Booking.com Rethinks Digital Advertising in Favor of TV
Skift Take
Did we just see an elephant fly? The Priceline Group, which is the largest spender on digital advertising in travel, just said TV commercials may be a better way to attract loyal customers. That's even more surprising than TV-happy Trivago's recent announcement that it would start devoting more resources to digital advertising. Don't you love this industry?
Look for some dominoes to fall and perhaps a competitive realignment over the long term as Booking.com, the king of digital advertising in travel, rethinks some of its pay-per-click marketing, and goes very big on TV with a goal to attract more direct bookings.
No, it isn't only hotels and airlines that have direct-booking strategies: The Priceline Group, which has Europe-based Booking.com as its major growth driver, intends to soon put Booking.com on TV in 30 countries, and that's up from just 12 in 2016.
The company plans to increase spending on TV by 55 percent, CFO Daniel Finnegan said, adding that the larger spend on television will occur over the next few quarters and have an adverse impact return on investment in the short term.
The increased spend on TV advertising would come at the expense of some digital advertising. It would pressure margins, particularly in the seasonally slower next two quarters, Priceline Group CEO Glenn Fogel conceded during the company's third quarter earnings call Monday.
He added, however, "it's the right thing to do at this time."
One reason for the tilt toward TV, Fogel said, is the company has been evaluating whether certain performance-based advertising cha
