Are you curious? Travel search site momondo this month launches a new series of films with the thematic strapline “Stay Curious”, urging us to face life and explore our colourful world close-up. The ad breaks with convention by showing everything through a lens, leaving half of the screen black. 

The campaign will be rolled out in almost 20 of momondo’s international markets, including the UK, and employs a variety of digital concepts, with a continued strong commitment to online videos. In the Nordic markets of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland the campaign will run on TV and in cinemas, with five different films, all shot on location in Brazil, Argentina and Morocco.

The narrative of the films revolves around curiosity as a theme, with momondo urging its audience to get out of their comfort zones and stay curious about the world.

Story seen through a lens

In the new films the central graphic element is a circle that acts as a lens: the story takes place in the circle and everything around the circle is black. This gives momondo only a third of the TV picture surface to exploit and sees the travel search site purchase 50 % ‘black’ screen – the area around the lens.

“With this new format, we have broken with convention and essentially taken a step away from the existing square screen format, and replaced it with a circle. Using a circle we have found a new way to ensure the maximum impact of our message, whilst also inspiring people to start chasing new experiences. This means we can combine brand building with our more tactical communication,” says Tore Pein Jensen, Global CMO at momondo.

Campaign to support ambitious growth plans

The travel search site is currently experiencing triple-digit growth, and aims to increase revenue tenfold by 2016. It foresees much growth in 2014 coming from the Nordic countries where the TV campaign will play a crucial role, and support its tactical digital and purely performance-based campaigns.

“We have seen tremendous growth in our European markets the last year, and the new campaign marks a decisive step towards strengthening our position as a global travel brand,” concludes Tore Pein Jensen.

The production itself was accomplished by Spoiled Productions, which assembled a crew of talent, from Motion Graphic Designer, Jakob Steen and 3D guru Sunit Parekh-Gaihede (Hydralab) and especially the young director, Daniel Kragh-Jacobsen. They, along with Danish ad agency DDB and momondo, have managed to merge live action, branding, and tactical messaging in the films.

See the first film: Stay Curious