Skift Take

The social campaign is a boon to all involved: Travelocity builds brand awareness, ESPN's game coverage is promoted, and the college towns receive an unexpected boost in travel marketing.

Travelocity‘s Roaming Gnome is on the road again, this time to draw attention to the cities and towns hosting college basketball games.

For the next six weeks, the Roaming Gnome will highlight the best game food, fan activities, and venues at college campuses in New York, Tennessee, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and North Carolina.

The Gnome will be posting updates on Twitter, Instagram, and Vine that highlight the uniqueness of each destination and capture the energy at each game.

Travelocity also encourages fans to get involved by tweeting travel and basketball tips to @RoamingGnome.

“Our goal is to take advantage of what the Roaming Gnome does best – inspiring people to get off their sofas and to see the world,” says a Travelocity spokesperson.

“For a campaign like this, it’s more about engagement than acquisition.”

The campaign is part of a partnership between Travelocity, ESPN, and College Game Day. The Gnome will be tweeting about what he learns about basketball and potentially encouraging other fans to visit the cities for live games.

ESPN host Rece Davis has already been seeing tweeting with the Gnome.

And the Roaming Gnome was tweeting this weekend from one of his first game at Michigan State University.

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Tags: instagram, sports, travelocity, twitter

Photo credit: The Michigan State University mascot holds the Roaming Gnome at Saturday game on January 25, 2014. Travelocity

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