Skyscanner

95,000 followers on TikTok for a Global Travel Brand.

Building one of the most effective travel presences on TikTok.

The Brief.

When Skyscanner approached us, they weren’t looking for “more content.” They were looking for direction. A TikTok strategy that actually worked in 2025’s social landscape, not something built on outdated assumptions or generic UGC formats.

Travel content on TikTok was noisy, repetitive and often brand-led in a way audiences scroll past without thinking. But the opportunity was huge:

TikTok was rapidly becoming a search engine for Gen Z, with 64% of users using the platform to find information rather than just entertainment.

Skyscanner had trust, credibility and global brand equity, but they needed a creative, strategic partner who could translate that into modern storytelling, executed at speed, scale, and with a clear strategic lens.

That’s where we came in.

A scenic road trip view with a mountainous landscape in the background and a person's hand on the steering wheel. There are three maps of European routes overlaid, showing different road trip routes.

Building the foundation:

A strategy designed for how travellers actually use TikTok

Our first step was simple: understand why most travel content fails.

The answer?
It often feels generic, passive, or disconnected from the realities of how people search, plan and dream about travel today. TikTok isn’t a place for polished ads, it’s a place for real insights, quick value, and entertainment-led content.

So we developed a strategic north star for the brand:

“Become the go-to travel insider.”

A TikTok presence built on helpfulness, relevance, and credibility, delivered with energy, personality and the Skyscanner tone of voice.

This meant:

  • Content grounded in real, unbiased travel tips and news

  • Formats that balanced news, education and entertainment

  • Creative execution at scale that felt TikTok native

  • A system built for consistency, iteration and cross-market scalability

This route was validated across competitive analysis, platform behaviour and brand requirements, ensuring it could scale internationally as other markets adopted the approach.

Shaka Social didn’t just deliver creative concepts; we rebuilt Skyscanner’s entire short-form video workflow.

We created:

  • A test-and-learn system, publishing multiple content formats per week, designed to quickly identify winning ideas and executions.

  • A new end-to-end briefing process owned fully by Shaka, ensuring every video started with a strategic hook, narrative and CTA built for TikTok’s algorithm.

  • A structure that allowed the brand to plan, pivot fast, and build a reliable content cadence that removed friction internally.

    This clarity and consistency unlocked the ability to scale into new markets later. A core part of Skyscanner’s long-term vision.

Information board for the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) over a cityscape with rooftops, a river, and city buildings in the background.

From strategy to system: building a repeatable, scalable TikTok engine

The results:

measurable growth, cultural relevance and cross-platform impact

Across our partnership, Skyscanner built a presence that audiences actively returned to.

Some of the highlights:

  • Multiple videos reaching 150k+ views, driven by high-impact hooks, reactive travel news, educational storytelling and strong creative execution

  • A rise in saves, shares and comments. The signals that matter most for TikTok’s recommendation system, especially for evergreen travel content

  • Videos ranking within Google search results for key queries, demonstrating that TikTok content can influence search behaviour beyond the platform itself

  • Increased cross-platform performance, with TikTok-born content driving organic engagement on Instagram and other social channels

  • A scalable model now influencing broader Skyscanner regions and teams

Our creative and social media strategy work repeatedly reinforced a key truth:

On TikTok, the brands that win are the ones who inform, entertain and earn attention, not demand it.

By focusing on value-first content, clear narrative structure and credible delivery, Skyscanner’s audience retention, engagement and share rates consistently outperformed the competitive landscape.

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What we learned together, and why it matters

Working deeply in the travel space brought a unique challenge: things change fast, and that meant our strategy couldn’t be rigid.

Across the partnership, we:

  • Pulled content last minute when travel rules shifted.

  • Reworked ideas within hours when global events changed relevance.

  • Balanced evergreen formats with reactive content to maintain credibility.

  • Built creative templates that allowed for fast pivots, and market scalability without losing quality.

This agility wasn’t an optional extra, it was essential, and it’s one of the biggest reasons the strategy continues to deliver meaningful results today.

Map of Ireland showing a driving route from Cork in the south to the northern coast near Culdaff, passing through various towns like Killarney, Limerick, and Galway, with a total travel time of 20 hours and 47 minutes over 1,268 kilometers.
Airport tarmac with Delta airplanes and ground vehicles, with text about FAA reducing air traffic at major US airports.

“Shaka helped us launch something excellent in the form of TikTok and the Ultimate Travel Hacker Australia campaign which has set us up for success going forward.”

Jen Rankine | Skyscanner

What’s next?

With TikTok established, the next chapters in Skyscanner’s social growth involve deeper audience segmentation, layered creative testing, and extending learnings into other platforms where discovery and decision-making collide.

Our partnership continues to expand because it works, month after month.

Ready to write your next growth story?

If you want strategy that’s grounded in creative insight, performance thinking, and modern social behaviour, we’d love to talk.

Book a call with us today.

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