The Roaming Gnome

When I write the word gnome two things come to mind for the average person. Number one is lawn gnomes the outdated and slightly creepy lawn decoration that all baby boomers seem to own. Second and more importantly is this guy. For those of you who don’t watch television that is the Travelocity roaming gnome. This gnome has been a staple in Travelocity’s commercials and have garnered the travel planning website a good deal of attention in past years.

It’s no doubt that the gnome campaign is successful, but I found myself asking why a lawn gnome? Of all the mascots for the campaign why did Travelocity pick something as obscure as a lawn gnome? After some googling and a few cups of coffee I discovered the origin of the roaming. According to various sources on the internet (Wikipedia) the roaming gnome supposedly started as a prank. The first recorded instance of this prank was found in the Sydney Morning Herald in September of 1986. The story goes that someone stole a gnome from a woman’s front lawn and left behind a cheeky note about being lonely and going off to see the world. The thief of the gnome sent it around the world and had friends take photographs of it at various famous landmarks. The gnome was eventually returned and since then the practical joke has been practiced by many others.

So the gnome idea does make sense, originally the gnome campaign was based around photos and videos of the gnome in various places around the world. These photo and video campaigns were featured on television, online, and on outdoor ads. These ads were pretty good and got customers to use Travelocity to plan their vacations and trips. However the campaign really took off when Travelocity incorporated social media into the marketing mix. In the winter of 2010 Travelocity rolled out ads that urged consumers to travel and get away during the winter. They incorporated Facebook and twitter into these ads and asked people to vote on what destination the gnome should travel too. Once the voting ended the gnome would go to said destination take photos and tweet about its time there. The great part about this campaign is that it got consumers to interact with the brand, this interaction helps to build trust between the two parties. Trust is vital to any company’s success and without a company will undoubtedly falter. The Travelocity roaming gnome campaign did an excellent job of building trust between the consumer and the company, and other companies should take note of their success.