Cocktails in London! Romantic adventures in Venice! A plane full of single people connecting the two!

To promote Expedia’s “Travel Yourself Interesting” campaign, and add intrigue to the idea that travel makes you a more interesting person, we tried an experiment. What if we put “being interesting” to the ultimate test by staging the world’s highest-flying speed dating getaway?

What unfolded was the Expedia “Holidate” experience: a speed dating PR adventure at 35,000 feet. We set 60 singletons from the UK, France, Germany and Ireland on a quest for new experiences and even love.

Arranging the holiday was easy for Expedia. Cocktails for 60 in a hotel bar? Check. Chartering a private “dating” jet to Venice? Check. Arranging interesting experiences there, match-made for different tastes? Expedia proved they’re more than just a booking.

To get the dating part right, we partnered with DoingSomething.co.uk, a dating service that also believes common experiences makes people more interesting to each other. Across France and Germany we partnered with Aufeminin.fr and Glamour.de to source our willing participants, with the Irish Daily Star helping to find our volunteers from Ireland.

Then, we let nature take its course.

The high-flying event turbo-powered earned media and became a media stand-out. Expedia enjoyed more than 280 pieces of high-quality coverage across six European markets. And everything was recast against a romantic backdrop of travel and discovery that broke all the staid conventions of travel PR.

Friends were made. Connections discovered. And a few Holidaters even found new love.

The Holidate experience allowed us to create many media opportunities before, during and after the actual event. To build initial buzz, media partnerships with Aufeminin.fr in France and Glamour in Germany were used to recruit the 60 participants and fueled participation in and anticipation of the event.

Once secured, the chosen 60 were welcomed aboard Flight Expedia – a specially-sourced, one-of-a-kind chartered flight from London to Venice. This became a venue to hundreds of individual high-altitude speed dates, ensuring the ‘Guinness world record’ news angle.

Media relations and social teams across the network distributed media releases, photos and footage of the activity across markets, while a Facebook page captured the individual vignettes, romances and ‘interesting’ encounters during an especially arranged weekend in the capital of romance. The story has even shown some unique staying power, as one couple is now in a long-term relationship, thanks to Expedia.

Our goal was to move Expedia beyond the travel pages, and we did.

Expedia’s “Holidate” generated over 280 pieces of coverage in top European media targets including Bild, BBC, Daily Mail, Le Monde, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Irish Daily Star, Vanity Fair and GQ. Pull-through of the key message ‘Travel Makes You Interesting’ was universal.

Initial Nielsen results show positive impact across the EMEA, with ads driving increased purchase consideration. Research revealed a significant shift in brand perception – from “stranger” to "best friends" – and PR metrics showed increased brand prominence and positive brand sentiment.

A vibrant Facebook community generated consumer engagement, helping elevate Expedia into a truly “interesting” travel brand. Expedia was recognized for setting a Guinness world record for highest-flying speed date.

And love was in the air! Three of Expedia’s Holidate couples went on to have follow-up dates, and one couple is now in a serious relationship.