Expedia.com.br had to gain awareness in Brazil but the fees to advertise on Brazilian open TV are between the most expensive in the world. With a tight budget, we had to think of an alternative solution that would speak to a target that was relevant, in our case: medium class/credit card holders. The objective was to explain Expedia's business model and make clear that the brand gives the users choice to travel wherever they want in the world and control to make the trip the way they want it.

We prepared an activation at Eldorado Mall, in Sao Paulo. We invited Fabio Puentes, a famous hypnotist, to give free hypnosis sessions at a tent we built right beside one of the mall’s main entries.

So people will be hypnotised to tell us their dream trip and we made these dream into reality through Expedia.com.br. We also had a promo with a discount for people who showed interest in knowing more about the brand.

Hundreds of people interacted with us during the activation. 90 people were interested in being hypnotized and all of them got a special promo coupon at Expedia.com.br. From that group, 15% really traveled while hypnotized. They went deep in their mind trips to Mexico, Las Vegas, Australia etc. And they all got a real trip for them plus a friend, exactly to the places they had just described. The video of this activation was then posted on YouTube where it got over 2 million views. 85% of the people who got coupons redeemed.

Travel sites in Brazil rely heavily on celebrity mass advertising and only address price. Expedia.com.br is more expensive so its target is a more reduced group of people who would be interested in other things rather than cheaper trips, specially the fact that you can build your own trip on the site as opposed to buying a pre-made package. We decided to appeal our audience with content that people would like to experience, see and share while telling them about Expedia.com.br. We hypnotised random people at a mall to get their dream trip out of their subconscious and into reality.