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VEG TRAVELS: A COMMUNITY-DRIVEN TRAVEL BRAND
Formerly Viajes en Grupo
Growth Marketing & Brand Strategy
From a traditional travel agency to a community-driven digital brand.
Reached 8.5M+ accounts in 2022, grew Instagram by 5,000% year-over-year, and increased the community by 40% year-over-year. Following the pandemic, emotionally led reactivation campaigns generated 60%+ more new customers than pre-pandemic performance.
By combining brand positioning, content, paid acquisition, customer journey strategy, and marketing automation, Viajes en Grupo evolved from selling group trips to building a digital community around the idea that travel is where meaningful friendships begin.
CONTEXT
VEG Travels (also known as Viajes en Grupo) is a Peruvian travel agency specializing in curated group trips for adults 40+.
The product was never simply the destination. Its strongest differentiator was the community built around each trip, people traveling together, forming friendships, and often returning for their next adventure with the same group.
When I joined, the business had strong operational foundations and an established offline reputation, but its digital presence lacked structure, consistency, and a clearly differentiated brand position.
The opportunity was to translate the trust that existed offline into a scalable digital experience, and make community, rather than the destination itself, the heart of the brand.
MY ROLE
I led the development and evolution of the brand's digital marketing and growth strategy, spanning brand positioning, content, paid media, customer journey, lead generation, marketing automation, and digital communications.
As the business grew, my role evolved from hands-on creative execution into a more strategic position, including growth planning, performance optimization, customer journey development, marketing systems, and training and mentoring a Social Media Manager.
WHAT I DID
Translated the brand vision into digital: Turned the founder's community-first positioning into a consistent digital presence through messaging, content strategy, social, and campaign creative.
Redesigned the digital experience and customer journey: Restructured the website and lead journey to make trip information clearer and create a more seamless path from discovery to inquiry and booking. Developed lead flows, segmentation, follow-ups, and automation to support prospects throughout the journey, with lifecycle marketing initiatives continuing to evolve.
Built systems for scalable acquisition: Connected organic content, paid media, audience segmentation, and ManyChat automations to capture, nurture, and convert new leads across social, WhatsApp, and owned channels.
Used customer insight to drive creative: Researched audience behaviour, travel trends, and customer psychology to develop messaging and campaign concepts that resonated with cold audiences and strengthened customer loyalty.
Grew reach through an integrated digital strategy: Expanded digital reach from 759K to 8.5M accounts in one year through coordinated email, social, content, and paid initiatives.
Scaled the team and marketing operation: Transitioned from hands-on execution into strategic leadership, mentoring the Social Media Manager, setting creative direction, writing briefs, and maintaining quality across campaigns.
RESULTS
Digital reach grew from 759K to 8.5M accounts in a single year, while Instagram grew 5,000% year-over-year and the overall community increased by 40% after Covid.
Owned channels became a significant acquisition engine, contributing to 75% of new client acquisition annually, while the combination of lifecycle marketing, content, and customer journey improvements helped turn new audiences into repeat travelers.
Following the pandemic, emotionally led reactivation campaigns generated 60%+ more new customers than pre-pandemic performance, demonstrating the strength of positioning the brand around connection and community rather than simply selling destinations.
I also implemented and managed Meta Ads campaigns building audiences, testing creative, and optimizing toward direct booking conversions, connecting paid and owned channel strategy toward the same revenue outcomes.