Articles tagged “tv”

"The Open Road Is Open Again." With that message to tap Americans' pent-up demand to get the hell out of the house and escape lockdowns, Choice Hotels went big on U.S. TV and was the most-seen brand. Being in the right place at an opportune moment helps, but backing it up with effective creative wins the month.

When Silk Way West Airlines, a cargo airline from Azerbaijan, is the third-leading airline advertiser on U.S. television, you know coronavirus has turned the world upside down. Online travel websites, hotels, airlines, and cruise lines are still largely dark.

Most travel brands aren't doing TV or much of any advertising now because of the pandemic. But for the ones still broadcasting spots, they'd better be very clever in terms of sensitivities, or risk brand damage.

Airlines, hotels, and booking sites have divergent reasons for leaning into or out of TV advertising. Attracting more direct bookers is always a goal, but sometimes competitive reasons, or the emergence of new platforms, skew the TV budgets.

TripAdvisor's new ad campaign is more hip than its usual fare. It also shows where its business is heading with hotel booking eventually having to share the limelight with tours and dining.

Booking Holdings, along with Expedia Group, have both had to deal with acquisitions and integrations that have been taking too long. Booking officials are undoubtedly frustrated with the pace of progress at OpenTable and Rentalcars.com. At Expedia Group, Vrbo has been a multiyear reclamation project. To the speedster go the spoils.

We don't quite have the words to describe the overwhelming mark Bourdain left on the travel industry and world. But we will say that he helped change the conversation about what traveling should look like, what we should get out of it, and how we should feed ourselves along the way.

Both TripAdvisor and Booking.com are newly emphasizing tours and activities in their TV advertising. You can expect a lot more of this from myriad players in the years to come. There will be variations, though. While these two companies push mainstream, touristy attractions, Airbnb will likely highlight curated experiences, although that could change, as well.

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.

Anthony Bourdain's impact on travel and food really can't be measured.