Departures Paid Social
After 18 months of building Departures’ organic social presence, the team turned to paid to accelerate growth. The goals were layered: scale the channel, sharpen brand awareness for a wider audience, reach prospective American Express cardmembers, and ultimately create more value for brand partners through a larger, more engaged community.
As art director and designer, I worked with our editorial and social teams to analyze six months of top-performing content, then translated those insights into a cohesive series of posts and stories built for both reach and resonance.
The campaign significantly exceeded expectations by generating 9,727 new followers (65.6% growth), 10.4M impressions (50.5% above the prior period), and 164,043 link clicks, surpassing the 23k click goal by 613%. The $0.59 CPC came in 70% below the $2.00 benchmark, and CPM held at $9.21, well within the target range.
Credits
Art Director & Designer: Morgan McMullen
Motion Designer: Cindy Ho
Social Editor: Colette Ussery
Associate Creative Director, Copy: Jackie Risser
Exceptional, By Design
This campaign overview captures the essence of what Departures set out to communicate: a world of exceptional people, places, and things, all in one place. The motion piece showcases top-performing editorial from the previous 18 months, from chef Andy Baraghani to sun-drenched resort escapes, brought together under a single brand promise. Designed to grow awareness and reach prospective American Express cardmembers, the campaign delivered 10.4M impressions and 164K link clicks, proving that when the creative is right, the numbers follow.
