Vacation rental company Vrbo unveiled its biggest campaign to date with a new ad featuring John Legend and real-life families who didn’t realize they’d be experiencing surprise reunions with loved ones while cameras rolled. The scenes play out as Legend performs a new version of the classic song “I Can See Clearly Now.”
Created by Crispin Porter Bogusky, Vrbo Presents: After a Long Wait” is a campaign that is all about families. There’s Hugo and Tomas getting a post-pandemic wedding redo with their families as surprise guests. We also get to see Susan and Peter meeting their 7-month-old grandchild for the first time in a Vrbo.
Legend debuted the Vrbo commercial and surprise reunions in an unprecedented 2:30 segment that aired during the season finale of The Voice.
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“Vrbo believes there’s nothing more important than being with the people you love, and we’re celebrating that it’s finally time to be reunited,” said Lish Kennedy, Vrbo vice president of global brand. “The music and stories are so powerful that we decided to debut the ad by airing behind-the-scenes footage along with this goosebump-creating commercial together on network TV in a way that’s never before been done.”
Legend joined forces again with close collaborator and Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Raphael Saadiq to produce the rendition of Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now” featured in the Vrbo ad.
CPB worked with production company Park Pictures and director Savannah Leaf, whose work weaves art and creativity with humanity, including a Grammy Award-nominated music video for Gary Clark Jr.’s “This Land.”
Latina- and Black-owned 360 Agency covered talent and music strategy, while 360PR+ provided communications strategy and PR support for the Vrbo campaign.
The videos can be viewed at Vrbo.com/together. The campaign page will be updated as Vrbo releases longer versions of the behind-the-scenes reunion stories and adds more campaign elements celebrating long-awaited family togetherness through the summer.
Sixty- and thirty-second versions of “Vrbo Presents: After a Long Wait” will air across major networks including ABC, NBC, and E!, and online in YouTube and Facebook ads.
