Viator's 'Plan with Viator' campaign by FIG launched in the United States in July 2024, using comic consequences of unguided travel to drive tour bookings.
ARCHIVEViator Turns Travel Regret Into a Brand Platform With Plan with Viator
Viator's "Plan with Viator" campaign is a July 2024 US film campaign created by agency FIG that uses comic depictions of self-guided travel gone wrong — including travelers stranded on a cliff beside a dislodging goat — to position Viator as the essential platform for booking guided tours and experiences.
Viator is a Tripadvisor-owned travel-experiences marketplace, acquired by Tripadvisor in 2014 according to the platform's own documented history. The "Plan with Viator" campaign comprises two media assets and builds directly on the brand platform FIG first established for Viator in 2022 — that prior campaign, "Do More with Viator," was itself Viator's first national advertising campaign in nearly ten years, per records documented at figagency.com and Operatorresources Viator. The 2024 iteration sharpens the strategic lens: where the 2022 work emphasised positive memory-making, "Plan with Viator" pivots toward the sharper emotional hook of avoiding regret and mishap entirely. The campaign carries the extended title "Plan with Viator and Don't Get Left Hanging" and closes on the tagline "Regret less. Do more with Viator." In the United States market, where the platform competes for a growing share of the online tours-and-activities booking space, the campaign ran across film and social channels, accumulating 312,632 views, 2,023 likes, and 106 comments as recorded in the campaign archive. Clapboard rates the campaign 70 out of 100.
ARCHIVEViator identified an awareness gap as the central strategic problem. Laurel Greatrix, VP of Brand and Communications at Viator, stated in Muse by Clios on July 16, 2024: "So many travelers still don't know there's a single place to search, sort and book the world's experiences — and they find themselves disappointed." That observation anchors the campaign's entire strategic posture: the barrier to booking with Viator is not price or preference but simple unawareness. The creative response is to dramatise the consequences of that unawareness with enough comedic force that the brand proposition becomes self-evident.
The online tours-and-activities booking platforms market was estimated at approximately six point four billion dollars in 2024 with a projected compound annual growth rate of twelve point one percent through 2033, according to growthmarketreports.com. In the United States, that growth is shaped by intensifying competition: GetYourGuide and Klook both operate in the same guided-experience booking space, with GetYourGuide in particular pursuing aggressive brand-awareness investment in English-language markets. Against this backdrop, Viator's decision to invest in nationally distributed film — continuing a commitment FIG first established in 2022 — reflects a platform-level ambition to own the category mentally before competitors close the awareness gap. Greatrix also noted in Muse by Clios that "the real magic of travel is found in what we do in a destination," framing the experiences category as emotionally distinct from flights and hotels and deserving its own dedicated booking behaviour. That reframe is the strategic foundation on which the comic creative is built.
FIG constructed the "Plan with Viator" creative around a single repeating comic mechanism: a traveler attempts an experience without a guide, and consequences escalate to absurdist extremes. The centrepiece execution depicts tourists on a mountain-biking trip who end up clinging to a cliff face while a goat actively works to dislodge them. The scenario is deliberately unhinged — a tonal choice that separates the campaign from the aspirational visual language typical of travel advertising and locks the brand message into memory through laughter rather than beauty.
David Gianatasio, writing for Muse by Clios on July 16, 2024, described the work as "amusing" and praised its "sharp writing," "dope visuals," and "impudent attitude," with his headline — "You Need to See the Goat in This Unhinged Viator Commercial" — itself a signal of how effectively the creative generated editorial talkability. The goat is not incidental; it functions as the campaign's visual signature, an image specific enough to be memorable and absurd enough to circulate. The campaign comprises two film assets, each built on the same comic architecture of self-guided travel leading to escalating misfortune. Greatrix described the spots to Muse by Clios as work designed to reach travelers who do not yet know Viator exists as a planning solution — meaning the creative had to generate awareness before it could generate intent, a dual task that the high-contrast comedy is structurally suited to perform. Production credits for "Plan with Viator" beyond the agency attribution to FIG are not publicly documented in available campaign records.
The "Plan with Viator" campaign generated 312,632 views, 2,023 likes, and 106 comments as recorded in the campaign archive, representing a measurable level of organic engagement for a brand-awareness film in the travel and tourism category. These figures reflect platform-level traction consistent with a campaign optimised for reach and memorability rather than direct-response conversion, though the creative does carry a direct call to action directing viewers to book on Viator.
No third-party verified performance data beyond the archived social metrics — such as independently audited reach figures, brand-lift studies, or booking-attribution results — is publicly available for this campaign. What the structural evidence does confirm is that the campaign succeeded in generating press coverage from a named trade outlet: Muse by Clios published editorial coverage on July 16, 2024, with language — "unhinged," "sharp writing," "impudent attitude" — that reflects earned media value beyond paid distribution. For a campaign whose stated strategic objective, per Laurel Greatrix speaking to Muse by Clios, was to reach travelers who do not yet know Viator exists as a booking platform, editorial amplification of that kind directly serves the awareness goal. The Clapboard Score for "Plan with Viator" is 70 out of 100, reflecting a campaign that executes its comedic premise with clarity and craft but whose documented impact remains bounded by the available public metrics.
"Plan with Viator" is a July 2024 US film campaign created by agency FIG. It uses comic scenarios of self-guided travel gone wrong — including travelers stranded on a cliff beside a goat — to position Viator as the essential platform for booking guided tours and experiences. The tagline is "Regret less. Do more with Viator."
FIG created "Plan with Viator" for Viator. FIG also produced Viator's 2022 campaign, "Do More with Viator," which was Viator's first national advertising campaign in nearly ten years, according to records documented at figagency.com and operatorresources.viator.com. The 2024 campaign extends that same brand platform.
Laurel Greatrix is VP of Brand and Communications at Viator. Speaking to Muse by Clios on July 16, 2024, she stated that many travelers still do not know Viator exists as a single place to search and book experiences, identifying unawareness — not preference — as the core problem the campaign was designed to solve.
The campaign accumulated 312,632 views, 2,023 likes, and 106 comments as recorded in the campaign archive. No independently audited third-party performance data, such as brand-lift studies or booking attribution figures, is publicly available. Muse by Clios published editorial coverage praising its sharp writing and impudent attitude.
Viator is a Tripadvisor-owned travel-experiences marketplace. Tripadvisor acquired Viator in 2014, according to the platform's documented history. Viator operates as a dedicated booking platform for guided tours and experiences, competing in the online tours-and-activities booking space against platforms including GetYourGuide and Klook.
Clapboard rates "Plan with Viator" 70 out of 100. The score reflects a campaign that executes its comedic premise — self-guided travel leading to absurdist consequences — with clarity and craft, while its documented public impact remains bounded by available archived social metrics and trade press coverage from Muse by Clios.
.webp)
Creative Collaboration Platform: The Backbone of Modern Creative WorkWhat is a creative collaboration platform?Clapboard defines a creative collaboration platform as the operational core for today’s distributed creative teams. This is not a collection of digital collaboration tools stitched together; Clapboard’s system
Understanding the Creative Production MarketplaceWhat is a Creative Production Marketplace?Clapboard defines a creative production marketplace as a structured ecosystem where brands, agencies, and production talent converge to execute video, advertising, and branded content at scale. Unlike the legacy agency or freelanREAD FULL ARTICLE
The Urgent Need for a Creative Production Operating SystemWhy Traditional Creative Production Models Break DownClapboard sees the creative production landscape shifting under pressure. Content velocity is no longer a buzzword—it’s a mandate. Modern advertising demands relentless output across dozens of channels, each wREAD FULL ARTICLE
