Eurostar And eYeka Encourage Travellers To Share Stories On Social Media

Paris, 8^th August 2014: From today, Eurostar’s social media channels will start to feature crowdsourced videos that depict authentic stories about the unexpected things people have discovered in one of Eurostar’s destinations. These videos, which were crowdsourced by Eurostar on the leading creative crowdsourcing platform eYeka, encourage travellers to continue to share their stories through hashtags.

In October 2013, Eurostar launched its “Stories Are Waiting” campaign, in which the brand shared stories of real people and places in London and Paris through a series of TV adverts. As part of this campaign, the brand also launched a contest on eYeka, the leading creative crowdsourcing platform, asking the global creative community to submit witty and funny videos or animations that tell stories of the unexpected things they have discovered in one of Eurostar’s destinations.

In only two months, the brand received 26 videos from 11 countries, and awarded £15,900 (€20,000) to five winning spots:

• The 1st prize (£6,400/€8,000) went to Laurent Piérard from Paris, France, for a video called “On the pavement, in front of me.”
• The 2nd and 3rd prizes (£3,200/€4,000 each) went toa collective formed by four creatives (Pierre Demaret, Laurent Delkiet, Mike Wiz, Etienne Bruchet) from Paris, France, for two videos called “Sur les rails du passé” and “Une ballade en Asie.”
• The 4th prize (£1,600/€2,000) went toCamille Meynard from Brussels, Belgium, for a video called “When In Brussels.”
• The 5th prize (£1,600/€2,000) went to Rita Fazendeiro from Lisbon, Portugal, for a video called “Thank you for visiting London!”

These five winning videos are now being premiered from the 8th August on Eurostar’s social channels, encouraging travellers to continue to share their stories through the following hashtags: #WhenInParis #WhenInLondon and #WhenInBrussels.

Alex Hoyle, Brand Communications Manager, Eurostar commented, “Few people know our destinations better than our very own travellers, and eYeka gave us the perfect opportunity to build on our Stories are Waiting campaign by engaging some of the most creative storytellers in their global community to produce these exciting little video tales. It just goes to show there’s something new to unearth with every trip.”

François Pétavy, CEO, eYeka said, “We are very happy to see that Eurostar liked the videos from the eYeka community and that the winning spots will be endorsed by the brand on social media. Being endorsed by the world’s leading brands is one of the main motivations of the people who participate on eYeka, so we are very happy to see Eurostar featuring the winning creators of the “Eurostar Stories” contest. Not only does it prove our creators’ skills and talent, but it also shows that crowdsourcing is a fantastic way to engage people in brand campaigns with creative and authentic content.”