Best travel videos this week: Appealing to travelers’ emotions and legroom

This week’s SkiftAds pits two U.S. brands versus two European companies, but the differences in the four ads stem more from the nature of their business than their country of origin.

The varying length and tone of the ads shows there’s not one right way to promote a product, although there are definitely bad techniques. In the following cases, including an emotional appeal and energizing music go a long way in making seat space and hotel rooms a personal matter.

FOR ALL OF OUR SKIFTADS OF THE WEEK COLLECTION, CHECK OUT OUR ARCHIVES HERE.

American Airlines‘ new ad promoting Main Cabin Extra plays on business travelers’ desire to do something other than work in the air. The emotional appeal mixed with acknowledgement that some flyers have no choice lends a friendly tone to an otherwise gentle reminder that coach class is no fun. Main Cabin Extra gives flyers six inches of more leg room for $8 and up (no word about those squished souls in the seats behind the ones that magically expand).

Brand USA introduced two ads this week specifically targeting visitors from Brazil and Mexico — kind of. The ads are almost identical to other ones the agency has rolled out, but the text at the end is in Portuguese and Spanish. And, of course, they’re accompanied by Rosanne Cash jamming with the United Nations Band while sitting on rocks on New York’s East River.

Leonardo Hotels promotes its Dead Sea property with a traditional hotel ad. It includes standard elevator music, which is made up for with images of the Israeli property that’s so wanderlust-inducing that you forget the noise. Hotels seem to be having the most difficult time adapting to the new trend of clever videos pushed by airlines and search sites today.

Ibis Hotels has a knack for turning quirky scenes into intelligible advertisements. It made snugly bunnies and midnight shenanigans into quick YouTube hits promoting the economy hotel chain; however, claiming to be more comfortable than a car is a pretty low standard to set, similar to Carnival’s “cruising is better than being eaten by a bear” campaign.