how does your heritage shape your perception of who you are– of how you behave, of what you like, and of who you do or don’t like? how many of us, as americans, still refer to ourselves as being culturally ‘from’ another region of the world, regardless of whether we’ve ever even been there?
travel booking website momondo has tapped into this very sentiment, and embarked on a pretty powerful campaign to “open our world” by using travel to break down our perceptions of heritage, and to reveal the hidden ties that bind us all. to do so, they put out an open call to applicants to enter a competition to have their dna saliva-tested to reveal their geographic heritage. from those results, momondo has promised a truly unique travel experience for a few of those lucky participants: a trip around the world to every region listed in their dna results. how cool/crazy/mindblowing would that be?!
we love this campaign from momondo because it takes a semi-lofty goal of world travel, and it brings it home in an extremely personal way. travel to find out who you really are, and where you’re really from.
what really stands out about this campaign is the way it uses good content to attract people in a really monumental way. needless to say, this video went viral– this is a hired cast of former actors, but their dna was tested earnestly and revealed to each participant as his or herself. the revelations, as you can see, were pretty magnanimous. as one participant states, “there would be no such thing as extremism if people knew their heritage.” yes, this campaign will likely lead to a spike in booking revenue for momondo, but the larger ripple effects of creating meaningful content with real human value are, we’d say, way more important. it shows us that you don’t have to sacrifice mission for sales; that people can and will respond, en masse, to content that highlights our capacity for social good. and we’re here for that.