【Guy】You know what's fascinating? We live in this age where everyone thinks they can just throw up a hashtag and go viral. But here's a company that actually stopped and said, "Wait, let's figure out what our audience really wants first." Today we're diving into how Atypica.AI helped a short-term rental platform crack the code on TikTok marketing for college students. 【Ira】And this isn't just about picking between two hashtags. This is about understanding something much deeper - what job are college students actually hiring a vacation rental to do? Are they looking for a home away from home, or are they looking for a stage to create memories with friends? 【Guy】Exactly! So picture this: you're a social media manager, holiday season is coming up, and you need to launch a TikTok challenge targeting college students. You've got two options on the table - "#You can home anywhere" and "#A trip with friends anytime." Sounds simple, right? Pick the one that sounds better? 【Ira】But here's where it gets interesting. The client knew that guessing wrong could mean wasting thousands of dollars and missing the entire holiday travel season. So they brought in Atypica to actually test this scientifically. 【Guy】Now, before we get into the research, let me paint the picture of why this matters so much. TikTok has become THE platform for travel decisions among college students in 2025. We're talking about a generation that doesn't just book trips - they create content around them. Every vacation is potential viral content. 【Ira】Right, and college students are increasingly choosing short-term rentals over hotels during holiday breaks. They want full kitchens, they want spaces to hang out with their whole crew, and honestly, they want places that look good on camera. 【Guy】So Atypica had two hashtags that seemed to capture different aspects of this trend. "#You can home anywhere" - that's speaking to comfort, coziness, having your own space. And then "#A trip with friends anytime" - that's all about social connection and shared experiences. 【Ira】But here's what's brilliant about their approach. Instead of just asking college students "which one do you like better," they used something called the Jobs-to-be-Done framework. And this is where it gets really interesting. 【Guy】Oh, I love this framework! It's based on the idea that people don't just buy products - they "hire" them to do a job in their lives. Like, you don't just buy a cup of coffee, you hire it to wake you up, or to give you an excuse to meet a friend, or to have five minutes of quiet in your day. 【Ira】Exactly! So the question wasn't "which hashtag sounds cooler" - it was "what job are college students actually trying to get done when they book a vacation rental during the holidays?" 【Guy】And to figure this out, Atypica created these detailed personas representing different types of college travelers. We're talking about content creators, budget-conscious travelers, international students, adventure seekers - nine different profiles that really captured the diversity of the college market. 【Ira】Then they interviewed each of these personas, but not about the hashtags directly. They asked them to tell the story of their last trip. Where did they go, how did the idea come up, what were the best moments? 【Guy】And this is where the magic happened. When you listen to people tell stories about their actual experiences, you start to hear what they're really after. And a pattern emerged pretty quickly. 【Ira】Tell me about that pattern. 【Guy】Well, listen to how one of the personas, Tyler - he's like a fraternity social coordinator - described it. He said the rental is "the stage, but the friends are the stars." Another one, Blake, who represents that whole "bro-cation" crowd, said while the home aspect was nice, "the whole point was to get away with my friends." 【Ira】Ah, so even when they appreciated having a "home" feeling, that wasn't the main job they were hiring the rental to do. 【Guy】Exactly! The "home" was a supporting feature - it made the experience better - but it wasn't the core motivation. The core job was about facilitating social connection, creating shared memories, strengthening bonds with their friend group. 【Ira】So what happened when they finally showed the personas both hashtags? 【Guy】This is where it gets really clear. The personas immediately started brainstorming content ideas around "#A trip with friends anytime." One of them, Emma, instantly thought of road trip videos, cooking disasters, exploring new cities together. Another one, Chloe, who's this travel content creator, said it "just screams 'core memories' and 'good vibes only.'" 【Ira】And "core memories" - that's such TikTok language, isn't it? 【Guy】Totally! And that's the brilliant thing about this research. "#A trip with friends anytime" doesn't just align with what college students want emotionally - it naturally inspires the kind of dynamic, engaging content that actually works on TikTok. 【Ira】Whereas "#You can home anywhere" - what was the problem there? 【Guy】It's not that it was bad, but it focused more on features than feelings. It made people think about showing off the rental itself - the kitchen, the living room, the amenities. That's fine for Instagram maybe, but TikTok is about moments and relationships and energy. 【Ira】So the recommendation was clear? 【Guy】Completely. "#A trip with friends anytime" was the winner. But here's what I love about how Atypica approached this - they didn't just say "pick this one." They gave the client a complete creative strategy. 【Ira】What do you mean? 【Guy】They outlined exactly how to launch this hashtag. Like, start with an "escape" montage - show students looking stressed about exams, then cut to them packing a car, singing on a road trip, exploding with joy when they arrive at the rental. It directly captures that motivation to escape the grind that kept coming up in the interviews. 【Ira】That's smart. They're modeling the exact type of content they want users to create. 【Guy】And they thought about potential risks too. Like, what if focusing so hard on "friends" alienates students who travel solo or as couples? Their solution was to create secondary content showing quieter moments within group trips - like one person reading while friends chat in the background. 【Ira】It sounds like they really thought through the whole ecosystem of how this would work. 【Guy】What strikes me about this whole case is how it shows the difference between guessing and knowing. I mean, both hashtags probably would have gotten some traction. But one clearly aligned with the deeper motivation driving these students' behavior. 【Ira】And in a world where everyone's fighting for attention on TikTok, that alignment matters so much more than just having a catchy phrase. 【Guy】Totally. The client now has a hashtag that doesn't just sound good - it's backed by real insight into what makes their audience tick. That's the kind of foundation that can turn a decent campaign into something that actually goes viral. 【Ira】You know what I keep thinking about? How this research probably saved them from launching "#You can home anywhere" and then scratching their heads when the engagement was just... fine. Instead, they've got something that their audience will genuinely want to participate in. 【Guy】And that's really the lesson here, right? In our rush to get content out there, especially on platforms that move as fast as TikTok, it's easy to forget that great marketing still starts with understanding people. Thanks for listening to our deep dive into how research can make the difference between a hashtag that works and one that really works. 【Ira】Absolutely. Thanks for joining us, and we'll catch you next time.