2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

Every year, millions of people travel abroad and many visit the same monuments around the world such as the Eiffel Tower, or Buckingham Palace among many other famous landmarks. But it's the road less traveled, the hidden treasures in all of these destinations that bring these places to life. Visa wanted to provide everyone with an opportunity to explore these places like a local and they wanted to be at the helm of cross-border activity by building a website portal with content curated by millennials for millennials. According to Visa’s Global Travel Intentions Study, 55% of millennials and 81% of people surveyed in the MENA region were planning a trip abroad in 2015. Additionally, the sharing economy is massive and as such, people are trusting other people’s recommendations when they travel. The mindset is shifting from websites such as Lonely Planet and the World Travel Guide to Booking.com & Tripadvisor.

The Campaign

Millions of people travel & visit the same monuments around the world. But it's the road less traveled, the hidden treasures in these destinations that bring them to life. Visa wanted to provide everyone an opportunity to explore these places like a local. Our strategy was to drive conversation on social by leveraging hundreds of videos and images submitted for the #NotATourist campaign and content created by our influencers to inspire consumers to participate. People submitted their pictures, videos and tips and tagged Visa in the process. The aim was to create a home for all the social content which is the #NotATourist website. The website was visited by over 8,000 people a day and viewed 4 times more than the Visa Middle East website, the platform had 2,400 active pins on the map. The campaign had a reach of 83M, 12.8M interactions, 9.26M video views and over 5.6k submissions.

Creative Execution

June 1st – July 1st : - Posting of teaser content by Visa to promote the #NotATourist hashtag and to build up anticipation. For example: “This is my 5-star view, what’s yours? #NotaTourist” while showcasing a picture of a tent on a mountain instead of a hotel view. - Sent our influencer “@Maxofarabia” on a Euro trip to London, Paris & Berlin on a crafted #NotATourist journey. He explored the unknown gems in these known locations. Tweeted and posted every day on social media, he also took GoPro footage that captured his journey through the lesser known streets of these cities. That footage was later used as posts on Visa’s page. (He was sent for 7 days) July 2nd – July 31st (Ramadan): - Engagement and driving of social content through weekly gratification ($500 Visa Cards every week) August 1st – August 31st Launching the #NotATourist portal website

In addition to the success of the website platform which was visited by over 8,000 people a day and viewed 4 times more than the Visa Middle East website, the platform had 2,400 active pins on the map today. The campaign was one of our most social campaigns ever with a combined reach of 83M, 12.8M interactions, 9.26M video views and over 5.6k submissions on our platforms! Consumer Behavior influence: Before the campaign started, the hashtag #NotATourist had only 200+ posts in total on Instagram and on Twitter. Visa’s #NotATourist competition ended as of August with a confirmed 5.6k hashtag mentions(submissions), the hashtag number of posts stands at 24k today. This proves that Visa pioneered the use of the hashtag from the beginning and helped it take off even long after the campaign ended. This can be a direct correlation to Visa’s impact on behavior.