Hey! John Grimshaw here with another installation of our content series, “D2C Brands to Watch.” I’m excited to share my experience with a brand that’s doing some amazing things in the travel space.
Today, we’re not talking about an entire marketing funnel, just one piece of the puzzle: the offer.
And wow—the D2C brand we’re looking at today, Whym Travel, made a great one. They took what many considered a dead industry (travel booking) and brought it back to life.
How? By wrapping an old concept in a fresh new value envelope, they created something that feels exciting and irresistible.
But before we get into what they did, let’s zoom out and talk about what an offer is—and why it’s so important.
Why Your Offer Is Everything
When I say “offer,” I’m not just talking about the product itself. I mean the full “value envelope” you wrap around that product. This includes:
- The price & shipping costs
- Production details – made in the USA, 100% organic, etc.
- And (most important) the emotional hook & promise of a transformation
Your offer is everything that grabs someone and makes them go, “Okay, yeah, I need this.”
And honestly, it can make or break your entire marketing agenda. You can have amazing ad copy, gorgeous creative, and perfectly timed emails… but if the offer doesn’t grab people, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle the whole way.
A great offer speaks directly to a specific audience, makes them feel like the product is made for them, and gives them a compelling reason to act now.
My 5-part Offer Formula
So, how do you craft an offer that actually connects and converts? We’ve got a 5-part Offer Formula breaking it all down.
Part 1: What is Your Product?
We start with the basics: what is your product or service?
Of course you need to know this, but most people stop here—and that’s a problem.
In today’s competitive world, simply having a good product isn’t enough. It has to connect with people or it’s going to be lost in the noise.
Part 2: How is Your Product Relevant?
Relevance is all about making your product feel pertinent to people. This could be:
- Seasonal (Valentine’s Day gifts)
- Weather-related (sunscreen or an umbrella)
- A life event (getting engaged), and so on.
The point of relevance is to communicate why this product is right for this person in this moment.
Sometimes, relevance is about helping someone realize they have a need. “Not sleeping well? You’re not getting enough magnesium. Our supplement will fix that deficiency and help you sleep better at night.”
Still, relevance only helps get your foot in the door. To complete the sale, you have to go deeper.
Part 3: Who is Your Product For?
Get specific. The more you can dial this in, the more effective your advertising will be… and the better you can match your messaging to the needs and objections of that audience.
Remember, you can have multiple offers in your business. If your product serves women ages 30–60, break those up into separate audiences. After all, the pain points of a 30-year-old new mom are very different from a 60-year-old retiree.
Part 4: Why Buy Now?
Inertia is your enemy. It’s not enough to have an offer that people want. They need a reason to buy now—or else they might never pull the trigger.
We can use a lot of urgency devices here, such as:
- Using expiring discounts
- Bundling products
- Adding free products
- Including infoproducts
- Doing limited runs
- Adding a status element (badges, etc.)
Overall, these often come down to one of 2 things: getting a better deal or getting a change in status. Make it irresistible. Make it urgent.
Part 5: What is the Transformation?
Transformation is the offer component that’s most often left out. And that’s a shame, because offering a transformation is one of the most powerful tactics in marketing.
Think of the transformation as the before and after of your product. Not necessarily the literal transformation; instead, look for the deepest, most meaningful outcome your product provides.
People don’t buy toothpaste to prevent plaque. They buy it to look good on interviews and dates.
Or take Febreze: when Febreze was about to launch, people in focus groups were underwhelmed. But why? The product was innovative and useful. It bonded to scent particles to eliminate bad odors, and it worked.
Here’s what they eventually realized: people don’t just want a house that doesn’t stink. They want a house that smells clean. So Febreze started adding scents to their formulas. This completed the transformation people were looking for (stinky to clean), and Febreze took off.
Remember: sell the after version, the dream, the better version of your customer.
How Whym Put a Successful New Spin on Travel Booking
Now it’s time to talk about today’s marketing star: Whym Travel.
When’s the last time you used a travel agent? Exactly. People don’t use travel agents anymore; they go to Google and book trips themselves.
