The Experience the World campaign proposal by HostelWorld aims to change perceptions of hostels and increase bookings. It will run promotional activities from April to June 2018 across Europe and Asia, targeting millennials aged 18-30. Activities include an Instagram contest to win an Asia trip, a street artist creating hostel-themed art, and virtual reality pop-up stores. Winners will go to Asia with influencers who will produce social media content, including a prank video with Margot Robbie. The goal is to portray hostels positively and increase followers, bookings in Asia by 20% by end of 2018.

1. EXPERIENCE THE WOLRD
CAMPAIGN PROPOSAL

2. ABOUT HOSTELWORLD.......................................1
RECENT PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES..................2
AIMS & OBJECTIVES..........................................3
TARGET AUDIENCE.............................................4
TIMELINE.............................................................6
INFLUENCERS......................................................7
PROMOTION STRATEGY
• STEP ONE: CONTEST.............................................8
• STEP TWO: PR STUNT AND COLLABORATION.......9
• STEP THREE: YOUTUBE VIDEO SERIES...................11
• STEP FOUR: MARGOT ROBBIE PRANK...................12
PRESS..................................................................13
MEASUREMENT...................................................14
BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................15
TABLE OF CONTENT

3. 1
ABOUT HOSTELWORLD
CURRENT SITUATION
(Source: HostelWorld, 2016:19 & 33)
‘’Inspire passionate travellers to see the world, meet new
people and come back with extraordinary stories to tell. ‘’
Hostelworld.com is established in 1999 online reservations platform thriving
in the budget, youth travel market around the world. The company offers
online reservations services for 30,000 hostels and budget accommoda-
tion in 180 countries worldwide. The website includes also award-winning
travel videos, free tourist-guides, travel social network and over 9 million
guest reviews including the rating of i.a. security, location, cleanliness etc.
1.9 mln followers 28K subscribtions132K followers
In 2015 Hostelworld launched ‘Meet The Wolrd’ Campaign which target-
ed independent travelers. The following year the company decided to
focus on the expansion of brand proposition through social media chan-
nels such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Since then popularity on
those platforms grew in 2016 to 1.4 million (145%).
Recent high terrorism activity in Europe might reduce travel desire amongst
hostel travelers. However, the target market of Hostelworld (18- 34 years
old) is not as disturbed about taking the risk as other sectors.
Regardless, Hostelworld focused on expansion Asian market where in 2016
the company grew hostel supply base by 21%.

4. 2
The ‘‘Experience The World’’ campaign will be a continuation of 2 previous campaigns held in June 2015 - Meet the World
and Speak the World.
Over last 5 years, all of the HostelWorld PR campaigns were focusing on changing the negative perception of the hostels
as outdated, dirty and not safe holiday accommodation. The campaigns differed from each other by creative ideas and
approaches such as celebrity endorsement (50 Cent: In Da Hostel or Charlie Sheen campaign), smartphone app (‘’Speak
the world’’) or PR stunt (First hostel made of sand). They all were successful and helped the company to significantly in-
crease the numbers of fans and popularity.
All of the HostelWolrd campaigns were focused on quality rather than quantity. They displayed a lot of destination, topical
and inspiring content.
Considering the success of the previous campaigns, ‘‘Experience The World’’ will include celebrity endorsement and PR
stunt. The new campaign will also organize hashtag contest and social media influencers engagement.
RECENT PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES
(Source: Mossakowski & Walsh 2017)

