Case Study

Product Launch:
Wanderu in Europe

Company: Wanderu

Disciplines:

The Project

In 2017, bus and train travel booking platform Wanderu set its sights on Europe, embarking on an ambitious expansion beyond North America.

By integrating the inventories of bus and train operators across the continent, Wanderu debuted in 20+ countries, including travel hotspots like the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

With no budget for paid marketing, we were forced to lean entirely on the power of public relations and SEO to get the word out and make an impression on a whole new audience.

The Challenge

With no marketing budget for paid advertising or promotions to support Wanderu’s launch across Europe, I had to rely entirely on the power of earned media and organic coverage to build awareness and drive growth.

This meant navigating the complex and varied media landscapes of over 20 countries – each with its own unique audience, culture, and communication style – all while working with extremely limited in-house resources.

The sheer scale and complexity of the task felt daunting, bordering on impossible, but it was a challenge I embraced head-on.

The Goals

The Strategy

With no budget for paid promotion, partnering with local marketing and PR firms in our launch countries was off the table. This constraint demanded an exceptionally strategic approach to leverage every available resource – however limited – to break into major markets where Wanderu had no prior presence.

After a thorough evaluation of what was feasible and impactful within these constraints, I developed and focused on three key strategic approaches:

Position Wanderu as a game-changing platform for European travelers, offering a seamless way to find, compare, and book bus and train travel options all in one place.
Leverage Wanderu’s loyal North American user base to drive bookings in Europe, encouraging them to rely on Wanderu when planning their trips abroad.
Expand Wanderu’s SEO footprint and original content portfolio to highlight and promote the newly available travel options across Europe.

The Tactics

All strategic approaches were designed to harness the power of PR, content marketing, data-driven storytelling, SEO, and email marketing to achieve our goals effectively.

Direct media outreach announcing Wanderu’s launch in Europe

In Europe: Capitalize on the launch’s newsworthiness and the practical appeal of the Wanderu platform to secure media coverage in four high-priority European markets – the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. These key countries were chosen for their robust and diverse variety of bus and train carrier partners.
In North America: Tap into Wanderu’s established relationships with journalists and opinion leaders at major national news and lifestyle outlets to highlight the expansion, emphasizing that travelers could now use Wanderu to book bus and train travel across Europe.

Data-driven content marketing

Develop and publish a series of European-focused studies and travel itineraries showcasing how effortlessly and affordably travelers can explore Europe using buses and trains.
Craft tailored pitches featuring itineraries and study findings for carefully selected media outlets and journalists in high-priority European markets and the United States.
Embed links to SEO-optimized guides (see below) for each destination featured in the studies and itineraries, ensuring effective distribution of inbound link equity across high-impact, lead-generating landing pages.

SEO optimization

Launch comprehensive bus and train travel guides for every new European route and destination added to Wanderu’s platform as part of the expansion.
Create specialized, high-quality content for select destination guides to maximize their potential for achieving top search engine rankings.
Generate a consistent flow of inbound do-follow links through strategic earned media coverage and editorial blog content, strengthening each guide’s backlink profile and enhancing Wanderu’s overall domain authority.

The Results

Secured over 200 features in prominent news and lifestyle outlets across Europe and the United States within a nine-month period.
Successfully secured top 5 Google search rankings for key route and destination guides for their respective keywords, significantly increasing visibility and driving targeted traffic.
Successfully introduced Wanderu to European travelers, establishing it as a leading platform for booking bus and train travel and positioning it as a trusted resource in the market.