Hotels.com - From sea of sameness to go to hotels booking destination
How do we make a website with an obvious name and no point of differentiation stand out in a highly commoditised market? This was the unique opportunity we were given with Hotels.com, to help them establish a winning differentiated position in the market and to really own the hotels booking category amongst the family audience.
As far as booking a hotel online goes, there were not many providers that do, what they say on the tin, like Hotels.com. We decided to lean into our potential weakness - our generic brand name - to make the brand a hero in hotel booking.
Coupled with the fact that the category seemed to have forgotten that travel and staying in hotels is supposed to be fun, we developed our unique irreverent TOV to deliver the ‘Obvious Choice’ campaign with Captain Obvious.
Being the only brand in the category with this bold personality gave us key differentiation and license to push ourselves creatively, to make epic work that stood out and was memorable.
Alongside irreverent and disruptive ATL campaigns, we flexed our campaign. We used innovative tech and media firsts to drive direct customer interaction and loyalty, with the opportunity for consumers to literally Skip the Ad on All4 and subsequently use the hotels.com AdBlocker.
Results
- 8th
- most recalled advertiser in the UK
- +6%
- increase in global new customers, 5.5% increase in unaided brand awareness.
- Exceeded social video view through rate benchmark by 205%.
- Our ‘skipping’ ad won a MediaWeek award, receiving 400,000 impressions and 438,000 ‘ad skips’. With a 50% engagement rate, it was the most interacted with piece of content ever on All4.
Good morning - TV and digital - leisure audience
Good morning - Rewards night TV and digital - business audience
The Obvious Choice TV and digital
The Obvious Choice - YouTube Preroll bespoke platform execution
The Obvious Choice - VOD bespoke platform execution
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Hotels.com - From sea of sameness to go to hotels booking destination
How do we make a website with an obvious name and no point of differentiation stand out in a highly commoditised market? The short answer is lean into its potential weakness - a very generic brand name, and give it a unique, very irreverent, TOV and brand ambassador.