5. 3
WHAT DO WE WANT ?
AIMS:
• Increase customer base and revenue in Asia market
• Show Asia as a safe and cheap place to travel but also
adventurous, lifetime memorable experience.
• Prevent reduction of interest in traveling because of terrorism
threats
• Displace prejudice to hostel accommodation
• Transform the perception/image of hostel as ugly and dirty
into clean and safe
• Reach out to new customers
OBJECTIVES:
• Increase the number of Instagram followers by 15% by the
end of 2018
• Increase the number of bookings in Asia market by 20% by
the end of 2018.
BUSINESS OBJECTIVE
‘Acquire new HostelWorld customers’
MARKETING OBJECTIVE
‘Increase consideration of hostels (and HostelWorld)
amongst ‘Young’ travellers’
(Source: Mossakowski & Walsh 2017)
##Experience The World
The ETW campaign aims to change the perception of
the hostels as unsafe, dirty and outdated into excit-
ing, social and safe place to stay. HostelWorld want
its target audience to associate the hostels with the
real adventure, exploring and experiencing the world.
The campaign’s promise states that if you will choose
the hostel as your accommodation you will get more
than just a holiday, you will meet new people and
have unforgettable memories

6. 4
TARGET AUDIENCE
“Hostelworld isn’t about polished brochure holidays, it’s about real travellers in real places, who crave
adventures, not souvenirs.” (Source: West, 2015)
This campaign will focus on 4 European countries - England, Ireland, France and Germany, which according to HostelWorld report, are
the most travelled nations in Europe based on booking volume alone. The target audience for this campaign will be both gender millenni-
als aged between 18-30 years old. Some of them have stayed in the hostels before, and some haven’t due to concerns about security or
privacy. Budget travelers, in comparison to ‘’average’’ tourist, desire to travel for longer and are willing to spend more money on travel.
They are university educated and set travel as the highest priority on their spending list. Young travelers are more open-minded,
spontaneous and passionate about travel. While traveling they do not want to just observe but experience the real adventure and
bring home unforgettable stories.
(Source: Medina N.C, 2017, HostelWorld, 2016:22)
Hostel travelers are segmented into 4 categories:
1. Hostellers: Travelers that stayed in the hoste at least once over last year
2. Potentials: Non-hostel travelers who indicated that they would consider staying in the
hostel in the future
3. Possibles: Non-hostel travelers divided into 3 attitude categories which indicate the
possibility of staying in the hostel:
• Price affordability
• Desire to meet new people
• Privacy as the reason for not staying in hostels
4. Unaddressables: Travelers who do not pay attention to the price but looking for more
comfortable and luxurious accommodation - will not consider hostels.
Experience The World campaign will target 3 above categories - Hostellers, Potentials, and
Possibles. The next section will explain in greater detail personas - one of each group and
country.

7. EMILY [20] LONDON, UK
Category: Potentials
JONAS [24] MUNICH, GERMANY
Category: Hostellers
MATHIEU [30] PARIS, FRANCE
Category : Possibles
A positive, hardworking and very organized per-
son who works in a marketing company. Through-
out the week he sticks to his healthy and orga-
nized lifestyle - gym, work, healthy food. On the
weekends he enjoys visiting art galleries, spend-
ing time at the cafes working or hanging out with
his friends.
From all social media platforms, he used mostly
Facebook through which he communicates with
his friends.
He loves to travel and run active lifestyle. He is a
little bit concerned about privacy and cleanliness
at the hostels. He has never visited any but he
would consider of trying one day.
Relaxed, easy going and adventurous. He is cur-
rently in the 3rd year on BA Filmmaking and works
in skateboard store. His biggest passion is surfing
and skateboarding. He loves spending time in the
nature camping with his friends.
He never parts ways with his GoPro camera and
smartphone through which he posts a lot of con-
tent on social media accounts (especially You-
Tuve) from his ‘adrenaline adventures’.
Big traveler, the fan of the hostels and socializ-
ing.
Emily is an outgoing and social girl who lives with
her parents in London suburbs. She just graduat-
ed from college and considering higher educa-
tion. In free time she enjoys going for the all kind
of gigs, trying new things and socialize with her
friends.
Her favorite social media channel is Instagram
where she can post pictures from her adventures
and concerts.
Emily visited only few countries in Europe but
her dream is more exotic destinations. She never
stayed in a hostel but a lot of her friends did and
she would consider to try it as well.
5

