Power
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Context
OVERVIEW
During Chinese New Year—Hainan’s biggest travel peak—the battle for beauty shoppers is won long before anyone leaves home. Travelers finalize their duty-free shopping lists weeks in advance, locking in purchase decisions prior to arrival. At the same time, traditional mass-media channels are oversaturated with competitor noise, making breakthrough difficult. Estée Lauder partnered with Helios to intercept travelers at the exact moment itineraries were being planned, driving qualified foot traffic to duty-free locations.
THE STRATEGY & FUNNEL
We delivered the industry’s first OTA AI collaboration by embedding Estée Lauder directly into Qunar’s AI trip-planning assistant. The activation engaged travelers through two key mechanics:
- Contextual Pre-Trip AI Integration: Surfaced targeted recommendations seamlessly within the AI assistant as users actively planned Sanya itineraries.
- High-Intent Value Exchange: Delivered instant digital coupons framed as "Travel Rewards," creating a direct incentive for travelers to visit cdf's physical Sanya duty-free stores and converting online engagement into in-store sales.
CREATIVE & EXECUTION
The campaign aesthetic blended traditional Chinese New Year motifs with high-luxury product presentation, showcasing iconic hero products like the Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Multi-Recovery Complex and festive limited-edition gift packaging. By aligning bespoke art direction with cutting-edge AI utility, the creative captured consumer attention across both digital itinerary touchpoints and physical retail destinations.
Solution
We created an industry-first OTA AI collaboration with Qunar, embedding Estée Lauder directly into the trip-planning journey and turning itinerary-building into a conversion opportunity.
- AI as a Travel Retail Entry Point: Integrated the brand into Qunar’s AI trip-planning assistant, allowing Estée Lauder to appear contextually while travelers were organizing Sanya itineraries during the pre-trip phase.
- Intent Interception at Planning Stage: Rather than waiting for store traffic, we inserted the brand upstream, at the exact moment consumers were making decisions about where to go, what to do, and what to prioritize.
- Contextual Presence, Not Interruptive Media: Positioned the brand as part of the travel experience itself, making Estée Lauder feel less like an ad and more like a useful, relevant layer within the itinerary.
- Value Exchange Mechanism: Introduced instant coupons framed as “Travel Rewards,” creating a direct incentive to visit CDF’s Sanya duty-free locations and connecting AI discovery to physical retail action.
- From Impression to Destination: Reframed the duty-free store as a planned stop within the traveler’s journey, not a passive retail endpoint.
Results
KEY RESULTS
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