Outcomes
A multi-channel campaign that closed the gap between hostel awareness and actual interest, with significant lift in impressions, clicks, and video completion against travel industry benchmarks.
CHALLENGE
Hostelling International USA has been operating safe, low-cost accommodations across the country for more than eighty years. Awareness was not the problem. Surveys early in the engagement found 87% of the target audience already knew what hostels were. Only 9% were interested in actually booking one, citing safety concerns and limited awareness of what hostels offer.
For an organization whose business model is bookings, awareness without interest is a closed door. The campaign had to open it.
APPROACH
Awareness is not the gap. Trust is.
87% of the target audience already knew hostels existed, but only 9% wanted to book one, citing safety concerns and unclear amenity knowledge. The initial direction assumed the campaign needed to make hostels look aspirational. Survey data told us otherwise. We cut the aspiration-led messaging. We added a campaign that leads with HI USA’s eighty-year track record, showcases amenities directly (private rooms, 24/7 staff availability, communal spaces), and carries a “NOW”stalgic aesthetic with custom “cut-out” typography and real-people photography, so the trust messaging still lands as cool. TikTok and Instagram led the channel mix, paired with out-of-home and paid placements.
WHAT WE DELIVERED
A multi-channel campaign for the eighty-year-old hostel network, built for the next generation of travelers.
RESEARCH
Focus groups, surveys, and audience strategy with Gen Z and millennial travelers
Focus groups and surveys with the target audience that identified the 87/9 awareness-to-interest gap and surfaced safety and amenity knowledge as the primary barriers. Audience strategy, competitor analysis, and an SEO audit shaped the channel and message strategy that followed.
STRATEGY
A campaign positioned around trust, amenities, and HI USA’s eighty-year track record
Audience strategy across Gen Z and millennial segments and a campaign strategy that leads with the parts of hostelling the audience did not yet know: private rooms, 24/7 staff availability, communal spaces, safety as standard. Channel strategy that puts TikTok and Instagram at the front rather than the back.
CREATIVE
A “NOW”stalgic aesthetic, analog-inspired art direction, and real-people photography
Campaign design built on a “NOW”stalgic aesthetic that pairs collection and scrapbook references with a color palette designed to stand apart from typical hospitality work. Custom “cut-out” typography reflects the diversity of audiences, locations, and cities HI USA serves. Video and photography centered real travelers, not idealized travel imagery.
PRODUCTION
Multi-channel production across TikTok, Instagram, out-of-home, and paid
Production-ready assets across TikTok and Instagram (the leading channels), out-of-home placements, and paid ad spots. Video and photography production that captured real people, real hostels, and real moments. The production system lets the HI USA team extend the campaign across channels without losing the aesthetic.
BEHIND THE SCENES
We led custom video shoots in New Orleans and New York City. We cast real travelers, filmed inside HI USA hostels and the streets around them, and held the campaign’s standard from the page through the production: real people in real places, not idealized travel imagery.