8. 6
TIMELINE
STEP 2
8th APRIL 2018
1. Qi Xinghua creates large 3D graffiti on big squares in
London, Berlin, Dublin, and Paris.
2. Pop-up stores with virtual reality devices Oculus Go
STEP 1
1st APRIL 2018
HostelWorld announcing #ExperienceTheWorld
contest through :
15th APRIL 2018
Hostelworld announces winners
of the contest.
1st JUNE 2018
Departure to Asia with the winners and 2 influencers
• HostelWorld website
• social media channels (Instagram, Facebook & Youtube)
• influencers (theirs social medi accounts)
STEP 3
7th JUNE 2018
Start posting series of video episodes and photos content on
social media from the winners’ trip.
* In one of the episodes Margot Robbie prank (One of the
contest winner coming into the room and Margot Robbie is one
of the hostel quests)

9. 7
The Blonde Abroad is an award-winning solo American female trav-
eler who quit her job in finance to travel the world. She worked with
the brands such as GoPro or FujiFilm. She also appeared in several
press releases such as Lonely Travel, AboutTravel, Skyscanner etc.
As she mostly famous from photography she will post campaign
content on her Instagram (also Insastories) and Facebook.
169,301 followers
479K followers
22 264 subscriptions
THE BLONDE ABROAD
Kiersten Rich
357,966 followers
204K followers
450 006 subscriptions
LOST LEBLANC
Christian LeBlanc
Canadian daily vlogger, traveler. He posts high-quality content
matching with HostelWorld social media channels. He traveled a lot
in South East Asia where most of his YouTube vlogs are from.
He is going to focus mostly on YouTube channel where the majority
of his followers are based. He has done a lot of vlogs from Thailand
which he can reference in his HosterlWorld stories.
INFLUENCERS
- 2nd Top Forbes Travel Influencers of 2017
- Best Travel Blog of the Year - TBC Asia 2016

10. 8
STEP ONE: INSTAGRAM CONTEST
The first step of the campaign will be the contest where 8 winners (2 from each country) will get a FREE 14 days
trip to Thailand to 4 different locations Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Ko Samui and Ko Pha-ngan islands with 2
travel influencers – The Blonde Abroad and Lost LeBlanc. The influencers will promote the competition on their
social media channels. Everyony can participate. The contest will be held on Instagram where the participants will
have to:
1. Post a photo or video from their most memorable summer holiday experience and explain where it was and
why it was their best experience.
2. Place the campaign hashtag (#Experience The World = ETW + the country e.g. #ETWEngland).
WHY THE CONTEST?
User-generated content on social media build awareness
about the brand, increase engagement with the audience,
increase subscribers and build community amongst the
contest participants.
WHY INSTAGRAM?
According to research 84% of millennials’ travel plans are
influenced by someone else’s social media photos.
40.1 % of Millenials choose travel location looking at its
‘Instagrammability’
(Source: Mish, 2015:2, Hosie, 2017, Lee, no date, Forbes, 2017)
WHY INFLUENCERS?
• reach and focused targeting: They connect an
audience that has common interests and effec-
tively communicate them on several platforms.
• credibility: The trust and relationship they have
built with their fans might be transferred to
HostelWorld brand.
• availability: They are easily approachable - the
audience can ask questions about the promoted
brand and engage with the content.
• Also, the fact that both of them are young, cre-
ative and driven solo travelers might have also a
positive impact on HostelWorld’s reputation.

11. 9
STEP TWO: PR STUNT
3D STREET ART BY QI XINGHUA & OCULUS GO COLLABORATION
Qi Xinghua is known artist from beating the Guinness record and creating the world’s largest 3D picture in front of the
shopping mall in China. Qi Xinghua will create several 3D street arts in London, Paris, Berlin, and Dublin which will attract
attention to HostelWorld brand (also the contest) and will be a good content to photograph and share on social media
with the campaign hashtag #ExperienceTheWorld.
Oculus Go VR Pop up store
HostelWorld at this stage of the campaign will collaborate with Oculus Go, Facebook-owned virtual reality headset which
will be launched early 2018. Oculus Go will install pop-up stores where people will be able to try newly released Oculus
Go which will take them to the virtual reality of Thailand or one of the hostels.
Oculus Go will also insert Experience The World visual experience on
their website and social media where users will be able to access it
online.
All of the reactions of bystanders and people who tried new Oculus
Go will be recorded, photographed and posted on HostelWorld and
Oculus Go VR social media.
(Source: Johnson & Nield 2018)
People who will enter the pop-up store and prove that they shared
the photo with the graffitis with hashtag #ExperienceTheWorld on
they social media will be able to try Experience The World on Oculus
Go Virtual Reality devices and get 15% discount on their next Hostel-
World booking by entering given promotional code.