But Whym has done something pretty remarkable. They’ve reinvigorated the travel booking industry in a way that creates this powerful sense of mystery and surprise.
Here’s the twist:
- You tell Whym what you like, what your budget is, and what kind of trip you want to go on. They book everything for you, leaving the entire trip a surprise until you actually go.
It avoids travel letdown that can happen when you overplan, hype everything up, and then reality just doesn’t measure up. With Whym, you’re not building expectations around specific details.
Instead, you’re anticipating the unknown, which makes the whole experience feel fresh and fun from the start.
We used it for my wife’s birthday, and ended up in Portland, Oregon. Think: delicious meals, Hamilton tickets, board game cafés, wine tastings and waterfalls. It was perfect.
But what hooked us was the offer. Let’s break it down.
Part 1: What Is Whym?
It’s a travel booking service that keeps your plans a secret until shortly before they happen, resulting in a sense of mystery and surprise.
Part 2: How Is Whym Relevant?
Whym is relevant for anyone planning a trip. Travel planning is exhausting—so many tabs, so many options, so much stress. I’ve had trips where I’ve looked at Airbnbs so long that by the end, I don’t even want to go on this trip anymore because I’m so overwhelmed.
Whym solves that. No analysis paralysis. Just fill out a vibe-based survey, and boom: a personalized mystery trip. It simplifies a fun thing that had become not fun.
Part 3: Who Is Whym For?
Millennials, mostly. They travel more than any other generation, and they love personalization, novelty, and Instagram-worthy moments.
Whym doesn’t just give them a trip—it gives them a story to tell. That’s currency in the millennial economy.
Part 4: Why Should You Buy Whym Now?
Travel has natural urgency. You’ve got time off, your friend’s wedding, a long weekend—these are built-in timelines.
Still, Whym could crank this up by leaning into last-minute bookings or “surprise your partner this weekend” type packages.
Part 5: What Transformation Does Whym Provide?
Whym does a great job of tapping into the sense of transformation that travel can provide. This is especially true for Millennials, who often define themselves as a collection of experiences that they can show off to people on Instagram.
Here’s where Whym shines. It promises IG-worthy moments and a sense of self-creation. You get to go on this trip to cultivate a unique experience that reflects who you are as a person, which you can then reflect outward to others to show them you’re unique.
As a bonus, the “surprise” element of Whym also lets you take credit for more spontaneity than you might actually possess.
4 Extra Ways Whym’s Offer is so Compelling
Last but not least, I want to go over 4 ways Whym’s offer goes above and beyond:
- Personalization
That questionnaire they have you fill out? Not fluff. It’s gold. It digs into what kind of experience you want: do you want to sleep in and have coffee or get up and get moving? Prefer nature or culture? That sort of thing helps them plan your trip.
As a bonus, they build out a far more valuable customer list that will allow them to do smarter follow-up in the future.
- Novelty
Novelty sells. I’d go so far as to say it’s one of the biggest advantages you can have as a D2C brand.
Just like our client Sweetflexx sells leggings with built-in resistance bands (genius), Whym makes travel booking new and different. And that helps them stand out from all the other me-too competitors out there.
- Surprise and Delight
We didn’t know we were seeing Hamilton until two hours before the show. That kind of unexpected magic turns a good trip into a great memory.
So try to find little moments where you can go above and beyond what people expect. That’s always been part of Apple’s retail strategy—and you know how well that’s worked out for them.
- Concierge Support
Anytime we had confusion, Whym gave us great support in minutes. We had a little mix-up with the Hamilton tickets, for instance, and they did a great job of fixing it.
People think a lot about the pre-sell and cross-sell experience. And those are important! But so often brands skip over the post-purchase support experience, which is a big missed opportunity.
The more you can support users after the purchase, the more likely people are going to come back and buy from you again and again.
* * * * *
To sum it up: Whym took an outdated business model, gave it a fresh coat of surprise, storytelling, and self-expression, and turned it into something totally new.
The next time you buy something—or better yet, sell something—ask yourself: how can I wrap this product in a better value envelope?
How can I inject transformation, uniqueness, and delight?
And how can I take something ordinary and make it feel… extraordinary?
You might just create the next Whym.
