Trivago and Booking Slash U.S. TV Ad Spending
Skift Take
Trivago and Booking.com have dramatically reduced their U.S. TV advertising. Trivago is doing so to try to stem losses, and Booking.com, which last year indicated it would lean into TV advertising, may be trying to tighten control of some marketing costs.
If you feel at times as though Trivago, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, and Booking.com TV commercials are saturating the airwaves, then it might be surprising to learn that as a group they actually are spending less on this advertising than they did last summer.
Online travel agencies reduced their estimated spend 13 percent to $77 million on U.S. national TV in July, according to TV analytics company iSpot.tv.
But it was largely Trivago's retreat, spurred by a strategy change and reduced marketing participation by partner Booking.com in its metasearch auction, that was chiefly responsible for for the pullback.
Among the top five "travel websites," as iSpot.tv categorizes these online travel agencies, Trivago led the reversal, cutting its U.S. TV spend in half (51.8 percent), to $21 million from June 29 to July 30 compared with the same period in 2017.
Online Travel Agency U.S. TV Spend July 2018
Brand
TV Spend 7/17
TV Spend 7/18
% Change
Trivago
$4