12. 10
EXAMPLES OF CONTENT
by Chinese 3D Street Artist - Qi Xinghua

13. 11
STEP THREE: YOUTUBE SERIES FROM THE TRIP
Once the group of the winners arrive in Thailand, two influencers will produce a content (video, photos and
Snapchat/ Instastories) where they will show winners’ reactions of the hostels, activities, hostel conditions, ease
of communicating with the locals through HostelWorld App ‘‘Speak the World’’ launched in previous campaign
etc. They will visit 4 locations in which each of them will be held and recorded on social media in the different
atmosphere:
While posting Hostelworld content on their social media, influencers will also put 15% discount code (ETWLeBlanc
& ETWBlonde) for the next Hostelworld booking.
The video series will be posted on YouTube and shared on the other social media platforms like Facebook or Ins-
tagram of the influencers and HostelWorld account. Also, there will be live content such as Snapchat, Insastories
WHY YOUTUBE?
• visual storytelling: 59% of consumers prefer video than article or blog posts
• brand recognition: 80% of people remember the video they have watched month ago
• website traffic: 65% of people visit the company’s website after watching their video
• virality: 92% of people that have watched the video, share them with other people
CHIANG MAI
Elephant Experience
KO SAMUI & KO PHA-NGAN
ISLANDS
Nature Experience
BANGKOK
City Experience
(Source: Bowman, 2017)

14. 12
WHY MARGOT ROBBIE?
Margot Robbie (27) is an Australian actress famous from movies
such as The Wolf of Wall Street or Suicide Squad. In one of the
interviews, she said that she prefers hostels over hotels as:
‘‘They are (hostels) so much fun and you meet so
many people’’ (Evans, DailyMail, 2015).
As a world-known celebrity, she will attract a lot of attention to
the campaign and press coverage.
1.5 MILLION
13 MILLION
STEP FOUR: MARGOT ROBBIE PRANK
In one of the YouTube video series, while the winners enter the
room they will meet Margot Robbie who will pretend that she is a
guest of the hostel. This situation will be mentioned on influencers
and HostelWorld social media channels.
Source: Evans DailylMail, 2015

15. 13
PRESS
AFTER THE CONTEST:
Press release about the contest will be published on the HostelWorld’s and influencer’s social
media channels and company’s website.
AFTER THE STUNT (3D STREET ART):
Press release about the large 3D graffitis (e.g. in London) will be sent to newspapers and
online platforms such as The Guardian and Daily Mail (and equivalent in different coun-
tries). It will be also passed to free publicity such as Evening Standard or Time Out.
AFTER MARGOT ROBBIE IN THE HOSTEL PRANK VIDEO:
The material with Margot Robbie will be shown in the morning television programs and then
she will be interviewed, talking about her experience with hostels.

