Going places by making faces: Vacation glow inspires Expedia collab with Estee Lauder

What do global OTA Expedia and iconic beauty brand Estée Lauder have in common? Besides both having North American roots, the lifestyle brands share a love of travel, and they want consumers to experience the ‘vacation glow’ brought by a truly rejuvenating and refreshing holiday.

Both brands recently announced that they would jointly offer the opportunity to win the trip-of-a-lifetime, all expenses paid, to eight destinations from now until May 2018. The promotion, open only to customers in Canada and the US, ties into the cosmetics giant’s seasonal gift-with-purchase collection.

The Spring 2018 Gift-With-Purchase is a curated selection of best-selling product samples packed into a limited-edition cosmetic bag you can tote on any trip. The way to get it is to buy Estée Lauder products worth US$37.50 or more through either esteelauder.com or a special brick-and-mortar retail partner like Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, and Hudson’s Bay (Canada only).

But to actually win the getaway, you must create a makeup look inspired by it (this is why you need the purchases and samples). To qualify, either post the look as a publicly viewable Instagram selfie with the tags @esteelauder, @Expedia and #esteexexpediacontest along with each destination’s hashtag, or send the selfie through email to each destination’s email address. The full set of rules, tags and email addresses can be read on Expedia’s blog post and Estée Lauder’s microsite.

Besides Bali, the other locations include Palm Beach, Santorini, Capri, Tahiti, Morocco, the French Riviera, and Riviera Maya. These mostly coastal hot spots are said to inspire the colour palettes of Estée Lauder’s cosmetics, and some of them were, in fact, favourite places of Estée Lauder herself during her lifetime. Either way, be sure to add sunscreen to your look if you win!

“At Expedia we know that travel is such an enriching and integral part of life, which is why we strive to help people get away and see the world,” explained Gary Morrison, Expedia senior vice president and head of retail for brand.

“We’re excited about this unique opportunity to collaborate with Estée Lauder because of our shared desire to offer customers the chance to experience, and be inspired by, the beauty of travel.”

“We are thrilled to work with Expedia on this exciting initiative,” shared Lisa Sequino, Estée Lauder North America senior vice president and general manager. “As a brand, we are committed to creating meaningful experiences for our customers and this collaboration allows us to offer a unique opportunity combining beauty and travel.”

This omnichannel marketing strategy is geared towards millennial and Gen Z customers, who like to share their personal experiences on social media through selfies with their favourite places, products or brands.

Both brands are leveraging the visual focus of Instagram to drum up engagement and user-generated content on the platform while growing their individual followings.

This is the first such partnership by the prestige beauty company, which says it saw double-digit gains in Q4 2017 thanks to its flagship brand’s Advanced Night Repair products (this may explain why most of the destinations require long-haul flights).