Well, nothing gets our attention online like an alarming news story. So we

created over 30 fake news stories about the horrible consequences of not taking specific trips. Facebook can use your life events, interests and even friends’ life events to predict when you may have an upcoming travel opportunity. Using Facebook’s targeted advertising capabilities, we served up each film to people with similar upcoming travel opportunities.

The work ran on Facebook throughout the spring, and each ad was served to a specific demographic at a time that coincided with an upcoming travel opportunity. If your close Facebook friend just got engaged, you’d see a horror story about a guy who missed his friend’s bachelor party. New parents who recently announced a birth saw an ad about parents whose child had become a third wheel.

Most importantly, our content drove a strong incremental lift. Of the 24 million people exposed to the campaign, 1.2 million visited Priceline.com, much higher than expected, proving that our fake news helped solve some real problems.