TripAdvisor's redefined social strategy by We Are Social, won Gold in Social Travel and Tourism at The Drum Awards, leveraging deep Gen Z insights to create authentic partnerships and content, resulting in a +61.5% community management scale and +146.38% audience engagement growth.
Tripadvisor, facing a relevance challenge with the younger generation, needed to build a strong social presence to reach a Gen Z audience. Our task was to redefine their social strategy to meet their objective of strengthening their market position with the next generation of travelers, delivering stronger connections, and achieving differentiated market share growth, all while maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage.
By deeply analyzing the Gen Z audience through social listening, we uncovered relevant subcultures and interests to create an authentic new social persona for Tripadvisor. We refined the brand's voice and implemented new content strategies and partnerships to speak their language, not just speak “at” them.
Our approach led to several successful initiatives with creators, effectively turning comments into content, including partnerships with Sydney Jo, creator of the popular TikTok series, ‘The Group Chat’ with Tripadvisor at the epicenter of the series’ plot, British friend group ‘The Welsh 5’, Jalen Brown of Love Island fame, and more. These collaborations were a result of strategic community management activation, embedding Tripadvisor in the community’s narrative and enabling opportunities for partnerships rooted in genuine engagement. As a result, community management scaled +61.5% across platforms.
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In addition to high-impact partnerships, we have built Tripadvisor’s social voice through always-on content, including content series that lean into our newly established tone of voice for the brand. This approach drove awareness with a younger audience, successfully tapping into niche interests of the core “Type C” travel planners, introducing them to a brand they may not have previously considered. Overall, follower growth expanded +5.1% to 13.6M across social platforms, and audience engagement grew +146.38%, reflecting stronger connections and cultural relevance.
Before, Tripadvisor was noted as one of AdAge's "20 brands catching baby boomers' attention right now" in 2024. A year later, a 2025 AdAge round-up included Tripadvisor as one of the top 10 “Brands Getting Gen Z’s Attention Right Now”, showing how we have successfully shifted consumer perception and paved the way for the brand to authentically reach this audience in an impactful, measurable way.
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We Are Social
We are a global socially-led creative agency with unrivaled social media expertise.
With 1,300 people in 19 offices spanning four continents, we deliver a...