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.
Goals
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Increase Omio’s brand awareness among their main target audience in Italy by 5%.
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Increase Omio’s six key perception attributes among their main target audience, ensuring it is in line with their new brand promise.
Strategy
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We took a holistic approach to the campaign, which was a collaboration between DCMN’s insights and marketing teams.
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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.
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We then ran two campaigns focusing on brand awareness in the last two quarters of 2021.
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For the first campaign we decided to place OOH ads at transit points and highways in big cities where travellers were most likely to spot them.
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The second OOH campaign was rolled out with a one-month TV campaign in Italy to assist with pushing brand awareness.
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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.
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With an uplift of 7% in brand awareness in Italy, our campaign was certifiably a big success.
Results
As part of the Global Expansion Navigator approach, our first step for the Omio campaign was to research their key markets and to find out where the likelihood to travel was the highest. Our Insights team carried out market research in all of Omio’s key European markets, including UK, France and Germany, and identified Italy as the market with the highest likelihood to travel.
To increase Omio’s brand awareness, we developed a media strategy focused on OOH with ads placed at high-traffic transit points and highways in big cities. Omio was also keen to target non-locals living or travelling in Italy, which led us to include other channels in the media mix.
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/CTV 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.
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.