TV shows and social media posts spark inspiration to travel, but travelers struggle to find their perfect shoppable guide in one place. Local Lens was developed to satisfy that audience need.

The brief was to meet travelers beyond the booking moment with a new take on a traditional destination guide, and to remove barriers to travel with a tailor-made itinerary.

Our objective was to offer the Expedia audience a new destination-focused travel film series that removes complexity from trip planning, with emotive storytelling at its core. The overall goal of the film series was to spark inspiration to travel while offering a clear path to booking.

Local Lens is an episodic content series spanning film, social, email and editorial, through the lens of a true insider, with storytelling at its heart. It hits the sweet spot between a destination-focused travel film, a bookable itinerary, and talent-led entertainment.

Local Lens is Expedia’s first cross-channel content series. Each episode runs across organic social, from the hero longform film on YouTube to Instagram Reels and carousels, to editorial features on our online Expedia Magazine. The latter includes a custom bookable module, bridging the gap between inspiration and booking.

The paid-media strategy of this activation aimed at bringing credibility to our expanded role as a travel culture leader, through contextual travel discovery media placements. The resulting execution includes paid social placements across the Meta environment (including News Feed, Video Feeds, Facebook Stories, InStream, Instagram Explore, Instagram Stories, Instagram Reels and Instagram Feed placements), and programmatic and native placements on selected outlets. The piece also includes PR integrations, such as a feature on Architectural Digest (AD), resulting in an Earned Media Value of $1m.

Design and editing choices were informed by platform-specific best practice. YouTube content opted for big, bold signposting with cinematic titling and animated end credits. Whereas Instagram Reels adopted short, snappy edits with less emphasis on itinerary, driving to the hero longform.

Each episode is a three-month project, from strategy and concepting through to production, post-production and media distribution.