Trivago’s Marketers and Engineers Are Equally Key to Its Success, Says Managing Director
Photo Credit: On April 4, 2017 at Tobacco Dock in London, the first Skift Forum Europe included an onstage interview of Trivago Managing Director Johannes Thomas by Skift Editor-in-Chief Jason Clampet. Skift / Russell Harper
Skift Take
Trivago gets critiqued for spending heavily on TV brand marketing. But Managing Director Johannes Thomas says it's part of a sustainable plan. We now tend to agree.
Trivago, the hotel price comparison platform, stands out for its business model: It spends much more on TV marketing to build brand awareness — think those "Trivago Guy" ads in the U.S. and elsewhere — than any of its metasearch or online travel agency peers do, as a proportion of overall revenue.
The model enabled Trivago to grow rapidly. But it has opened the company to criticism, especially from rivals, that the model is unsustainable and if it shuts off its marketing, the business would fall apart.
That's a silly argument, says managing director of Trivago Johannes Thomas. "Trivago has as many engineers as it has marketers," he tells Skift Editor-in-Chief Jason Clampet during an onstage interview today in London at the first Skift F
