related decisions, such as asking travelers to select their favorite car snack.

Snapchat and Instagram features a roulette game as well as a custom Snapchat Lens that puts the user in a vehicle traveling across California with backdrops of the Pacific Ocean, Joshua Tree National Park and the redwoods.

On Pinterest, users can take a quiz that delivers a custom California road trip inspiration board.

While Facebook does not have a customized activation, both the platform and its sister site Instagram will run video, general awareness elements as well as amplify engagement-driving creative to encourage responses in polls and onsite.

The campaign rolled out this month in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Last fall, the campaign launched with the “Born to Be Wild” commercial that uses the iconic song alongside images of the state.