Travel Tech Company Wants You to Get Off Your Screen and ‘Go See for Yourself'

The world does not exist. Until we experience it. That’s why KAYAK encourages you to go out and see. Because the more of the world you experience, the more your own world expands.

Launching today across EMEA, 'Go see for yourself' is the new campaign, payoff, as well as brand and communications platform for the world’s leading travel search engine, KAYAK, created in collaboration with award-winning agency &Co./ NoA.

In today’s hyper-connected society, we are exposed to a multitude of second-hand experiences that shape our understanding of the world: Do this, think that, go here, eat there. Relying on these preconceived perceptions – formed from other people’s opinions – can be self-limiting. That is the essence of KAYAK’s new platform, seeking to encourage every person to expand their world through travel. Because first-hand experiences put life into perspective, foster unexpected encounters, and spark self-development and new ideas. It moves us and the world forward.

You can watch the beauties of the world on your laptop or smartphone, but only when you explore it first-hand, can you truly experience it and expand your world. 

Christiansen, senior vice president of marketing at KAYAK, says: “The mission with the campaign is to help people experience the power of traveling. With our new platform, we will  move beyond the functional benefits of being a travel provider, and establish a distinct emotional connection with travelers. &Co. / NoA took that brief and delivered a thorough strategy and top-level creativity based on deep insights into not just traveling, but a bigger societal context. ‘Go see for yourself’ not only encapsules and extends our initial vision, but also serves as an effective CTA connecting top to lower funnel.”

International study: Are our opinions really our own? 

In creating the platform, an international study exploring the relationship between traveling, opinions, and perspectives about ourselves and our world was conducted for KAYAK.

The underlying study , based on 6,000 respondents from across the USA, Australia, Spain, Germany, France, and the UK, showed that over the last few years:

• 72% feel that it has become more difficult to know which opinions to trust.

• 75% also feel that opinions in society have become more polarized.

• 68% feel that there is an increasing discrepancy between reality and what we see on social media.

On the positive side, 72% agree that traveling gives new perspectives on life.

• And 80% believe traveling also gives new perspectives on the world.

• 73% even find that traveling makes them develop as a person.

Finally, 59% of the respondents disclosed that traveling makes them trust their own beliefs and opinions more, revealing one of the true powers of traveling.

On turning the many insights into a platform and creative direction, Senior Strategic Planner at &Co., Aylin Kanpak Gjerløff, elaborates:  

“Travel widens our horizons and empowers our journey to self-actualization; this is well proven and documented. But what we discovered in our research and the study was the notion that when we passively allow our worldview to be dictated by others, their opinions can unknowingly set boundaries for our minds, whereas first-hand experiences expand our world and self-understanding. This brought a new perspective to the value of travel, which became the key insight of the platform and campaign – the importance of remembering to ‘go see for yourself’.”

Helle Goodstein, senior creative director at KAYAK EMEA, adds: “Life’s too short to live according to others, and the world is too vast, diverse, and beautiful to be neatly encapsulated in a screen or confined by someone else’s viewpoint. The new platform encourages people to go out and experience the world first-hand. Because nothing beats first-hand experiences – and traveling allows us to have experiences that are ours and ours alone.”

The new brand platform is launching on June 20th with a full funnel campaign consisting of top, mid and low funnel layers, altogether reminding us that nothing replaces firsthand experiences of the real world.