Delta’s purpose is to connect the world: to bring us closer, so we may discover more of what we have in common. But the travel industry’s communication as a whole had excluded the experiences and perspectives of diverse travelers.

We joined forces to help Delta embody their commitment and develop their DEI strategy, bringing it to life through meaningful brand actions and creative communication to drive specific brand metrics.

Our research found that two in three Black Americans don’t feel properly represented in the media (NRG 2020). Two-thirds of LGBTQ+ Americans believe representation in media is “greatly lacking,” (Ipsos 2021) and 62% of consumers aged 50-plus agreed with the statement: “I wish ads had more realistic images of people my age” (American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) survey 2021).

Delta wanted to address this very obvious lack of representation, set a new precedent, and shift culture within the travel industry.

“Faces of Travel” is a long-term commitment to increase diverse representation within travel culture—from social media, to tourism ads, and everything in between.

At the heart of the program is a free visual library showing travelers of diverse races, ages, gender identities, religious beliefs, and physical abilities. The collection was shot entirely for this purpose, and made broadly available free of charge through an exclusive partnership with Adobe Stock.

The initiative was supported by two films, OOH, social media, influencer content, and partnerships with Vice, Refinery 29, Travel+Leisure, People, Food & Wine, Shape, and Southern Living.

In developing a diversity, equity and inclusion strategy for Delta, we put a lot of focus on global mobility. Our goal is to create a more welcoming world for the brand by addressing bias, increasing representation and promoting respect and global citizenship. Faces of Travel specifically addresses the need to increase accurate representation within and beyond the travel industry. The project has two main audiences... the creative class who are primarily responsible for creating the travel content we see and the general public who adventures are inspired by the content.

The world debuted on 8/30/22 at an experiential activation in the King Pleasure exhibit space alongside iconic work by famed artist Jean-Michel Basquat.

The work also ran in over 24 unique placements on Facebook / Instagram, Youtube / Youtube TV and Hulu.

The work launched on August 30th, 2022 and is still live.

The platform launched in September 2022. According to Kantar, the anthem spot performed in the top 5% of US TV ads generating an intuitive emotional response, and led to a big lift on brand metrics including “brand I love” (+9.5%) and “brand that shares my values” (+11.7%) in just two months. The campaign received coverage in Yahoo!, NBC, Essence, Travel Noire, The Root, MUSE, and AdAge.

Faces of Travel is an important step in creating a world where everyone feels welcomed. We are developing the next iteration to launch spring 2023.