When Students Help Expedia Pass it Along

Marketing professionals surprise us every day with new creative approaches to help us hear about their client’s product(s). However, pros don’t have the monopoly on creativity and it’s always refreshing to see a new wave of advertisers come up with solutions that can truly solve customers’ problems. We have seen some crowdsourcing efforts in the world of advertising before (e.g. Doritos and Superbowl ads), but the example presented today is coming from a group of students at the Miami Ad School in San Francisco.

Without further due, here is the creative and the fictional app they came up with:

First of all, we want to acknowledge the professionalism and the realism of the spot. It was so realistic that it made us look for the app on the App Store, only to realize 10-15 minutes later that it was a school project…

The realism of the video was also enhanced by the fact that the students are addressing an important need for travellers: the need to save money. In a connected and tech-savvy 2014 world, it just makes so much sense to share these unused transportation tickets rather than throw them away.

The other positive side of this whole experience, is that it can be highly beneficial for the Expedia brand. The brand gets huge exposure, from the process of using the Pass It app to the usage of the resulting Expedia credit. The only possible result if the app becomes successful would be even more traffic and purchases on the regular Expedia website to trade in these credits.

However, the most brilliant part in our opinion is the “nice guy/gal” perception that will be associated with the brand. Who could not love a company that helps you easily get rid of an unused item AND gives you money for it? Expedia looks great in this transaction and that can only help reinforce the positive associations to the brand, as well as revenues for the vacation selling website.

Hopefully, the Product Development team at Expedia will hear of the project and will consider putting it to their agenda. The world is filled with smart people and the rise of social platforms to share great ideas like Pass It can help customers and companies live in a better world.

We want to hear from you other great examples of crowdsourcing or amateur projects in the world of advertising and new products. What is your favourite one? Should there be more place for this kind of community involvement in the world of marketing?