Overview
In spring 2025, Visit California launched its first-ever official domestic airline partnership with United Airlines, marking a major milestone in the organization’s strategic evolution. This multi-year collaboration designates United as Visit California’s official domestic airline partner, aligning two powerful travel brands to elevate the Golden State’s profile as The Ultimate Playground.
With each partner investing $250,000, the joint campaign debuted April 7 through May 31, 2025, leveraging United’s extensive route network (direct service to 17 California airports from over 200 U.S. cities) to inspire high-value travelers to explore California’s diverse experiences.
The partnership represents a new level of domestic integration for Visit California, uniting brand storytelling, media strategy, and trade alignment under one cohesive vision.
Strategy
The full-funnel campaign blended traditional and digital tactics designed to meet travelers where they are:
TV and CTV placements on ESPN, HGTV, and Food Network, plus streaming on Hulu and Peacock, amplified broad awareness.
Programmatic video, digital display, and paid social placements (Meta and Undertone) drove measurable engagement and traffic.
Targeting focused on U.S. leisure travelers with household incomes over $125K and recent domestic flight activity, along with loyal United customers.
Certain competitive markets such as Atlanta and Minneapolis were intentionally excluded for efficiency and strategic positioning.
All campaign activity directed travelers to a custom landing page on United.com, where inspirational California content seamlessly connected to flight booking — guiding consumers from consideration to conversion.
To ensure trade alignment, Visit California extended messaging and creative assets to its domestic database of more than 4,400 travel advisors, further broadening reach through the travel trade ecosystem.
Results
23.9MM impressions delivered (108% to goal) and 924K video views (123% to goal)
Achieved an exceptional 95% Video Completion Rate, exceeding benchmark by 35%
Meta produced the highest engagement (0.45% CTR), with the 0:30 Let’s Play video performing strongest among the Consideration audience (0.70% CTR)
Undertone CTV placements over-delivered impressions by 2.5MM, boosted by marquee MLB games such as Cubs vs. Reds and Yankees vs. Angels
Optimizations toward PlutoTV drove stronger viewership and incremental reach
Impact
This campaign cemented Visit California’s position as a leader in brand partnership innovation, establishing a replicable model for future airline and travel collaborations. The combination of premium content, precise targeting, and full-funnel integration resulted in measurable awareness gains and meaningful engagement among affluent, travel-ready audiences.
Beyond paid performance, the initiative also activated United’s customer base and elevated California’s visibility at the national level, setting the stage for deeper co-branded efforts across destination programming, trade initiatives, and potential international expansions.
Together, United Airlines and Visit California proved the power of partnership, transforming California’s iconic “Let’s Play” spirit into a tangible invitation for travelers to take flight.
