Travel Brand Messaging on Google in 50 Characters or Less
Photo Credit: Marriott.com wants to be known as a value-oriented and mobile-savvy brand. In Google Hotel Ads, Marriott.com markets itself the blurb, 'Best Rate Guaranteed. Mobile Check-In.' Pictured are some Residence Inn guests, including one with a smartphone, enjoying The Mix social gathering. Marriott International
Skift Take
For online travel agencies and hotel chains, the new cryptic brand messaging in Google Hotel Ads is a quest for identity and differentiation. Little things -- and a handful of characters -- will mean an awful lot. Want to know the difference between Booking.com and sister company Priceline.com? It's all there in the short bursts of brand blurbs.
The war for travelers' hearts, minds and hotel bookings is taking place on Google through brand messaging, usually in short bursts of 25 to 50 characters.
If you've ever wondered how a travel brand, be it an online travel agency or hotel, really views itself or how sister brands, such as Expedia.com and Hotels.com, on the one hand, or Booking.com and Priceline.com, on the other, position themselves differently, then these mini-brand messages speak volumes.
Travel brands for years have been complaining that they don't want to compete on price alone, particularly on travel-comparison sites such as Kayak or Trivago, in a race to the proverbial bottom.
Several such sites, including Kayak, now enable such brand messaging and in October, Google began a beta to enable online travel agencies and hotels to display blurbs below their company names and logos in Hotel Ads on mobile, desktop or both.
Skift took a look at the new brand messaging, which Google dubs "callouts," in Google H
