Nabo by Travel + Leisure
"Inspire and empower the world's most curious and passionate travelers to travel more and travel better. We want to elevate their experience through content and tools to serve them across the entire journey from dreaming to planning to booking to traveling."
Brandcenter Project | 3 weeks | Product Extension & Brand Campaign | Spec
TL;DR
Problem:
Modern travelers are looking for unique experiences and luxury travel is changing.
Opportunity:
Serious travelers are utilizing local forums (ie. Reddit, blogs, and Facebook groups) to gain insider knowledge on a destination over affluent luxury publications and influencers. Travel + Leisure can utilize this crucial touch point to not only re-establish trust but reimagine travel by creating a digital community by travelers, for travelers.
Strategy:
Travel + Leisure can become your immersive roadmap to the world.
Insight:
Travelers crave a unique and sometimes an elusive kind of adventure. Travel is a transformative experience that requires you to take risks, step outside your comfort zone, and adjust your perspective. The traveler hungers for the unknown and unseen; something that defies our natural self-preservation instincts.
Solution:
Nabo, an app extension by Travel + Leisure creates a community of experiential travelers that allow people to curate the unique experiences they seek.
Nabo is your all-in-one travel guide. Nabo even means "hub" in Esperanto - Earth's most widely spoken constructed auxiliary language, created in 1887 with the hopes of becoming a true worldwide lingua franca. Nabo relies on the feedback of its users from destinations around the world to help you craft your perfect itinerary from departure to arrival and back again.
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Features include custom itineraries built from the input of your interests, budget, and time, smart navigation that alerts you to nearby hot spots, discussion forums, a voice assistant named TALIA, membership integration with partners like Hertz and Royal Caribbean, and more.
My Role:
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Researched travel trends
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Talked to travelers and seeing where opportunities could be
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Developed the strategy and insight
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Helped with ideation of campaign concept and executions
What travel is up against:
People are missing travel for these reasons:
The economy:
People aren't spending their disposable income as much on travel.
Travel Restrictions:
With borders being closed people's travel plans are being put on hold.
COVID:
Lockdown has affected so much of our lives and have forced us to put many things on hold.
Health and Restoration
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Unspoken competition to see who had the best trip
Escape from their normal lives
More than 30% of adults say going on vacation is one of the top three things they’re looking forward to.
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But more than 50% of travelers say that truly unique experiences through luxury travel are hard to come by.
Luxury Travel Market
Luxury travel is being redefined through simplicity of form, streamlined, and immersive experiences.
Pillars of Consumer Truth
Trust
Immersion
Storytelling
Human Connection
We don’t ask if we’re going. We only ask where and when.
Strategy:
Travel + Leisure can become your immersive roadmap to the world.
Insight:
Travelers crave a unique and sometimes an elusive kind of adventure. Travel is a transformative experience that requires you to take risks, step outside your comfort zone, and adjust your perspective. The traveler hungers for the unknown and unseen; something that defies our natural self-preservation instincts.
Concept:
Introducing Nabo, the app by travelers, for travelers. Nabo is not the first app to help you build a custom itinerary, search reviews of destinations, or map you to a location. It is the first app to integrate all those features and more with an international community of travelers who crave unique, meaningful adventures. With Nabo, it’s never been easier to talk travel do’s and don’ts with folks who already did.
Executions and App Build Out
"Saluton" :60
Nabo is not the first app to help you build a custom itinerary, search reviews of destinations, or map you to a location.
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But it is the first app to integrate all those features and more with an international community of travelers who crave unique, meaningful adventures. With Nabo, it’s never been easier to talk travel do’s and don’ts with folks who already did.
A paid premium version of the app will offer a subscription to the print and digital version of Travel + Leisure for 1 year, access to exclusive car rental upgrades with Hertz, and access to Nabo travel lounges around the world.
Spreading the Word via Instagram
Nabo will run ads on Instagram promoting the app and showing users how Nabo can elevate the travel experience
Paris: Hot Breakfast
Tokyo: The Best Ramen
U.S.: How to see the Grand Canyon
Nabo Airport Lounges
Nabo Lounges are exclusive subscriber-only airport lounges found in airports around the world. Inside, visitors find a wealth of seating and entertainment options, including back issues of Travel + Leisure, travel books, TVs playing everything from the Travel Channel to the Food Network to the big game, and board games for kids.
Each lounge has its own in-house restaurant and bar with rotating menus curated by local chefs to offer the cuisine of the locale. As you can see here, we have a food and cocktail menu inspired by the cuisine of the American Southeast.
Hertz X Nabo Partnership
Subscribers can upgrade their Hertz rentals with a full GPS navigation package for free, allowing them to get the most out of Nabo and their ride.
Royal Caribbean X Nabo Partnership
Thanks to Nabo, Royal Caribbean guests will get the same royal treatment on land they get at sea. Guests are automatically entitled to a month of premium access to Nabo. Two weeks prior to departure, guests receive a welcome packet from Royal Caribbean and Nabo containing a QR-activated card featuring the city of embarkation. This QR code loads an itinerary for that city into Nabo.
Guests then receive cards for each port of call on their journey. Crew members will leave them on their beds during nightly turndown service.
Strategy Team:
Cat Marsh: Strategist