American Express came to Paramount looking to increase consideration for the Delta SkyMiles American Express portfolio of cards with travel-savvy, Millennial prospects.
With the goal of reaching confident travelers across all platforms, the campaign would need to speak to prospective American Express Card Members in an authentic way, proving an understanding and respect for their travel know-how. The program couldn’t rely on an intrusive 30 second ad that’s easily tuned out, but rather leverage highly watchable short-form custom content.
With the Delta SkyMiles American Express campaign messaging and strategic goals in mind, More than a Destination: Yellowstone Travel Stories was born. Three components were critical to the success of the campaign:
Tapping Into a Cultural Moment: To bring the Delta SkyMiles American Express Card to the forefront, the program was anchored in cable’s #1 most watched series of 2022, Yellowstone, with content rolling out leading up to and throughout its highly anticipated 5th season. With an avid cult following that made it the #1 most social cable series across all TV, the series specifically resonated with Millennial audiences and was perfect to bring the cobrand messaging to its key audience.
Connecting to the Overarching Delta SkyMiles American Express Campaign Messaging: The campaign was inspired by the creative campaign “If You Travel, You Know”, which featured different travel personas, each representing a unique type of travel savviness. From ‘Travel Foodies’ to ‘Wing-It Weekenders,’ each talent featured in the content series aligned with a campaign persona and travel archetype.
Extending to Platforms Millennials Know and Love: Content was strategically deployed and amplified via efficient and effective distribution, focusing on platform-intentional content released across the platforms where Millennials are most engaged, including TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
The More than a Destination: Yellowstone Travel Stories program was a three-episode series that explored each talent’s travel styles, allowing fans of the show and prospective American Express Card Members to experience travel through the lens of their favorite actors. Tapping Yellowstone stars Jen Landon, Denim Richards and Luke Grimes, each episode featured the actors sharing how and why they travel – with a nod to how both their time on the show and the characters they play influence their travel preferences in real life.
By taking the stars off the set of Yellowstone and into three key Delta city hubs (Portland, Salt Lake City and Nashville), each creative tied to a unique campaign persona, authentic to the featured talent, and mirrored an archetype highlighted in the “If You Travel, You Know” campaign.
Capitalizing on the excitement around the upcoming season of Yellowstone, the content was released as lead-up, with the final creative launching just two days before the premiere episode, when anticipation was at a fever pitch. To sustain momentum, the content continued running as the Yellowstone season premiered weekly, leveraging multiple linear networks and the entire Paramount Global digital ecosystem to reach fans everywhere they consume content, from Connected TV, to social media and beyond.
Complimenting the hero content series were socially native TikTok videos and Instagram Stories, which were rolled out on social alongside the full episodes, with targeted lengths and formats optimized for each platform.
The More Than a Destination: Yellowstone Travel Stories partnership exceeded expectations across the board, proving that the content series successfully drove consideration and relevance with millennials. Key highlights include:
Massive Social Reach:
The full social campaign garnered a total of 11.4M impressions, with organic reach leading to an impressive 90% over delivery, proving the success of our strategic content rollout and authentic storytelling. Video View Rates across Instagram and TikTok exceeded Paramount benchmarks by double digits, demonstrating the power of tapping into social platforms and native content relevant to Millennial audiences.
Effective Digital Distribution:
Video VCR across Paramount Global, Paramount+ and Pluto distribution is approaching ~99%, indicating interest among key audiences and successful contextual placement within relevant Yellowstone and Paramount programming.
