WeRoad: Grab Your Backpack

WeRoad - the millennial travel brand bringing solo travellers across the world together for once-in-a-lifetime adventures - launched its first ever international OOH campaign, encouraging travellers across Europe to mingle with strangers; no keys in the bowl required. Through tongue-in-cheek, culturally relevant copy and a mix of UGC selfies taken by IRL WeRoaders, the pan-European campaign motivates travellers to explore the world with a new crew of friends. Certainly a more sanitary way of making new connections.

Following WeRoad’s entry into two new markets in late 2022, the campaign has taken over more than 6,700 ad spaces across London, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, and Paris, as WeRoad plays on its key USP of getting solo travellers together for the experience of a lifetime.

WeRoad has developed two creative routes for the pan-European campaign based on the stage of development for each market. Markets where WeRoad is a new entry – UK and France – focus on the brand’s USP of travelling far away while meeting new people through its ‘Grab your backpack, we’ll bring new friends’ creative. In more established markets – Italy and Spain – the travel brand’s creative centres on specific adventures travellers can experience on its trips, asking ‘Have you ever done…?’.

The above-the-line activity also marks the travel experts’ first OOH advertising push in the UK, with more than 3,700 ads visible across London, making the British Capital the largest host for its debut campaign. In a complete takeover of the city, travellers across the city won’t be able to miss WeRoad’s enticing invite to trade the desk job for a new adventure.

The ‘Grab Your Backpack’ campaign features a range of creative, carefully crafted in-house by the WeRoad marketing team, developed with the intention of playing on millennial language, humour and drive to create new experiences with others

Across key London tube stations, commuters will be met with a mix of 48 and 16 sheet cross track ads, as well as 12 and 4 sheets in key station tunnels all featuring group selfies taken on WeRoad adventures by WeRoaders themselves on trips to Thailand, Nepal, Peru, Cuba, Turkey, Iceland, Jordan, Canary Islands, and Morocco.

Inviting commuters to ‘Grab your backpack, we’ll bring new friends’, these creatives are focused on bringing to life a selection of WeRoad’s trips, highlighting the brand’s USP of bringing solo travellers together in a unique, authentic way through its travellers. Who better to show you what a WeRoad trip is like than IRL WeRoaders?

Further expanding its reach across TfL services, WeRoad has also developed creatives for carriages across the Underground network. Featured in the second carriage of every Underground train is a range of funny copy-led ads using online slang – ‘DTF? Down to fly, far far away?’ – and relatable scenarios – ‘Successfully planning a trip with friends is like saying “Tonight I’m only having one”. It’s not gonna happen’ – that resonates with its key audience of millennial travellers. No dad jokes though… sorry.

Playing on the rush of peak commuter travel hours, buses across the Capital will be emblazoned with catchy, copy-led creative from the travel brand. From offering Brits ‘The rush without the hour’ and asking ‘Should I stay or should I go?’ or whether commuters have ‘Ever travelled with a group of strangers?’, the creatives play on WeRoad’s USP of bringing solo travellers from around the world together for adventures that replace the daily rush with an adrenaline rush.

The entire campaign has been developed internally by the WeRoad team, led by CMO Fabio Bin, and executed in London by UK Marketing Manager Justyna Chlopecka. Beyond developing and producing the creatives, WeRoad was also responsible for purchasing media space for its first above-the-line multi-market campaign, hand-picking key sites across London most relevant to its audience.

Fabio Bin, CMO and Co-Founder at WeRoad, said: “2022 was a strong year for WeRoad, as we expanded our services to the UK, followed by France and Germany towards the end of the year. And what better way to follow that up than an informal introduction – and reintroduction in some respects – as to who we are and what we do.

“Our debut in London is a huge milestone for the brand. With its diverse population and internationally recognisable public transport, we had to go all out and truly take over the city, getting in front of millennial travellers from all over the world.

“Being a community-driven travel brand, it was a no-brainer to use real group selfies captured by WeRoaders to highlight exactly who we are; a community of solo travellers who want to see the world while making new connections.

“Teamed up with our tongue-in-cheek copy, ‘Grab Your Backpack’ has been the perfect introduction to WeRoad during a crucial year for the business.”