Vrbo/HomeAway

I was previously the Global Associate Creative Director at Vrbo (formerly HomeAway), part of Expedia. As a leader of the company’s global internal agency, I helped a crazy-talented team produce outstanding work for integrated campaigns, videos and other concept-driven marketing. I provided direction on content and design, as well as directly managed the copywriting and content team.

Organic & Paid Video Initiative

I was part of a team responsible for developing video content strategies and creative for the brand, which until then had mostly lacked video outside of big-budget broadcast spots. I helped stand up a dedicated internal video production team, as well as plan and attend a series of shoots around the country to capture footage for use in YouTube ads and organic series, paid and owned social, and product pages.

Organic: The video creative team developed and produced organic YouTube series that brought an editorial approach to our video efforts, with the goal of building a YouTube audience via interesting, differentiated content. I led concepting for the video series and helped establish our editorial video look and feel.

Paid: The company’s YouTube strategy is to develop a variety of TrueView for Action ads in order to find multiple audiences. I helped lead the development and production of ad concepts from our internal video creative team that use footage from our shoots. I also provided creative direction to an external agency on new versions of the stock-based Stop Searching concept, which built on the massive success of the original video that ran on broadcast. The videos produced are averaging around 150% return on spend.

HomeAway Brand Anthem

The Creative Dept. produced the company’s first brand anthem, a piece used to show what we’re about to the world. I helped lead concepting and provided direction on the script and video. It was originally used in conferences and internal events, but the creative team believed in its power to drive business. So we cut it as a YouTube TrueView for Action ad (included in the videos above), where it has garnered more than 135 million impressions and over 11,000 bookings in its first four months of running.

Vrbo Rebrand

HomeAway was built by acquiring various vacation rental brands. But as the business evolved, that began to hurt both our brand-building and marketing. The company needed a champion brand in order to focus efforts, and VRBO was chosen as our best-performing option. It required rebuilding the brand from the ground up to have a fresh, differentiated look, feel and purpose. I led or co-led the creation of foundational elements of the rebrand, including the brand narrative, mission statement, purpose, tagline and voice guide — as well as the development of the brand launch creative. The launch in March 2019 drove a significant increase in branded search and direct traffic.

2020 Family Campaign

I was part of a core team responsible for developing Vrbo’s campaign for 2020, the first major work under the new brand identity and the new positioning of being a family-focused lifestyle brand. We had the internal creative team and our global agency pitch concepts. I led internal concepting and the development of testing assets, including animatics and social mockups. I’m proud to say that the two winning concepts both came from the internal team. From there I helped bring the ideas to life, working with our internal creatives and agency to script, shoot and edit 12 spots for YouTube and broadcast.  

Campaign: Only in a HomeAway

We developed HomeAway's first marketing campaign targeted at millennials, a segment that represented a huge opportunity for the business. This video-heavy concept was built around showing authentic moments that only happen when everyone stays together. The Creative Dept. produced a series of videos, including a :60 anthem and 3 trip-specific :30s, plus all other campaign assets. I provided creative direction from concept through execution, both to the internal creative team and on the video shoots. 

Media: Video, landing page, Instagram & Facebook ads, email

2019 Citrus Bowl

Vrbo got a last-minute opportunity to title sponsor the 2019 Citrus Bowl, one of college football’s big New Year’s Day games. I lead the creative development, which was fast and equally furious given we only had two weeks to develop in-game signage, ribbon board videos, program ads, swag and dozens of other assets. The sponsorship drove a huge spike in branded searches and broke company records for single-day app installs and single-day direct site visits. The traffic was so mighty that it also broke our site 6 times.

Campaign: Fest like the Best Sweepstakes

The Creative Dept. created the integrated campaign for HomeAway's 2017 Austin City Limits Fest sweepstakes. I named the sweepstakes and provided direction for copy and design. The goal was to capture 35,000 email addresses — we ended up garnering 65,000. Of course, the creative team thinks it was all due to our sweet words and snazzy design.

Media: Email, Instagram ads, lander with video, email nurture stream

Video Ad: Vacation Intervention

The team was asked to provide concepts for a video test targeting families. I concepted and wrote this spot. We had a miniscule budget and no time, so we leaned into the cheese with an homage to Sabotage. It didn't win — sometimes you just have to be okay with that. But it did beat the industry benchmark for view-through at 34% and came in second for consideration lift at 13.1% out of all videos tested. So there.

Campaign: Call Dibs on the Mountain (Ski Season 2017)

The Creative Dept. was charged with developing an integrated campaign that would drive early bookings in key locations for ski season. I wrote the campaign line and provided creative direction throughout the project. 

Media: Email, landing page, display ads, paid and organic social