The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Card is a popular travel credit card with premium benefits. To drive new acquisition — and stand out in a crowded market — Chase and Marriott Bonvoy needed to grow its customer base by reaching a younger, more diverse group of consumers.
Its research identified “connection” as a key motivator that inspires travel among this group — they travel to connect to the people and places that inspire them — and this insight drove their new brand platform: “The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Card can help connect you to people and places around the world.”
Chase and Marriott Bonvoy partnered with Insider Studios, Business Insider’s branded content studio, to create a custom campaign that would bring this concept to life by:
Insider Studios developed a 3-episode branded travel show, “Connected Journeys,” that follows diverse influencers on transformative travel experiences as they connect with people, places, and Marriott properties across the US and use their Boundless cards to fund their adventures along the way.
The concept for the docu-style series was rooted in Business Insider’s signature first-person storytelling style, which BI’s research shows leads to 20% higher purchase consideration for related advertising.
To ensure the stories would resonate, Insider Studios examined the affinities of the target audience to find overlap with the interests of BI readers. They narrowed down to the passion points of music, sports, and food/drink, specifically focusing on three subgenres that played a role in the mainstream culture at the time: Reggaeton, pickleball, and mixology. Finally, they combined each passion point with a relevant destination featuring a target Marriott property.
Once they’d identified the matrix of passion point and destination for each video, they had to find talent who had an authentic story of travel connection to tell through that lens.
Casting talent was the most challenging part of the process since every story needed to feel genuine, natural, and culturally relevant. Insider Studios also wanted to highlight talent with diverse backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. Selected talent also had to qualify as a cardholder, requiring an excellent credit score and passing Chase’s rigorous vetting process.
The talent featured in the videos include:
In each 5-10 minute episode, the talent stays in a local Marriott property and follows an itinerary that reflects their distinct views about what it means to connect through travel. For example, Ayden reunites with extended family members, tours San Juan neighborhoods with a local musician, and connects it all back to his music career in a studio recording session. The Boundless card supports his experience at every step.
Each episode features scenes in multiple locations (from a desert hot-air balloon ride to a pickleball match) with multiple local extras (from celebrity chefs to family members and local musicians), which required complex logistical planning to execute.
Another challenge was that the series needed to feature the hotel and card prominently, but in a way that didn’t feel overly branded. The team achieved this with tasteful card integration moments at natural points in the video and subtle beauty shots of the hotel throughout.
Business Insider distributed the videos across its vast network of social channels, including YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Users were also able to interact with the videos and stories via a glossy interactive microsite on Business Insider, where they could dive deeper into each journey.
“Connected Journeys” successfully brought The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Card’s new brand platform to life by telling authentic stories of travel as a vehicle for connection. The episodes followed real-life journeys of connection through many different angles including family, friends, history, culture, and more — all through the lens of transformative travel.
By making both the card and the hotel prominent characters in each story via natural integrations, Insider Studios clearly positioned the card as the facilitator of these experiences.
Most importantly, the series successfully harnessed the power of first-person storytelling to raise mass awareness of the Boundless card. (See complete results in confidential section.)
