Between now and the end of August, Expedia is broadening the concept of travel with it’s new ambitious promotion that focuses on people’s Throwback Thursday photos. For the next five weeks the travel agency is asking Instagram and Twitter users to tag their #tbt, or #ThrowbackThursday photo with @Expedia and the hashtag #ThrowMeBack. The campaign is a clever way to piggyback off a well-worn and popular hashtag and encourage user-generated content as well.
Each week the company will pick one lucky winner and give them a travel voucher so they can return to the place where the photo was taken and recreate it.
However, if you don’t wish to reminisce on the past, Expedia will also grant the option of traveling somewhere different and making a new memory. In addition, the company has also asked the winners to send in the recreated photos with the goal at the end of the campaign of telling a photo story with all the side-by-sides.
Expedia has promoted the contest with the video posted below—”Back to Ocean Beach,” which documents one family’s journey from Washington State to their old beach spot in San Diego to recreate a photo of theirs from the ’80s.
Using popular hashtags like #TBT could be a great way for marketers to engage with a brand’s fans in a way that feels native to Instagram while tapping into the nostalgia inherent to the platform.
