Natalia Uribe

MMC 3630
Project 2 – Social Media Analysis & Campaign

Organization Name: Vrbo (Vacation Rental by Owner)

Social Network: Twitter
Hyperlink to Profile: https://twitter.com/vrbo

Part One: Profile Audit:

Branding and Research:

Vrbo is an international short-term vacation rental service company with 2 million listings in
over 190 countries. Founded in 1995 and bought by Homeaway in 2006, Vrbo is one of the
leading travel accommodation services in the travel industry right now. Also known as Vacation
Rental by Owner, the rental company specializes in private vacation rentals of all shapes and
sizes and allows homeowners to list their properties for an unlimited number of nights for
specific fees.

According to their website, Vrbo’s mission statement wishes to, “Connect travelers to the people
and places they love, giving them the space they need to drop the distractions of everyday life
and simply be together.”

Their mission statement defines who they are and wish to be - a travel accommodation company
for anyone. Core values include quality time, and the importance of family over work. By
upholding the importance of “doing nothing with someone,” their core message of effortless
travel planning seems endearing and achievable.

After a brand remodeling in early 2019, VRBO became Vrbo (pronounced “ver-boh”). Brand
standards include their iconic dark blue/purple coloring for their website. The logo has changed
drastically, now featuring dark blue, green and some orange
inside the customized Dala Prisma Fat Italic Font. The font
displays “Vrbo” in stripes, something the Homeaway VP of
Design Jeff Williams said were “a pattern…in vacation and
travel,” found often in umbrellas on vacation, board shorts, and geographical striations across the
world. Williams also points out that stripes represent the different people coming together from
all over the world.

By using simple, easy-to-read language, their universal adaptability allows just about anyone to
search and use their service. Positive and wistful language allows users to feel hopeful and open
to different options within Vrbo.

The main goal of Vrbo is to provide affordable, private travel vacation rental accommodations to
travelers and their families. Appropriate engagement between Vrbo and its audiences determines
positive, affordable user experiences and reviews. With more social media engagement, Vrbo
can push out competing travel rental companies that don’t provide 100% rental property privacy
– like Airbnb.
Visual Communication:
Across all platforms, Vrbo utilizes visuals to draw people in. By posting colorful and clear
images of vacation rental listings, it subtly draws the individual in to interact with their company.

Speaking from personal experience, users seem more inclined to engage with profiles that have
clear, colorful visuals. For example, a simple yet straightforward video on a Vrbo profile entices
users to maintain attention and interest for extended periods of times. The same can be said for
Instagram posts of clear and attractive rental homes and vacation spots that will likely leave
users with FOMO (“fear of missing out”). Most social media profiles uphold the standard of
“less is more.” With 140 characters of less to engage users, it is important to maintain
entertaining and engaging visuals.

The Vrbo Twitter profile already maintains most of these visual communication standards. In
fact, most tweets promote attractive rental homes or destinations in clear visuals with minimum
text, and then the occasional video. By using this simple 140-character media plan, Vbro
communicates its message very simply, allowing RTs and other interactions to speak for
themselves. For contrast, the Vrbo Instagram profile is somewhat different. While it still
maintains the same standards and message, the layout of this profile provides a more appealing
aesthetic, something that’s trendy within Instagram social media. Vrbo utilizes specific presents
and layout to maintain their Instagram profile page attractive and in unison. It provides a clear
message and attracts a younger audience that appreciates social media aesthetics, subtly
communicating its message to these young individuals.

Audience:
The target audience is simple: travelers. Without referencing any media kits, research shows that
the primary audience is individuals ages 25-45 who value free time with friends and family. The
secondary audience is younger but have the same goals and strive to vacation.

Only 1.8% of Vrbo traffic is from social media content – 73% of from Facebook and 12.69%
from Youtube. From these stats, we can see how the target audience is older, since that’s also the
main audience of Facebook, and the secondary is the same with a younger audience for Youtube.

Social Media Posts:

Across all social media platforms, the social media posts seem pretty uniform. Vrbo posts
consistently and uniformly. Posts are posted every day and contain a landscape picture of a
vacation home in different location. Since the posts are somewhat uniform and timely, it is safe
to assume that they’re scheduled to post each day. On Twitter, it is somewhat the same. Each
tweet showcases vacation homes in various locations and a link to their website for destination
rentals. The posts attempt to “sell” the location by highlighting thee beauty and attractiveness of
each location/rental home by giving off a wistful, dreamy vibe. It campaigns itself on FOMO.
That being said, it’s a bit impersonal and somewhat too straightforward for consumer liking, in
my opinion. In other words, since each post is so uniform and expected, Vrbo falls short of their
goals. At least, in this case, it is easy to say that the language evidences only one user who writes
and manages the content.
Part Two: Promotion Plan
Campaign Name: Twelve Days of Vrbo Holiday Vacations Sweepstakes #12daysofVrbo
A holiday campaign with Vrbo to help engage users with possible vacation destinations and
rentals for the holidays.

Planning:
Goal of the Promotion/Objectives:
• Engage and build relationships with potential travelers to promote the importance of
family and holiday values and inspire them to travel with Vrbo this holiday season.
• Drive Vrbo rental numbers for the holiday travel season with a giveaway.
• Generate overall sustained Vrbo brand awareness and creating media relations and social
media engagement.
• Generate a random winner for the sweepstakes
• Bottom Line: generate 20% more engagement/revenue with social media via likes,
comments, retweets and #12daysofVrbo posts to create and uphold the brand across all
forms of social media (but especially Twitter) and via word of mouth by the end of the
campaign. In other words, while generating brand awareness, the main goal is to convert
new followers into customers via the campaign.

