Amex goes social for new jet-set campaign

In an effort to reach male millennial travellers, the company is sticking to Facebook and Twitter, enlisting the help of influencers like Kevin Pillar.
Pillar

American Express Canada has enlisted the help of Toronto Blue Jays centre-fielder Kevin Pillar, TSN host Cabbie Richards and lifestyle blogger Monika Hibbs in its new digital-only campaign to target frequent travellers.

The ongoing campaign features each influencer in a short video (around one minute) discussing how they like to travel, including their personal “travel hacks” (such as Richards’ favourite way to store neckties). The videos are hosted on Amex Canada’s Facebook page, as well as on the influencers’ pages and Twitter profiles.

For the campaign, Amex paired with media agency Mindshare, creative agency Notch Video and digital and PR agency High Road Communications. The spots are being promoted entirely through advertising on Facebook and Twitter.

According to Lauren Dineen-Duarte, director of public affairs and communications for American Express Canada, the campaign focuses mainly on high-level brand awareness and aims to make Amex a preeminent brand for travel in the minds of young consumers — and capturing young audiences meant going digital.

“Traditional advertising is still a strong part of everything we do. But as we’ve done more influencer-lead campaigns over the past three to five years, we’ve seen that the influencer work skews younger,” Dineen-Duarte told MiC. She said millennials and young families have become a major growth area for Amex, and the company wanted to continue that trend with this campaign.

Pairing with popular sports figures like Pillar and Richards also helped ensure that Amex would reach male audiences.

“A lot of traditional online influencers tend to speak to a more female audience,” said Dineen-Duarte. “We wanted to make sure we were focusing on a more male demographic, that millennial demographic that is getting into frequent travelling.”

The addition of Hibbs, said Dineen-Duarte, was to attract millennial moms.

According to Amex, the videos have been viewed a total of more than one million times, with 0.65% of video views resulting in a click to Amex’s website.

The campaign kicked off with Richards’ video on June 14, and the videos will continue to be promoted until Dec. 31.