Achieving Success with the Heritage Travel Campaign: How Two Global Brands United to Create a Cultural Movement

In May 2019, travel giant Airbnb and DNA testing leader 23andMe partnered for “Heritage Travel.” Timed with Airbnb’s “Family Month” for summer holiday planning, the campaign leveraged 23andMe’s genetic insights from over 10 million DNA kits and Airbnb’s 6+ million accommodations. This collaboration transformed ancestry discoveries into immersive travel experiences, including trips to ancestral homelands.

The Challenge: Coordinating a Complex Cross-Brand Initiative 

Despite both companies’ individual success, launching a joint Heritage Travel campaign presented significant coordination challenges. The collaboration required seamless product integration, synchronized content development, and alignment of technology, product, and brand marketing resources across two distinct organizations.

Both brands needed to demonstrate individual and combined campaign performance to optimize their strategies and prove bottom-line impact. The challenge extended beyond logistics—they had to establish “Heritage Travel” as a compelling consumer concept while driving engagement for both Airbnb Experiences in the cultural heritage category and 23andMe’s genetic testing services.

The Solution: Integrated Analytics for Multi-Brand Success 

Since both Airbnb and 23andMe were already using Onclusive’s platform, they naturally selected it to measure their joint campaign’s performance across multiple objectives. The integrated strategy combined consumer research-driven messaging, custom online product integration, and coordinated owned and earned media execution.

Onclusive’s comprehensive analytics enabled both brands to track the campaign’s success in developing Heritage Travel as a joint platform, increasing awareness for Airbnb’s cultural heritage experiences, making genetic testing more accessible for DNA travel inspiration, and driving meaningful website traffic and customer engagement for both companies.

“We want to empower individuals to understand and access the benefits of their genetic code, including helping customers understand their heritage through travel. Thanks to Onclusive, it has been very rewarding to see how many people are taking advantage of exploring their ancestry through travel.”

Data and Insights Lead,, 23andMe

Measurable Results That Created a Cultural Movement 

The Heritage Travel campaign delivered impressive results that validated the power of strategic brand partnerships:

Strategic Benefits

• Nearly 200 pieces of consistent media coverage indicating major trend adoption
• 10,000+ social media engagements across Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest exceeding expectations
• 2,200+ website visits with sustained traffic extending into 2020
• Nearly 3,000 measurable website actions including bookings and DNA kit orders
• Valuable insights revealing unexpected high-performing content sources

Using Onclusive’s proprietary PR Attribution™ solution, the brands discovered that local publications and niche blogs performed as well as major travel publications in driving website traffic and conversions. This insight fundamentally changed their future media outreach strategies, revealing the power of diverse content sources in reaching engaged audiences.

“At the end of the day, we wanted to inspire someone who hasn’t considered heritage travel before. With advanced analytics from Onclusive, we now know that once people are exposed to the Heritage Travel earned or owned content, they are more interested in learning about their roots with 23andMe and more likely to take a heritage trip with Airbnb.”

Data and Insights Lead, Airbnb

Ready to maximize the impact of your next collaborative campaign?

 Onclusive’s media intelligence platform helps organizations like yours:

• Track multi-brand campaign performance with unified analytics
• Identify unexpected high-performing content sources and publications
• Measure precise website actions and conversions from earned media
• Optimize cross-brand messaging strategies with real-time insights

Speak with our partnership campaign experts today to learn how we can create a customized measurement framework for your collaborative initiatives.

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Access the complete Heritage Travel campaign case study here.