The Making of a Champion: Expedia becomes a true travel partner of the UEFA Champions League

Travel like a Champion

Expedia becomes a true travel partner of the UEFA Champions League

/ Opportunity

It’s no small task being the official travel partner of one of the most prestigious football tournaments in Europe—a tournament which grabbed the attention of over 1.5 million viewers. PACIFIC was tapped to come into the match and deliver a campaign be as memorable as the action on the pitch.

PACIFIC needed to create a campaign that would connect football fans with some of the most beautiful and iconic regions in Europe. We needed to make football fans as passionate about travel as they are about their favorite team.

/ Services

Creative & Design
Content Development
SEO
Social Media
Content Marketing

They loved our football kits. They asked us how to get it. They got a little competitive. And they asked us to feature their regions next year. For us, this is playing like a champion.

/ Insights

In 2018, Pacific and Expedia LATAM teamed up to develop a project that connects travel with one of the most famous sports events in the world: the football World Cup. The restricted rights around the event sponsorship didn’t stop us from creating unique content about the topic. The response was incredible with over 15,000 pageviews, over one million impressions, and placements in MSN, MKTesportivo, Dino, Merca 2.0, and Grupo Expansión.

But we knew that if we weren’t limited to only blog post and digital assets that we could do better. And guess what? We did.

/ Solution

We designed 11 different football jerseys inspired by the top 11 travel destinations in Europe. To promote both the jerseys and destinations, PACIFIC leveraged Expedia’s Explorer pages and content partnerships.

But we also knew that when people saw them, they were going to want them, so we developed press kits. Each kit contained one of the 11 jerseys and a brochure with details about each jersey and the region that inspired all contained in a box that used Expedia’s branding with a football motif. We have to say, it came together brilliantly.

We were happy. The client was happy. But we didn’t stop there. We also created a video to further promote the campaign and reach an even bigger audience.

/ Results

Thanks to PACIFIC’s integrated marketing approach, football and travel fans all over Europe went crazy for the campaign. So, how crazy? Well, the campaign resulted in a 623% increase in social engagement with the brand. Fans loved our football kits. They asked us how to get it. They even got a little competitive and told us that we needed to feature their regions next year. For us and Expedia, this is playing like a champion.

623%

increase in social engagement