How Storyblocks enables Avanti Destinations to increase engagement and expand into new markets

Avanti Destinations is the leader in customized vacations worldwide, focused on curating unique travel itineraries based on travelers’ preferences and interests. Working directly with travel advisors, they offer travel services and authentic local experiences in select destinations to American markets.

Storyblocks is an integral part of Avanti Destinations’ marketing strategy, supporting content created for the many digital channels that have helped increase their online presence, engagement, and viewership. Using Storyblocks, they’re able to create three to four videos a week to efficiently support advertising for their destinations that are in demand year-round.

How Storyblocks helps Avanti Destinations

Fresh and engaging content

Ryan Middleton, Director of Marketing at Avanti Destinations, leads the team of 10 responsible for delivering specialized campaigns to advisors, destination management companies, suppliers, and partners. These digital campaigns span various media, including email, digital brochures, video, social platforms, and their website/travel agent portal.

“We craft everything, from email marketing and video content to social media, microsites and more. Our team is an in-house creative suite, with all members working on five to ten different projects on any given day,” Middleton says.

Storyblocks has been good for us, and we can definitely see the engagement of all those channels continuing to grow. The quality of Storyblocks’ content has improved our marketing, for sure.

Ryan Middleton

Director of Marketing, Avanti Destinations

The travel agent portal is particularly crucial, since it’s where travel agents access content to sell vacation packages to their clients. Storyblocks plays a vital role in keeping this content fresh
and engaging. The quality and variety of content from Storyblocks have allowed Avanti Destinations to increase engagement and viewership across their website along 
with their digital channels.

“We ensure that our branding is consistent with beautiful, rich, and engaging images and video content. Storyblocks has such a vast library of footage that allows us to promote our content effectively. We never struggle to find content that we need.” – Ryan Middleton

Maintain video consistency without sacrificing quality

Avanti Destinations’ primary focus for video content has been creating destination videos that highlight the locations they promote to travel agents. The company sends team members on familiarization trips around the world to capture footage, with Middleton himself having visited at least 25 different countries in the last nine years.

“We’ll take our cameras, go out, and try to capture as much video footage as we can. Then, we incorporate that footage with Storyblocks at the same time, which helps us make sure we can tell a story from start to finish.” – Ryan Middleton

Storyblocks has a crucial role in supplementing this original footage with high-quality, destination-based b-roll to complete the story. This approach allows Avanti Destinations to consistently create videos that meet the high standards that audiences today expect without having to sacrifice quality. This commitment to quality and originality sets Avanti Destinations apart in the travel industry. As Middleton notes: “There’s no other company out there in the travel industry that creates organic content like we do – everything we do is from scratch.”

Work more efficiently to meet growing demand

Avanti Destinations works year-round 
to deliver content that advertises and expands their travel offerings, including recent expansions into the South Pacific. Storyblocks’ user-friendly platform and video editing tools have been instrumental in empowering more people on their team to create video, including the Premiere Pro Plugin and Maker.

“Another thing we love about Storyblocks is the enhanced tools. Using Premiere Pro for editing and having the Storyblocks plugin has really helped our day-to-day work, 
and made it as easy as possible.” – Ryan Middleton

As more team members get involved with creating video at Avanti, these tools will serve a crucial role in the team’s ability to continue producing content at scale.

Conclusion

Storyblocks has enabled Avanti Destinations’ marketing team to keep their content fresh and engaging, create videos consistently without sacrificing quality, and maximize efficiency in the face of growing demand. As they continue to expand into new markets and enhance their digital presence, Middleton sees Storyblocks as an essential part of their content strategy.