Skift Forum Preview: TripAdvisor CEO Shrugs Off Advertising Slump as a Blip
Skift Take
Here's an unorthodox thought in business: TripAdvisor CEO Steve Kaufer knows that the company's value proposition for its customers can remain strong even when the financials face difficulties every once in a while. That's a truism that sometimes gets lost when pundits focus merely on stock price variations.
Does travel metasearch face an existential crisis because a handful of large advertising partners, including Booking Holdings and Expedia Group, can send comparison-shopping sites into a nosedive if they decide to curtail their marketing spending?
TripAdvisor co-founder and CEO Steve Kaufer shrugs off what he characterized as "a hiccup" and "a blip" that occurred last year when some major advertisers — most likely including Booking and Expedia — cut back their advertising spending on TripAdvisor metasearch.
"Some of the raw economics, because there are only a couple of big global OTA (online travel agency) players, are driven by how much those OTA players are interested in investing in paid search," Kaufer told Skift recently. "But the category is fine. The category, to my prediction, will live for a long, long time."
In an interview, Kaufer also spoke about why TripAdvisor, in the second quarter, for example, reduced its direct-advertising spending. The idea, he said, was to be able to fund more TV and other brand advertising, which he views as more effective than advertising on Google as a means to inform travelers that TripAdvisor is a place to compare hotel rates and book an entire trip — and not just a site to read user reviews.
Skift will talk with Kaufer about these and a host of other issues at Skift Global Forum in New York City September 27. We did an intervie
