Interview: Kayak CEO on Downplaying TV Ads and Direct Bookings
Photo Credit: Steve Hafner, co-founder and CEO of Kayak. Kayak
Skift Take
Kayak started the direct-booking trend among travel metasearch sites, but now CEO Steve Hafner says improvements have been made on partner sites so direct booking is no longer a priority and can hurt, rather than help, turning lookers into bookers. Have the conditions really changed or is this Priceline Group-speak?
Editor’s Note: Skift is publishing a series of interviews with online travel CEOs talking about the Future of Travel Booking, and the evolving habits and device preferences of travel consumers. Check out all the interviews as they come out here.
When you think about the current state of travel booking in the U.S., it doesn't take brain surgery to figure out that TV advertising and its brand-building powers are definitely an integral part of the equation for the largest companies.
But when talking to Steve Hafner, co-founder and CEO of Kayak, you learn about the inefficiencies of TV advertising and how it may be losing some of its punch given the preference of the younger generation -- be they the much-wooed millennials, teens or pre-teens -- for streaming programming on their own myriad devices.
Kayak, a travel metasearch site, isn't abandoning TV, but it is looking to de-emphasize it a bit in favor of mobile and online advertising, which shouldn't come as a huge surpris
