The year 2020 was the 20th anniversary of Expedia Group Media Solutions connecting advertisers with travel audiences across the globe. To mark the occasion, we started highlighting the most important part of our business: our people. In this blog series, we are spotlighting the people who power our business so you can get to know the faces behind Media Solutions – or “MeSo” as we refer to ourselves internally. Our team of digital marketing and travel industry experts spans the globe, and across partner-facing teams, product, technology, operations, analytics, strategy, and marketing.
In this post, we’re featuring Giulia Vivarelli, a Creative Partnerships production manager based in Madrid. Prior to joining MeSo, Giulia started her career in Italy and later moved to London, where she worked as a campaign manager at an advertising agency. As a member of the Creative Partnerships team, Giulia collaborates closely with MeSo’s partners to achieve their marketing goals by producing engaging campaigns and compelling media experiences.
What do you do at MeSo, and how has your role evolved over time?
I joined the Media Solutions team in 2014, as a campaign manager in the London office. In 2018, after spending a few years as a campaign manager, I joined the Creative Partnerships team. Throughout my life, I have always been passionate about creativity and innovation, and the Creative Partnerships team at MeSo perfectly combined both interests. I now work as a production manager across different types of exciting campaigns and executions, which has helped me evolve in my role, improve my skills, and grow my passion for this team.
Could you take us through a typical day in the life for you at MeSo?
Day to day, I connect and collaborate with different sellers, account managers and data experts across the globe. I work with various stakeholders on a variety of creative campaigns and provide strategic help to bring their ideas to life. I’m proud to be working with one of MeSo’s long-term partners, Destination Canada, with whom my activities include strategy, campaign production, content management, and other work that contributes to the success and growth of the partnership.
What is one of your favorite things about MeSo’s culture?
MeSo’s strength and uniqueness lie in its diverse global team. I love how our international team works together and the various ways we connect and collaborate on different projects with the same end goals in mind. We are all passionate about travel, constantly exchanging ideas and building a vision to help the team and our partners grow. Most importantly, MeSo is an amazing team of unique people that look after each other like a family.
What do you enjoy most about living and working in Spain?
Spain offers a great work-life balance and—better yet—the lifestyle, culture and food are amazing. What I love the most about Madrid is the feeling of living in a small town with the possibilities of a big city. The places are authentic and there’s a local touch that makes the city more human and a great place to live. To my peers who haven’t visited Spain before, I highly recommend working from the Madrid office at least once – the Madrid MeSo team is waiting to welcome you with open arms!
Create compelling campaigns for your destination
With travel demand on the rise, destination marketers have the opportunity to reach eager travelers.
Destination marketers can take advantage of our insights into traveler behavior to connect with travelers, create excitement about their destination, and build compelling campaigns to stand out from the competition.
How does data help inform the solutions and campaigns you create?
Data plays a pivotal role in defining the ideal strategy and solutions for each of our partners. The use of data always sets us apart in every meeting, presentation or proposal, and helps corroborate our storytelling. Data is often a precious starting point for brainstorming and ideation, and I’ve found that using it correctly helps build trust with our partners, who see us as knowledgeable consultants.
What is your favorite creative campaign you’ve worked on at MeSo and why?
It’s hard to pick one favorite campaign as they are all so different and exciting! Recently, I had the opportunity to lead the production of the Discover Iberostar campaign for Iberostar, which also represents MeSo’s first giveback campaign. This means that, as part of the campaign strategy, we matched $100,000 to educate travelers about Iberostar’s Wave of Change movement, which advocates for responsible and sustainable tourism through several action-driven initiatives, such as protecting coastlines and restoring Mesoamerican coral reefs. It’s great to reinforce our commitment to sustainable travel and make an impact through our work, and I’m eager to work on more campaigns like this, as sustainability becomes more top of mind for our partners and the broader industry.
What campaign requests are you receiving from partners these days, and how have these requests changed over the past year?
Our recent requests have dealt with helping our partners successfully reemerge and rebuild from the pandemic. Over the past year, we’ve been flexible with content to ensure that our partners’ messaging is relevant to different target audiences. Additionally, we’ve offered advice and solutions to partners on how to promote their destinations safely and provide accurate and credible information for welcoming visitors back.
What trends are you currently seeing in digital advertising/advertising campaigns?
The emergence of new video advertising methods is the most important trend I’ve noticed. Social video, motion content and channel-tailored content are becoming fundamental in ensuring ads are as impactful and relevant as possible to multiple audiences. This year,the Creative Partnerships team launched a motion content and video productions offering to further support our partners and strategize on video content. Stay tuned for more as we focus on the video platform space with different formats and solutions!
As the world starts to reopen, what destinations are on your travel wish list?
Nepal has been on my bucket list for a while now and I’d love to trek the Annapurna Circuit (or part of it, if I can). More than anything, after almost two years of lockdown, I can’t wait to make up for lost time with friends and family – wherever in the world they may be.
To learn more about Creative Partnerships, and the bespoke advertising options the team offers to a wide range of brands, download the guide.
We’ll continue to feature employees and regularly offer a glimpse inside their roles on our blog. Subscribe to our blog to get reminders in your inbox when we post new insights, research, product features, and employee spotlights.
