There are times when the tourism world wakes up, yawns at another glossy campaign of drone shots and scripted sunsets, and mutters: “Same old postcard, different logo.” Well, not this time. An ambitious, Australian-owned disruptor is rewriting the playbook, and it comes with all the daring audacity of a startup that isn’t afraid to make the travel establishment look like it’s still fiddling with dial-up.
Meet BYRDLI, the Australian-born global platform that insists on calling itself a travel distribution and social commerce pioneer. Their latest adventure? A partnership with the San Francisco Travel Association resulted in a bold campaign like the Golden Gate: “San Francisco, Unscripted.”
This isn’t your usual cinematic montage stitched together by an agency that’s never set foot west of Market Street. This is creator-owned, creator-led, and, crucially, creator-bookable. In plain English? The storytellers don’t just post the trip, they package it, and you, dear traveller, can book it on the spot. No glossy brochure. No brand-approved script. Just honest San Francisco, lived and breathed in real time.
Two Storytellers, Two Lenses
The chosen duo are hardly lightweights. Lola Hubner (@lolahubner) and Matt Lambley (@matt.lambley) are Australian creators with distinct voices and enviable followings. Together, they’ve been handed the keys to San Francisco figuratively, if not literally.
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With a flair for design-forward travel, slow itineraries, and outdoorsy charm, Lola is the kind of creator who would happily trade a boardroom for a boutique hotel terrace with a vineyard in sight.
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Matt, by contrast, thrives on cinematic visuals, big skies, and adrenaline. Think rooftop cocktails, luxury digs, and that heart-stopping drone sweep over the Golden Gate.
Different lenses, different voices, and that’s precisely the point. No “one-size-fits-all” video stitched together to please a boardroom. This is real travel, messy and magical, told through human eyes.
What Makes It Different?
San Francisco Travel’s Radu Barbuceanu, Director of Global Tourism Development, hit the nail squarely on the head:
“San Francisco has always been a place of creativity, expression, and the cutting edge, and this campaign captures all of that. By partnering with BYRDLI and giving creators full control over the story they tell, we’re inviting the world to see a side of San Francisco that’s real, layered, and deeply personal.”
Real, layered, personal. You don’t often hear words in tourism boardrooms, where “authentic” is usually code for “expensive focus group.” But BYRDLI has turned the tables. The content is lived, captured, edited, and shared in real time. Then, with a click, it becomes bookable via their Travel Clubs.
You can scroll through Matt’s dramatic sunset cruise and book the same rooftop bar crawl instead of sighing. It’s “scrolls into stays, content into commerce,” as BYRDLI co-founder Vanessa Richards puts it.
San Francisco Without the Postcard Filter
Forget the sanitised version of San Francisco we’ve all seen. This campaign promises:
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Morning light over the Painted Ladies that feels more neighbourly than brochure-perfect.
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Taco runs at midnight, where the salsa’s hotter than the nightlife.
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Streetcars rattling past murals that speak louder than museum labels.
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Scenic flights, dive bars, rooftop cocktails – stitched into a living, breathing tapestry.
And yes, if you want a neatly edited reel later, you’ll get that too. But in the moment, it’s San Francisco raw, unscripted, and alive.
Content That Converts
What sets BYRDLI apart is the commerce engine humming underneath the storytelling. Both Lola and Matt run live Travel Clubs on BYRDLI’s platform. That means every hotel they stay in, every boutique itinerary they craft, every adrenaline-fuelled adventure they film — it’s all bookable.
In other words, inspiration doesn’t die in the scroll. It’s converted into action. Book the room, flight, and adventure all at the tap of a thumb.
It’s an intoxicatingly simple idea: creators finally get paid for likes and bookings. Destinations stop shouting into the void and start reaching travellers in the one place they live, their feeds.
Campaign Highlights
Starting on 29 September, the campaign will drip-feed real-time content across Instagram, with longer edits hitting later. Highlights include:
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Portola Music Festival
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Scenic flights over the Bay
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Local food trails through taquerias and cafés
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Bike rides across the Golden Gate
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Sunset cruises, streetcars, and rooftop cocktails
If that doesn’t scream “real San Francisco,” nothing will.
A Word from BYRDLI
BYRDLI’s co-founder Vanessa Richards is relishing the opportunity to shake things up.
“San Francisco is one of the most iconic cities on the planet, but it’s the unexpected that gets me every time I visit. And you rarely see that in traditional campaigns. The moments that catch you off guard — that’s what we set out to capture.”
She insists this isn’t polish for the sake of polish. “It’s real. Seen, felt, and lived by them, then made bookable in real time for their communities to experience.”
And if you detect a quiet dig at the industry’s obsession with gloss and hashtags, you’re probably right.
Taking San Francisco to Sydney
To celebrate, BYRDLI is planning an invite-only creator and industry event in Sydney this November, a little slice of San Francisco hosted Down Under. Expect tacos, tech demos, and a few rooftop cocktails.
For BYRDLI, it’s another feather in the cap of a fast-growing startup. For San Francisco Travel, it’s a bet that the next wave of travellers doesn’t want a postcard. They want lived stories, captured by people they trust, and served up in a way that makes booking irresistible.
And for the rest of the industry? Consider this a wake-up call. The future of destination marketing is not another glossy ad. It’s messy, unscripted, honest and bookable.
