Media Strategy Proposal · April 2026
Media Buyer / Planner Manager · Full-Time Engagement
The Opportunity
This proposal has been 8 months in the making. The conversations, the exposure to Quasar's business along the way, the thinking about what the right media strategy looks like. It all comes together here. The opportunity goes beyond managing existing campaigns. It's about building a second media program from scratch, one that reaches a completely different buyer with completely different creative, and proving over 12 months that the full-price customer exists and can be found.
This proposal outlines my strategic vision, operational approach, and compensation expectations for the Media Buyer / Planner Manager role.
"The goal is not to reach more people. It's to reach the right people. At the right moment in their journey. With marketing worthy of what awaits them in the Galápagos."
Strategic Framework
Quasar's paid media has run on a single, discount-driven model for years. That model works, but it has a hard limit on who it reaches. Growing beyond it means building a second track alongside it. Not replacing what works. Adding a program that goes after a completely different buyer, with different creative and a different timeline.
The existing urgency-based model ("lock in your spot, save $X") reaches buyers who are already in-market and price-motivated. This track isn't abandoned. It gets refined and optimized so it runs efficiently without cannibalizing the full-price positioning being built alongside it.
A brand-new media program targeting the full-price traveler who is 12 to 24 months out from booking. This buyer isn't looking for a deal. They're looking for a reason to choose Quasar over every other once-in-a-lifetime trip on their list.
The Evidence
The strategic case for targeting the long-consideration, full-price luxury buyer isn't a hypothesis, it's backed by consistent research across the travel and luxury sectors. Here's what the data says.
67% of luxury travelers book 6–10+ months out.
A Luxury Travel Advisor industry index found the single largest segment of luxury clients, 37%, books 6–9 months ahead, with another 30% booking 10 months or more in advance. That means two thirds of your best customers are making decisions well before they ever see a discount.
Source: Luxury Travel Advisor Q2 Luxury Travel Index
12–18 months is the recommended lead time for Galápagos expedition cruises.
Travel advisors and expedition operators consistently cite 12–18 months as the appropriate planning window for Galápagos specifically, due to constrained yacht capacity, National Park access limits, and high seasonal demand. Quasar's own yachts frequently show limited availability 6+ months out. The buyer who converts at full price is planning this trip right now, they just haven't found Quasar yet.
Sources: Travel & Tour World; McNeill Luxury Travel; Enchanting Travels
Ultra-HNWIs prioritize privacy, personalization & rare experiences above all else.
WATG's 2024 Evolving Wealth report identifies four wealth segments, with HNWIs ($5M–$30M net worth) as the core luxury hospitality consumer. This buyer, Quasar's ideal Demand Generation target, does not respond to discount urgency. They respond to brand alignment, environmental purpose, and the sense that an experience is genuinely rare and exclusive. Over 38% of luxury travelers report willingness to pay 30–50% more for environmentally conscious operators, precisely Quasar's positioning.
Source: WATG Research, Evolving Wealth: A New Paradigm for Luxury Travel (2024)
Safari & adventure luxury is the fastest-growing segment at 33.3% market share.
Grand View Research's luxury travel market analysis places safari and adventure luxury as the single largest and fastest-growing category, accounting for 33.3% of the global luxury travel market in 2025. The US market specifically is projected to grow at 7.8% CAGR through 2030. Quasar sits at the exact intersection of the fastest-growing segment, in the highest-demand demographic, with a 40-year brand that most competitors cannot replicate.
Source: Grand View Research, Luxury Travel Market Analysis 2025
"Travel design that begins months in advance, with detailed conversations about interests, pace preferences, and the kind of moments a traveler actually wants, is now the standard for premium operators."
The premium travel market has shifted. Generic amenities at a high price point are the baseline now, not the differentiator. The buyer Quasar needs to reach with Track 2 expects marketing that matches the experience they're about to spend $20,000+ on: brand-forward, full-price, and present across every channel they actually spend time on. That is the gap Track 2 fills.