16. 14
EXPOSURE ENGAGEMENT INFLUENCE IMPACT ADVOCACY
PAID
- influencers
- graffiti stunt
• views on articles
about the stunt
• views on influencers
blogs on the article
about HostelWorld
• views on Oculus
Go website on ETW
page
• trying on Oculus Go
VR Experience
• time viewing on
blogs and Oculus Go
page
• positive comments
on graffiti stunt and
Oculus Go collabo-
ration
• usage of booking
discounts code given
by the influencers and
Oculus Go pop up
store
• attendance on Oculus
Go VR pop up store
and graffiti event
• influencers recom-
mendations
• positive feedback
from influencers’ fol-
lowers
OWNED
- website
- social media
channels
• website views
• social media chan-
nels views (inc. You-
tube videos etc.)
• participation in the
contest
• hashtag usage
• clicks, likes and com-
ments on the web-
site link and YouTube
videos
• YouTube subscribtions
• increased the num-
ber of hostel trave-
lers
• changed percep-
tion of hostels
• increased hostel book-
ings
• share of YouTube vid-
eos and Oculus Go
virtual reality on social
media
• friend recommenda-
tions to follow Hostel-
World
• ratings
EARNED
- mentions
- reviews
- shares
• online mentions
(press, blogs, social
media platforms)
• number of followers
• impressions
• hashtag usage
• comments on YouT-
tube videos
• comments on Insta-
gram on the contest
• positive feedback
• shares of the con-
test page and You-
Tube videos
• positive reviews on
hostels among new
customers
• press coverage
• recommendations rate
• reviews
MEASUREMENT: AMEC METRICS

17. 15
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bowman M. (2017) Video Marketing: The Future of Content Marketing, Forbes [online] Viewed on 22nd January 2018, Available from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/02/03/video-marketing-the-future-of-content-marketing/#60b8d6966b53
Evans L. (2015) No frills Robbie! Hollywood A-lister Margot shuns five star hotels for HOSTELS while on holiday because she finds them more
'fun', DailyMail [online] Viewed on 5th January 2018, Available from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2969442/Margot-Rob-
bie-shuns-five-star-hotels-HOSTELS-holiday-finds-fun.html
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forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/05/02/influencer-marketing-is-growing-faster-than-digital-ads/#5fea53c47b39
Hosie R. (2017) 'Instagrammability': Most important factor for millennials on choosing holiday destination [online] Viewed on 5th Jan-
uary 2018, Available from: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/instagrammability-holiday-factor-millenials-holiday-destination-choos-
ing-travel-social-media-photos-a7648706.html
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Files/H/Hostelworld/reports-and-presentations/hostelworld-annual-report-2016.pdf
Johnson L. & Nield D. (2018) Oculus Go release date, price, news and features Contests [online] Viewed on 20th January 2018, Available
from: http://www.techradar.com/news/oculus-go-release-date-price-news-and-features
Lee A. (no date) 6 Benefits of Running Social Media Contests [online] Viewed on 5th January 2018, Available from: https://maximizesocial-
business.com/6-benefits-of-running-social-media-contests-8288/
Mossakowski M. & Walsh N. (2017) HostelWorld Group PLC: Capital Markets Day 2016, HostelWorld [online] Viewed on 5th January 2018, Avail-
able from: http://www.hostelworldgroup.com/~/media/Files/H/Hostelworld/reports-and-presentations/hostelworld-group-plc-capi-
tal-markets-day-presentation-181017.pdf

18. 16
Mish M. (2015) TARGETING MOMENTS OF NEED IN THE NEW TRAVEL LANDSCAPE [online] Viewed on 5th January 2018, Available from:
http://content.blitzagency.com/hubfs/landingpage_content/TravelResearch2016byBLITZandAMP.pdf
Medina N.C (2017) GLOBAL TRAVEL DATA REVEALS THAT THE IRISH ARE THE MOST GLOBE-TROTTING NATION, HostelWorld [online] Viewed
on 5th January 2018, Available from: http://www.hostelworldgroup.com/~/media/Files/H/Hostelworld/press-release/GLOBAL%20
TRAVEL%20DATA%20REVEALS%20THAT%20THE%20IRISH%20ARE%20THE%20MOST%20GLOBE-TROTTING%20NATION.pdf
The Blonde Abroad (no date) Consulting Content Creation [online] Viewed on 5th January 2018, Available from: https://theblonde-
abroad.com/consulting-content-creation/
West G. (2015) Hostelworld’s first advertising campaign sets out to make a splash with millennial travelers [online] Viewed on 5th January
2018, Available from: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/06/01/hostelworlds-first-advertising-campaign-sets-out-make-splash-mil-
lennial-travellers