How Omio Went Viral with a Brand Awareness Boost in Italy
When online travel comparison and booking website Omio first came to DCMN in late 2019, they were keen to make a big splash. They’d rebranded from GoEuro to Omio that same year, with plans to expand out of the European market and into the US. Then COVID-19 hit and travel was off the table entirely. Omio’s big marketing plans to promote their new brand went on the back burner. So, when Omio reached back out in May 2021, we were very excited. Our insights and media experts worked together to chalk out a solid strategy for Omio’s successful voyage.
Omio is a travel app and platform that allows people to find and book trains, buses and flights in one place. Partnering with over 1000 transport operators across Europe, the USA and Canada, Omio is revolutionising the travel planning experience, providing customers with more choice, transparent pricing and easier booking. The travel start-up was founded as GoEuro in 2013 and rebranded to become Omio in 2019. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, its most recent funding round, totalling $150 million, was announced in October 2018.
Objectives
- Increase Omio’s brand awareness among their main target audience in Italy by 5%
- Increase Omio’s six key perception attributes among their main target audience, ensuring it is in line with their new brand promise
Approach
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- We took a holistic approach to the campaign, which was a collaboration between DCMN’s insights and marketing teams.
- Firstly, we carried out a market research survey to understand where to focus our advertising efforts for Omio in Europe, discovering Italy had the highest potential.
- With the survey results, we ran two campaigns focusing on brand awareness in the last two quarters of 2021.
- We decided to place the ads at transit points and highways in big cities where travellers were most likely to spot them.
- The second OOH campaign was rolled out with a one-month TV campaign in Italy to assist with pushing brand awareness.
- This was supplemented with always-on campaigns in different mediums such as social media, music streaming, search engine, online video (OTT/CVT and YouTube), and podcasts in order to maintain the level of brand awareness.
- With an uplift of 7% in brand awareness in Italy, our campaign was certifiably a big success.
Lockdown was coming to an end and people were starting to cautiously plan holidays again. This time they came to us asking if we would like to help them do research in their key markets to find out where the likelihood to travel was the highest. Many countries in Europe had by this point started lifting travel restrictions, which meant the timing for Omio’s new campaign couldn’t be any better. In fact, it was also the first time the European market was going to be properly introduced to the new Omio brand. This was also the perfect time to make new relationships with customers who hadn’t been travelling for a while.
The key question still remained: in which market should Omio launch the campaign? Our Insights team carried out market research to find out people’s travel habits in all of Omio’s key European markets, including the likes of the UK, France and Germany. We found out that Italy was the market exhibiting the highest likelihood to travel, so why not place all our eggs in that basket? Based on this research, we then developed a media strategy focused on OOH to increase Omio’s brand awareness – placing the ads at high-traffic transit points and highways in big cities where would-be travellers were likely to take note.
We found out that Italy was the market exhibiting the highest likelihood to travel, so why not place all our eggs in that basket?
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More concretely, we tasked ourselves with increasing Omio’s brand awareness by 5% in Italy, and to be the first choice for Italian travellers when planning their first trip after lockdown. Omio were also keen to target non-locals living or travelling in Italy. That wasn’t all: our aim was also to increase their six key perception attributes, ensuring it was in line with their new brand promise. The perception attributes included: great customer service, reliability, making comparing travel options easy, innovation, optimistic & fun and encouraging new and meaningful ways of seeing the world. It’s not just about awareness after all: on a more granular level, Omio wanted Italian consumers to see them in a truly positive way.
We launched the multi-channel campaign in September with an always-on approach incorporating different mediums such as social media, music streaming, search engine, online video (OTT/CVT and YouTube), and podcast. On top of this, we executed a second big brand push in November with a national TV campaign and OOH (in maxi format) in Milan and Rome.
And how did the OOH campaigns go? Well, they went viral! With the creative made in-house by Omio’s team and utilising humour that played on the rivalries between the two big cities, we managed to make a social media splash. The ads were picked up by two satirical Instagram accounts, which combined have over two million followers. One of the posts featuring the ads generated more than 150k likes and 1.7k comments. With a fun, knowing and jovial tone, the ads also perfectly encapsulated Omio’s new perception attributes
One of the posts featuring the ads generated more than 150k likes and 1.7k comments. With a fun, knowing and jovial tone, the ads also perfectly encapsulated Omio’s new perception attributes
The metrics don’t lie: Our follow up consumer surveys recorded over 140 million impressions across the campaigns, and we increased brand consideration by 2% points and general brand awareness by 7% points in Italy. There was also a spillover effect on travellers in Italy from other European countries, primarily from the UK, Germany and France, meaning Omio significantly increased its brand awareness in these markets as well. In the Android store, the app went from 66th place in April 2021 to 11th by November, with a similar uplift on iOS (53rd to 17th place). In terms of numbers, the campaign undeniably made a big impact – but what was even more impressive was that it started a conversation. Utilising the insights and media mind at DCMN, it was a story that incorporated many of our key strengths and one which truly helped the Omio brand get off the ground in one of its key markets. Ready to be moved?