OYO - Open Rooms

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, a special group of people saw their lives under an immense amount of pressure: the front-line health workers. In addition to the intense work routine, they had to deal with the fear of infecting their family members, which led some to take extreme measures such as sleeping on their garages floors, inside their cars, inside the hospitals, or seeking other ways to isolate themselves. Therefore, OYO decided to do something to change this situation: open the doors of its rooms at no cost to health professionals and offer free stays for those fighting on the front lines.

That was how the OYO Open Rooms program was born.

All costs from the stays were funded by OYO, turning it in a way to help the health workers and also to support its hotel partners owners, who saw occupancy plummet during the pandemic. The initiative generated a great level of positive sentiment about the company (which even led to the expansion of the program) and other consequences such as a large volume of spontaneous media, including exposure in a prime time program from the national TV network Rede Globo.

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Project Launch

As the budget for the project was very lean, the strategy was to launch it exclusively on Social Media Channels, reinforcing it through CRM (emails, pushes, inApp Banners), a Landing Page with additional info and PR pushes.

The initiative had tremendous repercussions and engagement on OYO's social networks, producing many positive comments and testimonials from people who benefit from the program.

The initiative was also highlighted on Fantástico, a national Prime Time TV program from Rede Globo.

Program Expansion

The way the program was originally designed, it was covering only doctors and nurses. Some people came to the OYO social channels to complain and alert that the frontline health workers group comprises many other professionals. After being aware of this, the team moved to expand the project and accept all professionals.

KAYAK Partnership

The KAYAK team offered us a partnership to run the campaign on their channels, providing free media spaces on their network to amplify the message and reach more professionals who might need a place to stay.