Creativity meets science: an exploration of curiosity.

Curio Collection by Hilton is a collection of over 100 hotels worldwide, all branded with their own names. To join them all together under the Curio umbrella, we wanted to create some excitement around their new “Discover What’s Inside” platform. So we did something a little crazy: we created the first-ever market segmentation based on genetic testing. And 3+ million video views later, Curio is still being sought by the curious. 

That Time We Got Into Molecular Biology

We set out to support the Curio platform launch with an integrated activation. To do that, we got our science on, asking the question: “what makes people curious?” We learned about a previously discovered curiosity gene (DRD4-7R) and—through genetic testing—set out to see if it was found in the DNA of a group of influencers. The ethnographic studies took place at Curio Collection properties. We filmed the influencers’ travels—creating great content—and identified five different curiosity types. From there, we created a social media marketing initiative, a landing page and a quiz where people could determine their own curiosity type—and find the Curio hotel that was the best fit for them. And people were all in. Turns out curiosity is a powerful thing.

Gone Viral

• World’s first market segmentation based on genetic testing
• Outperformed the benchmarks for the other brands in the Hilton portfolio
• 160% growth in followers and a 320% increase in engagement in first 30 days on Instagram
• Over 3+ MILLION video views
• More than 100,000 people driven to the landing page
• Over 65,000 oh-so-curious quiz participants