Momondo is a travel search engine founded on a purpose; To give courage and encourage each and one of us to stay curious and be open-minded so we can all enjoy a better, more diversified world.

The DNA Journey is a creative idea brought to life in the Spring of 2016, to envision momondo’s purpose. The campaign aimed to demonsrate how the use of creativity and a purpose driven platform can generate long-term effectiveness well beyond the means of traditional campaigns and media.

Through a documented real-life experiment with participants from all over the world, a psychiatrist and a DNA expert questioned the participants about their sense of national identity, pride, patriotism and prejudices. The participants were then DNA tested and asked to return two weeks later, wherein their DNA results were revealed. The campaign captured the very real and raw emotions of human beings who were confronted with entirely new dimensions of themselves, and thus forced to challenge their preexisiting views of the world and people around them.

With over 480 million online video views and counting, The DNA Journey communicated a message the world had been waiting to hear. To date, the film has reached more than 1 billion people around the world, sparking tremendous engagement and debates with more than 14.8 million likes, shares and comments. And with a total media budget of 750.000 USD, the campaign has generated an earned media value of +160.2M USD and thereby a total media ROI of 213. That is, for every 1 USD invested in promoting the campaign, momondo received 213 USD in return.

As a direct-led effect of the immense impact The DNA Journey has generated on a global level, the meta travel search engine, has experienced an 8% increase in global penetration and a 2% increase in global market share. Moreover, momondo was acquired by one of it’s biggest competitors, KAYAK, wherein one of the main reasonings being the acquisition was brand strength: “We’re not selling flavored water; brand is a big component of that. Momonodo has out-executed us in Europe on the brand dimension.” - Steve Hafner, KAYAK (Appendix 1).

The DNA Journey has ultimately proved, that a strong purpose can indeed drive effective growth.