Road trips can happen anywhere in the US with Americans seeming to have a lot to say about it. Meanwhile in China, it can be a very different picture. Yes, China’s car buying rates are growing rapidly and the Chinese beginning to appreciate the idea of ‘on the road’ trip. However, there’s still a lot left unclear about road trips, such as how people view a road trip as a way of traveling, especially with regards to short-term travel. In August, keeping with the theme that Brand USA is promoting globally, our GoUSA team at Mailman decided to run a road trip campaign on Chinese social media channels to get a taste of what the Chinese think about the concept of a road trip. Below is a quick look at how we made this campaign work.
Campaign Name
Share your road trip / #我的公路旅行#
Campaign goal
The goal of the campaign was to generate a large volume of user generated content about how Chinese do road trips in the US. The content could be about any topics related to road trips in the US such as what are Chinese’s favorite road trip routes? Why do they like road trips? Do you have any tips or suggestions for future travellers? Sharing of interesting stories or any life-changing moments were also welcome.
Target Audience
Users who like the idea of the road trip or have done road trips before.
Users who follow car brands, photographers, and outdoor fans.
Students and families who are currently living in the US and who have taken road trips in the US before.
Campaign Platforms
Sina Weibo: Topic Page
WeChat: A total of 2 posts in 2 weeks
Campaign Mechanism
Using the hashtag #我的公路旅行#, followers were able to share their road trip story/feelings/experience to us. Participants with impressive content were eligible to win a prize.
Followers can vote for their favorite road trip route and share their road trip story with us. Participants with outstanding content were eligible to the prize and their content was published on GoUSA public account. (评论“放入精选”功能)
Prize
American Tourister luggage
GoUSA customized toiletry bag
Weibo Campaign Result
Discussion under Topic Page
459K Reads 1,093 Discussions
Examples of UGC (User Generated Content):
WeChat Campaign Result
Voting post
4K reads, 308 votes
Campaign posts
65 participants/2.3K reads
WeChat campaign winners were announced on one post. Their original answers and comments were also included in this post.
What’s worked well in this campaign?
To begin with, UGC is nearly priceless as far as a brand in concerned, especially when incorporated with a storytelling element. Road trips proved to be an ideal topic to generate UGC. With many things that can be discussed along the way, the campaign gave us insight on how Chinese discover the beauty of tailor-made travel plans over merely visiting popular destinations.
Stunning scenes along the way and unforgettable travelling experiences are just two of the reasons to love road trips. One follower shared how she met a very friendly tour guide while the others shared pictures of wild animals they bumped into on their trip!
In addition, we also uploaded posts on how to read road signs. Informative and useful posts are always warmly welcomed by our followers.
Last but not least, the whole campaign is aligned with the new website page and Sina travelling page.
We are continuously uploading road trip blogs on both pages in hope to spark ideas for future US road trip goers. With visitors clicking on campaign banners & links while reading relevant blogs that are featured on the topic page, traffic to our main GoUSA website has enjoyed a rapid rise.
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