Kayak’s New Ad Campaign Signals a Marketing Dilemma as AI Grabs Share
Photo Credit: A screengrab from a Kayak First Millennial ad. Kayak/Youtube
Skift Take
Booking Holdings sees AI as the future of travel. Its Kayak brand's marketing doesn't touch on AI, but is trying to convince Millennials it's OK to book on smartphones and to use Kayak to navigate social media distractions.
Kayak's new ad campaign is fun and potentially effective, but the same ads could have aired in 2016.
The two 30-second spots, called "First Millennial" and "Momfluencer," show travelers researching and booking trips with Kayak on their cellphones. The central message: You can cut through the clutter, remove stress, and be confident you're getting a good deal.
But there is no direct reference to AI and large language models. Is Kayak better for planning trips than Google Gemini or ChatGPT?
The ads raise the question of how travel companies and marketers should attract customers when travel search is undergoing such dramatic change.
A Skift survey last July found that one-third of U.S. travelers use AI "to research, plan and book travel."
In January, a Takeup.ai survey from of 300 U.S. travelers found that 35% of those surveyed agreed that "AI is most helpful for comparing prices across flights, hotels, an
