Brand USA launches innovative ‘Sound Travels’ campaign

Brand USA is the nation’s destination marketing organization, working with businesses and communities across the country to attract international travelers, boost tourism and spending, and tell more of the diverse stories of one of the world’s largest nations.

‘Sound Travels’ is an integrated marketing campaign using 3D audio to promote international travel to the U.S. While tourism marketing is typically a richly visual marketplace, sound, as any film lover will know, adds layers of dimension and emotion to image-based content.

Through this insight, the E Studio team was able to integrate the latest audio technology into a campaign concept that engaged users in a completely new and immersive way — giving would-be visitors to the U.S. such a powerful experience that it drove them towards booking a trip. 

Sound Travels, the first 3D audio campaign that we’ve created for one of our partners, features a custom, interactive content hub that brings the vibrancy and diversity of the U.S. to life through immersive 3D audio experiences.

The campaign was designed around an interactive content hub that connected innovative audio-visual technologies to enable immersive 3D audio experiences that inspired potential travelers to explore, plan and book a trip to the U.S. As a part of a multi-year partnership, this campaign launched in four markets: Canada, Australia, Mexico, and the UK.

On the hub site, visitors can immerse themselves in the unique, compelling sounds of various locations and activities waiting to be experienced in the U.S., including Austin, Texas, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, and more. Visitors were then prompted to connect their headphones — no special equipment required — and select their preferred auditory experience. While the selected 3D audio clip played, an on-screen animation dissolved into a first-person point of view photo, revealing the selected experience and allowing users to also visualize themselves in the experience they were hearing.  

After listening to their selected sounds, visitors were presented with custom travel recommendations based on their personal sound and activity preferences. Visitors could also explore additional destination content on the hub, including editorial-style articles, photos, suggested itineraries, and special deals and promotions.

To support Brand USA’s objective of increased engagement and international visitation, the bespoke campaign hub also features an integrated booking widget to help potential travelers move from inspiration to exploration to booking.

The campaign resulted in 160:1 return on ad spend and on average, potential visitors spent an average of 2:30 minutes on the site within the experience.

With increased bookings to the United States from Canada, Australia, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, Sound Travels set a new bar for tourism campaigns — proving that an integrated, interactive digital campaign can also be highly personal.