YCN: Hostelworld – Campaign Targeting Students: Initial Ideas

Note: The Hostelworld typeface had not been shared by YCN when the initial ideas were first generated.

Idea 1: A dialogue about someone telling a gap year story - use of pop culture and relatable language to attract students who can relate.

Idea 2: Poster series that focuses on student spending and considers their tone of voice (talking to a friend whilst your mum's in the room). 

Idea 3: A motion graphic advertisement of the standard student 'to-do-list' versus what it could be if you take a gap year / go travelling - thus encouraging people to associate travelling/adventure/freedom with Hostelworld. The concept that you can literally make yourself more employable by just experiencing and travelling definitely seems like a key attraction point. 

Idea 4: Languages -
1. A post for social media - focusing on the global community, language variety, responses from primary research, and most importantly an all-inclusive audience.

2. A game testing your knowledge of different languages that Hostelworld operate in - responding to 'global citizen', an interactive game that can help travellers, especially students who are eager to learn, communicate in the country they are in. A simple hello opens up opportunity for an entire conversation...which could lead to anything. This seemed to be in line with the kind of thing Hostelworld want to promote. This feature could be a feature on the app that would build students as global citizens and add an element of play and fun to the app.

Social media post idea:

Peer Critique

• Simplify - you have all the information but need to consolidate 
• Write everything you have in one place to come up with a solution 
• Go back to primary research and pick out a key component / finding 

Response: 

The design went back and evaluated all the information gathered. It found the solution was in combining an component of play, with a youthful tone of voice, an element of culture, and most importantly deals. Students love discounts or prizes or deal, and 100% of students who wanted to travel more said they would be more inclined to travel with some sort of deal. That's a statistic you can't argue with or ignore. As such, the design progressed with the idea of creating a poster series for promotion, accompanied by a series of scratch cards that would direct the consumer to a rewards section of the app. 

Hence the deliverables:

- Poster series

- Scratch cards

- Rewards App section

Scratch Cards

This idea was generated from the popular scratch maps that are ever-present in student rooms. The idea of a reward for travelling, or ticking off a place / a part of ones to do list, excites people and motivates them to get out and do. The design wanted to reflect this element of play 

Front

Poster Series:

Initial compositions -
For the poster series, ideas were grouped into six categories as to cover the ideas investigated. It seemed from all the research done first hand by survey and from Hostelworld's reliable employability report, that the main ways to attract the student body would be through these ideas: 

- Money
- Education 
- Employability 
- Culture (e.g. memes) / comical 
- Sightseeing 
- For a break

Accordingly, ideas were churned out on paper, and they applied digitally to see how they progressed. 

It was evident that the poster series needed imagery, as although bold the concept of a copy ad did not go with Hostelworld's desired tone of voice. It could still maintain the messages, but adding a layer attractive imagery would definitely give a lot more context, and speak more to the student body. Travelling is attractive, so the design should utilise this in its advertisement. 

The design went on to mock up some ideas of imagery and layout, keeping with the Hostelworld's brand guidelines. 

Rewards Section of App

Initial ideas for adding a rewards section to the app - the design must consider:

1. Ways to keep a wallet / order of rewards
2. Ways to blend in / communicate with the existing app design
3. How many sections it will have 
4. Ways to get rewards that benefit Hostelworld
5. Rewards that benefit the desired audience mutually (a give and take - a good way to do this is social media sharing which allows for free advertisement)