Vice President of Global Marketing Marcus Yong explains how Klook’s latest funding fuels AI-driven product innovation, integrated campaign metrics, and a global emotional branding push anchored by ‘The Best You’.
Is this Klook’s most ambitious project yet? Fresh off the back of a US$100 million funding round led by Vitruvian Partners and marking its 10th anniversary last year, Klook recently unveiled a sweeping global brand campaign called The Best You. Created in collaboration with The Secret Little Agency (TSLA), the campaign departs from traditional notions of travel as escapism or luxury, repositioning it instead as a deeply personal journey toward self-rediscovery.
As Marcus Yong, Vice President of Global Marketing at Klook, tells WiT, “We’ve always believed experiences offer more than just activities – they’re a way to see yourself differently. When the world feels unpredictable, people look for moments that bring them back to who they are. The Best You is our invitation to rediscover joy, connection, and personal growth through the simple power of travel and shared experiences.”
This narrative shift didn’t come out of nowhere. It was shaped by Klook’s proprietary “Travel Pulse” study, which uncovered, as Yong puts it, “a compelling shift: nearly half of Gen Z and Millennials travellers now view travel as a means for personal transformation. This insight became the cornerstone of The Best You campaign, steering us away from traditional narratives of self-improvement and towards themes of self-expression, curiosity, and rejuvenation.”
“Experiences have always been personal, but they’re also universal because at the heart of it, everyone’s chasing a feeling,” says Yong. “The Best You wasn’t about niche storytelling or targeting the few. It was about defining what experiences can mean at scale and why they matter more than ever.”
Aura, striking visuals and sparking joy
One of the most visually striking elements of the campaign is the use of dynamic aura visuals that represent the emotional states and energy shifts people experience during their travels. Complementing this are custom-made incense sticks, developed in collaboration with fragrance lab Oo La Lab, which evoke the feeling of becoming one’s best self through scent.
It’s probably no coincidence that a campaign inspired by Gen Z travel habits uses the word “aura” so prominently, with the word having experienced a renaissance in Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang. “The aura visuals symbolise the energy shifts experienced during transformative journeys, while our custom scent sticks collection evokes the sensory memories or impulses tied to travel – be it the serenity of a Japanese teahouse or the vibrancy of Bangkok’s markets,” said Yong.
Marie Kondo, the globally recognized “queen of tidying,” also plays a central role in the campaign’s content series, trading her minimalist bins for a suitcase in a personal journey of reinvention across Tokyo. Through samurai training, a robot dance party, and a kintsugi workshop, she explores new layers of identity – an approach that mirrors what Klook hopes all travelers can experience through their platform.
The campaign also introduces a digital personality quiz based on the MBTI framework. Designed to tap into self-reflection and identity exploration, the quiz assigns users one of eight travel personas and recommends curated Klook experiences aligned with their unique disposition.
Branding and budget allocations
For Klook, this is more than just a brand refresh. The recent US$100 million funding round has allowed the company to not only rethink its brand positioning but also accelerate platform innovation and global expansion.
“The funding is more than just capital, it’s a testament to our commitment to redefining travel as the experience-first travel leader in Asia,” Yong said. “We’re channeling these resources into enhancing our platform with AI and social commerce capabilities, making travel discovery more intuitive and emotionally engaging.
“The Best You campaign marks a significant milestone as our first global brand campaign. It underscores our belief that in today’s digital landscape, where platforms like TikTok influence travel decisions, emotional storytelling isn’t optional – it’s imperative. By intertwining brand narratives with performance metrics, we’re fostering deeper connections with our audience, driving both engagement and growth.”
This hybrid approach, weaving emotional resonance with measurable results, is at the core of Klook’s modern marketing strategy. Rather than choosing between performance and purpose, Klook is marrying the two. “Rather than shifting from price-led to emotion-led, we focused on integrating both, making sure brand and performance work hand in hand,” Yong said. “In today’s travel landscape, the journey from awareness to conversion isn’t linear. It’s dynamic, messy, and influenced by everything from social buzz to creator content to search behavior.”
“Klook has historically excelled in the lower funnel, but The Best You marked our most intentional push to pair emotional storytelling with measurable outcomes. We designed the campaign to resonate across formats and platforms, not just with big hero moments, but with content built for scrolls, swipes, shares, and search using a micro-moments approach.”
And the results, it seems, speak volumes.
Rethinking results and ROIs
“We’ve reached over 120 million travellers, clocked nearly 200,000 hours of campaign content watched, and saw a strong uplift in branded search, direct traffic, and organic installs,” Yong noted. “But this is just the beginning. We expect these numbers to continue rising as the campaign gains momentum – and with it, drive even stronger business outcomes tied to long-term brand equity, improved marketing efficiency, and deeper emotional connection with our audience.”
This shift also has implications for the way Klook curates its offerings. “Additionally, recognising that 48% of travellers seek thrilling adventures and 46% desire off-the-beaten-path experiences, we curated our platform to highlight experiences that align with these aspirations, ensuring our offerings resonate on a deeply personal level,” Yong says.
He adds, “Travellers today don’t start with where to stay; they start with what to do. And that behavior change gives Klook a massive opportunity to lead the category.”
Even more interesting is how Klook is rethinking the metrics behind success. Instead of just looking at clickthrough rates or bookings, the company is developing new ways to measure emotional engagement and brand equity.
“The Best You wasn’t just built for resonance, it was built for results,” said Yong. “While the campaign leans heavily into emotional storytelling, we’re tracking clear metrics that help us quantify brand equity over time. Growth in branded search, direct traffic, and organic installs are some of the leading indicators we watch closely not just for awareness, but intent.
“These signals also feed directly into our marketing engine, helping us understand how brand contributes to demand, and how we sharpen our full-funnel strategy. From audiences who engaged with the personality quiz, to those who interacted with campaign creatives or creator content, we’re using those signals to guide re-targeting, build smarter itineraries, and personalise the experience end-to-end,” Yong explains.
“Long-term brand equity isn’t built overnight, but we believe it should be measurable. For us, The Best You is more than a campaign – it’s the foundation of a smarter, more emotionally relevant marketing engine.”
