July 4th — America's 250th

Summary

A flat 10% app-only discount timed to America's 250th July 4th — the highest NR/booking peak of summer. Auto-applied in the Wanderu app (iOS + Android), gated to the app and targeted at incremental users (new installs + lapsed) so it converts bookings that wouldn't have happened at full price.

Goals

Primary metric: GTV growth. Trade CM for incremental GTV — positive YoY GTV for June, heading toward 10% YoY GTV for the full summer. App gating + targeting maximize the ratio of incremental to displaced bookings.

Engineering

Fuk

• Jun 29Ship the discount auto-apply to production (poc/discount-auto-apply)
• Jun 29Set up the campaign + discount codes with Tenzin (expiration dates + discount %)

Tenzin

• Jun 29Set up the campaign + discount codes with Fuk (expiration dates + discount %)
• Jun 29Launch the landing page — pick the build approach and get it live by Jun 29

J

• Jun 25Ship the iOS discount change (#303 — done, awaiting ship)
• Jun 25Build the Blueshift in-app message (#304 iOS / #305 Android)
• Jun 25Submit the app build + Apple In-App Event to the App Store
• Jun 25Confirm App Store Connect publisher access + the In-App Event deep link URL
• Jun 29Confirm where the US-only / USD-only rule is enforced

Noah

• Jun 25Complete the Android discount change (#1028)

Marketing / Creative — Kaitlin

• Jun 24–25In-app message / banner creative; brief engineering
• Jun 24–25Promotional app icon creative + brief eng (App Store review 24–48h)
• Jun 25Apple In-App Event creative (image 1920×1080, name ≤30, short ≤45, long ≤1000) + submit Thu/Fri
• Jun 26→29Paid ad asset set — static, video, headline pool (ideal Jun 26 to clear review by launch)
• Jun 29Static display ads — 300×250, 728×90, 320×50
• Jun 29Landing page content — app badges, QR code, corridor cards, Sail250 callout (current draft)
• Jun 30Post C "Declare independence from ___" (organic + paid) goes out
• Jun 30Post A "Founding Fathers didn't have a car" carousel goes out
• Jul 1Post B "5 cities throwing the biggest 250th parties" carousel
• Jul 3Post E "Last call — America's 250th is tomorrow" last-chance urgency Reel
• Jul 4Chiku animation Post F (watching fireworks) — goodwill post
• Jul 1–3Stories — countdown sticker (Jul 1–2), route search link (Jul 3)

Email & Blog — Andrew (Andrew B)

• Jun 24Confirm subscriber counts
• Jun 25Confirm Email 1 format — standalone vs weekly send with a July 4th section
• Jun 25Send Email 1 — warm-up to the 180-day engaged list (skip anyone who bought in the last 30 days; no live discount yet)
• Jun 26Refresh the July 4th post (bus-train-travel-deals-july-4) around the 250th + add the download-the-app deal block; publish
• Jun 26Redirect the two old 2016 posts (4th-of-july-bus-train-deals, top-10-popular-destinations-july-4th-weekend) into the refreshed post
• Jul 2Send Email 2 — last-chance, discount-led: people without the app + those who haven't booked in 90+ days (skip anyone who bought in the last 90 days)

Analytics — Scott

• Jun 29Set the "panic" kill-switch threshold — the most margin we'll accept losing — for live monitoring
• Jun 29Confirm monitoring owner + who has authority to pull the offer

Product / Finance — Lynn, Keith

• doneUS routes + USD transactions only — confirmed (Lynn + Keith)
• Jun 29Lynn: confirm expiration dates set on all campaign codes (with Eng)

Wind-down — after the offer ends

The discount auto-expires Jul 3 (11:59 PM ET), but discount messaging won't come down on its own. Pull it Jul 4 so we're not advertising an offer that no longer applies.

• Jul 4Turn off ads that mention the discount (Google, Meta, Apple Search Ads)
• Jul 4Turn off in-app discount mentions (Blueshift in-app message + banner)