Overview of Campaign & Strategies:

In order to generate buzz and user engagement with Vrbo, a holiday sweepstakes like the Twelve
Days of Vrbo Holiday Vacations Sweepstakes will be the perfect solution. With a social media
poll campaign during the month of November leading up to the Twelve Days, the public will
choose the top 12 (out of 20) holiday destinations that will be featured during the Twelve Days
of Vrbo Sweepstakes.

Twelve Days will allow social media followers to submit their favorite popular holiday
destination via posts/tweets (which will count as submissions) across 12 days, beginning
December 1. Vrbo will feature one of the 12 destinations per day on social media to continue
generating buzz and sweepstakes engagement.

Winner of the sweepstakes will have 12 free days at the most popular chosen Vrbo rental
destination for the holidays. The winner will be chosen at random. Valid for one winner and
three guests plus roundtrip airfare and $2,000 spending money.

Strategies:
1. Engage Vrbo social media followers in online destination polls, distributed a few weeks
before Twelve Days of Vrbo Sweepstakes to count user engagement and narrow down
destination preference.
2. Twelve Days of Vrbo begins. Vrbo will post one of the 12 destinations per day.
3. Beginning on December 1, followers will also submit #12daysofVrbo posts for entry.
Winning destination will be announced on the last of the Twelve Days. Random
submission winner will win.
4. On the last day, Vrbo will announce destination and winner of sweepstakes.

Detailed Timeline:
 • Start Date: November 1: First mention of sweepstakes on Vrbo Twitter and across all
social media platforms
• November 3: First Poll of 20 destinations is uploaded onto Twitter (repeated every
Sunday for the first two weeks)
• November 10: First week mark: Poll uploaded once more to gain more engagement
• November 17: Second week mark: poll uploaded again, promoted throughout the week.
User engagement is viewed by RTs, likes, comments, and then poll users and website
visits.
• November 20: Third midweek benchmark: Maintain mention of campaign, promoting
brand and website visits for holiday vacation rentals outside of the sweepstakes.
• November 24: Last week before Twelve Days begins: Thanksgiving Week, promote
brand and Thanksgiving destinations and promote sweepstakes again.
• November 28: Thanksgiving: Promote poll one last time. Mark user engagement by likes,
RTs, comments and website visits. Last day for polling.
• December 1: First day of #12daysofVrbo. First popular destination is posted via picture
post or video feature. First #12daysofVrbo entry submissions.
• December 2-11: Repeat posts/video features on Twitter and across all social media.
Success measured by number of #12daysofVrbo entry submissions, likes, retweets and
comments.
• End Date: December 12: Last of the Twelve Days and the last destination post. Last day
for sweepstakes entry submissions. Sweepstakes closes at 11:59 pm EST. Success
measured by total submission count, likes, RTs, and comments overall.
• December 13: Winner and Destination announced, and winner is contacted. Overall
success is counted by total submissions, mentions online, RTs, likes, and user feedback.

Execution:
Proposed Budget – $30,000
A budget of $30,000 allows for 12 nights at a chosen Vrbo destination (valued up to
$1,000/night) and roundtrip airfare (valued up to $6,000) and $2,000 spending money plus
advertising costs and unexpected spending’s.

This is an estimate only: With the formula of total revenue – total investment/total investment =
ROI, the calculated ROI for total converted leads for generated revenue and brand awareness for
this campaign was 24%. A total revenue of 600,000 (20,000 website visits and a landing page
conversion of 30% with a 10% closing rate and a guesstimate LCV of $1,000 = $600,000) and a
total investment of around $24,000 with $4,000 in advertising costs plus the $20,000 cost of
sweepstakes (the $12,000 for accommodations, $6,000 for airfare and $2,000 for spending
money) divided by the total investment generates a ROI of 24%.

How it Works:
Vrbo values the meaning of “wherever, together,” especially during the holiday season. In the
spirit of gathering, Vrbo is holding the social media Twelve Days of Vrbo sweepstakes that will
select one lucky random individual and three guests with a free destination holiday in hopes of
boosting social media engagement, brand awareness and potential sales revenue.
The campaign will appeal to people of all target ages since the minimum age for entry is 18.
Since this is a free travel sweepstakes, it’s easy to see how it will appeal to various target
audiences, including families and friends.

Social media will be crucial in getting the word out on the campaign. Via promoted tweets and
user retweets, the initial campaign audience will grow. The campaign will also be advertised
onto Vrbo’s other social media platforms which will also help grow the initial audience.
Consumers will participate with the initial destination poll and then their entry posts with the
hashtag #12daysofVrbo. Engagement will be tracked via Vrbo.com user visits, number of poll
users and total entry numbers. After the fact, we will also calculate to see if the campaign
generated enough brand awareness to affect the overall companywide rental numbers and
revenue.

Advertising the Promotion: Sample campaign posts that will be used to promote Vrbo

#12daysofVrbo
#12daysofVrbo

Measuring Success:
The tools used to measure campaign success are
those that prove total time and potential
engagement with Vrbo. For example, metrics
that monitor website traffic will be useful for
future campaigns. It will prove that KPIs like
future vacation rentals result from metrics and
website engagement.

Specific KPIs like total rentals (after the fact)

and entry submissions and will be measured at
the end of the campaign. These indicators only
serve to prove the success of failure of the
campaign both while it happens and when it is
#12daysofVrbo over. #12daysofVrbo