European metasearch site Momondo's "DNA Journey" has racked up 120 million views across all channels in a month, staking a claim to be one of the most viral travel marketing initiatives so far.
Most of the views are coming via Facebook, which includes third-party sites. There are also nearly 6.5 million views on YouTube since it was uploaded on June 1, as well as people seeing the video via a dedicated microsite.
Other stats show more than seven million social engagements, defined as comments, likes, reactions and shares.
Momondo Group CEO Hugo Burge explained the thinking behind the video at the inaugural WIT Europe event in London this week.
"The group's tagline is 'Let's open our world' and, particularly at the moment [in light of Brexit] , it is important to get the message out that an open world is a better world and that travel contributes to this. The DNA project came out of the idea that we are all global citizens and our DNA proves this."
Momondo carried out DNA analysis of some seventy people from around the world to identify their ethnicity, and the second phase of the campaign, launched this week, looks at some of the participants' individual stories.
There is a competition element to the campaign, with winners getting a trip to visit the regions which feature in their DNA analysis - hence the "DNA Journey" branding. More than 130,000 people have entered the competition so far.
Momondo Group comprises the eponymous European meta and the more globally present Cheapflights brand. Cheapflights bought Copenhagen-based Momondo in 2011, changed its corporate identity from Cheapflights Media to Momondo Group in 2012 and picked up £80 million ($130 million at the time) in funding from Great Hill Partners in 2014.
Burge said that revenue split between the two brands is now running at 60% Momondo/40% Cheapflights.
In terms of the group's APAC presence, he said that Cheapflights' Asia business was generating £1m net revenues for the group, growing at 140% a year and that 42% of its traffic was coming direct. It has specific URLS for Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Momondo, he said, would concentrate on Europe, where it is the leading meta across Scandinavia.
The bigger picture for Momondo Group is positive, he said, referencing two metrics - 51% repeat visits and 40% traffic coming directly - as a culmination of its efforts around personalization and loyalty.
Event moderator Yeoh Siew Hoon asked Burge for his thoughts on facilitated booking, the industry shorthand for metas getting more involved in the actual booking.
"The independence and clarity that metas give the user is rare in travel, and facilitated booking can be confusing" he said. "Having said that, we are looking at it as a strategic priority but we need to be extremely cautious around protecting the trust that users have in our brands."
Here's the DNA Journey video.
Related reading from Tnooz:Cheapflights puts flight and hotel search into Facebook Messenger (June 2016)
Caution urged over instant booking trend on metasearch sites (May 2016)
How video influences travel decisions (Dec 2015)