Source: Social Life Magazine, How Luxury Travel Has Evolved for the Wealthy (2026)
Quasar's Price Reality
Quasar's 8-day Galápagos cruises range from approximately $800–$1,700 per person per day, placing a typical couple's trip at $13,000–$27,000+ for an 8-night voyage. The 15-day full archipelago itinerary goes well beyond that. At this price point, nobody is converting off a discount ad they saw once on Facebook. The people who book Quasar at full price are doing their research for months. They are reading, watching, comparing. The job of Track 2 is to make sure Quasar is everywhere they look during that window, with creative that earns the price tag rather than apologizing for it.
How I Work
I work within Quasar's non-siloed team structure, owning campaign strategy and investment planning while staying closely coordinated with creative, data, and operations. Every campaign I run is a team effort.
Full ownership of media planning across both tracks: channel allocation, budget pacing, audience architecture, and performance modeling.
Building Quasar's Windfall program from scratch: data ingestion, audience matching, activation across paid channels, and performance benchmarking for a dataset that has never been used.
Taking over from 7MM and bringing all paid media in-house without losing momentum. Building the processes, account structures, and documentation that stay inside Quasar long-term.
Working closely with Fausto, Fernando, Juliana, and the broader team on campaign briefings, creative inputs, and execution. Contributing to campaigns I'm not leading, and leading the ones that need me out front.
Implementing Hyros as the attribution layer across both tracks. It's built for long-consideration cycles and tracks every touchpoint across Meta, Google, YouTube, email, and organic over a 12–24 month buyer journey.
Ongoing testing and creative iteration across both tracks, with weekly reporting that ties spend back to real business outcomes: bookings, revenue, and full-price conversion rate.
Technical Infrastructure
At $6,000–$24,000+ per person with a 12–24 month consideration window, last-click attribution tells you almost nothing useful. Every touchpoint across the full buyer journey needs to be visible, from the first ad impression to the booking confirmation.
Channel Strategy
Each track runs on a distinct set of platforms chosen for the buyer it needs to reach. Track 1 Google budgets are based on the 2025 account audit. Track 2 budgets are proposed ranges based on comparable luxury travel programs at similar scale.
| Platform | Role | 2025 Spend |
|---|---|---|
| Meta | Retargeting, urgency offers, lookalikes from buyer list | TBD† |
| Google Search | High-intent branded + category keywords, Galápagos, Patagonia, cruise tours | ~$247K/yr |
| Google Perf. Max | Lead magnet downloads (trip guide), specials, family campaigns | ~$56K/yr |
| YouTube / DemandGen | Seasonal video campaigns, summer, fall, families | ~$16K/yr |
| Email (Owned) | Urgency sequences to existing leads and past inquirers | Owned |
Google Ads budget based on 2025 account audit via Adzviser. Meta budget to be pulled once account access is confirmed. Track 2 budgets represent net-new investment, phased over 90 days.
| Platform | Role | Monthly (Scale) |
|---|---|---|
| Meta (New) | Windfall-matched audiences, luxury targeting, full-price creative | $8K–$12K |
| YouTube | Long-form aspirational video, currently ~$1.3K/mo via 7MM, should be 4–6x higher | $5K–$8K |
| Programmatic | Premium publishers: Robb Report, T+L, Condé Nast, Nat Geo, minimum viable reach | $5K–$10K |
| Visual discovery for high-income luxury travel planners, test and learn | $1.5K–$3K | |
| CTV / OTT | Household-level luxury audience targeting via streaming | $3K–$5K |
| Google Search (New) | Dream-phase queries in a clean account, separated from Track 1 data | $3K–$5K |
First 90 Days
The first 90 days are entirely about foundation, not vanity metrics. Getting infrastructure right before spending aggressively means the machine we build in months 4–12 is actually built on real signal. Here is exactly what I'll be doing.
Compensation
I'm presenting both a W-2 employee structure and a 1099 contractor structure via my S-Corp for full transparency. Each carries different implications for Quasar operationally, I'm happy to discuss what makes the most sense for your setup.
Next Steps
I've been thinking about this opportunity for months and have a clear picture of what the first year looks like. The Windfall program alone is a real chance to build something Quasar's competitors don't have. I'd welcome a conversation to finalize structure and get moving.
Michael Cahill