For Wyndham Hotels (Costa Rica), summer is one of the high seasons of the year, during the months of January to April, and the #1 target of the hotel are United States tourists.

However for this year the hotel reservations were projected to drop by 14%, and only in January were reduced by 12% in comparison with 2018.

So what happened to “gringos”? Why aren’t they coming to Costa Rica?

We don’t know for sure, but we discovered that during the end of January and the beginning of February, the midwest area of the US was experiencing a polar blast that caused the population of this areas to experience the coldest winter in years.

Here we found gold, a whole new target that was on a vulnerable situation and wishing to escape the freezing cold, so with that on mind we had to reach them with a strong message.

The polar blast didn’t came alone to the midwest areas of the US, it came with an awkward behavior: people began using their smartphones with their nose, because it was too cold on the streets to take of the gloves. Additional, the tip of the nose, like the fingers has the same kind of texture that allows us to use an smartphone and scroll from up to down and from left to right.

So with this on mind we created The Nose Booking Promo: booking deals on Wyndham Hotels that are clickable using the nose, instead of the fingers. We created a landing page were people can navigate with their noses, with larger spaces between buttons, and wider clicking areas so that you can actually use it with the tip of the nose.

Reservations on Wyndham Hotels Costa Rica were dropping during January, and the brand predicted a 14% fall for the complete summer season. The main affected target was the primary, north American visitors.

So, we decided to reach Americans that were having a very hard winter, those located on the midwest areas that were affected by the polar blast. We contacted them via facebook with promoted video ads of a fellow American presenting some summer deals to escape the cold and travel to bright and sunny Costa Rica. The video was linked to a landing page were people can surf using their noses and on that same page they were able to book some days on paradise.

Those who booked were registered on a database for future offers to spend the summer in Costa Rica.

The polar blast had its highest peak around February the 5th. So on February 9 we promoted facebook video posts on the coldest areas of the US, telling the story of this fellow American that was experiencing the freezing cold and then reveals that he was having some vacations in Costa Rica. This video post was linked to a website were people could surf the site with their nose. They actually could select dates, number of people and type of room on that same page. Also on that landing page they could explore about Costa Rican beaches, the hotel and rooms.

- After the first 5 days of airing the campaign, we booked 94 nose deals. Later, after the first month, we booked 184 deals of clients from the US areas that were hit by the polar blast.

Instead of dropping, occupancy in the hotel increased by 17% during the summer season compared to 2018.

The campaign was featured in travel blogs, magazines, and on Costa Rican tourism monthly newsletter.

- The idea was recognized as the best marketing idea of the Wyndham Hotels worldwide.