Travel search engine Kayak.com has launched its first-ever offline advertising campaign. Ads were produced with the adve

Travel search engine Kayak.com has launched its first-ever offline advertising campaign. Ads were produced with the adventurous and independent traveler in mind, a trademark of Kayak.com users who enjoy the site’s playful tone.

Published: 10 Jul 2006

Travel search engine Kayak.com has launched its first-ever offline advertising campaign. Ads were produced with the adventurous and independent traveler in mind, a trademark of Kayak.com users who enjoy the site’s playful tone.

Using provocative and unconventional humor, The $10 million Trip Ideas campaign features travel destinations set against current events to engage the traveler and cut through the clutter of traditional travel advertising.

The campaign has created by New York-based The Brooklyn Brothers. As part of the campaign launch, Kayak.com debuted a new tag line, `Life’s A Trip’ as well as signature copy, `There are a million reasons to travel. There’s one site to search before you go.”

“From the beginning, Kayak.com eschewed the staid tone of other travel sites and opted for humor and irreverence to communicate our brand and we wanted to strike the same tone with our advertising,” said Dean Harris, chief marketing officer of Kayak.com, adding that the ads have viral potential and hope consumers will be so entertained that they will visit Kayak.com to view all our ads and then forward favorites to friends.

Harris noted that the company is the first Web 2.0 site to launch an integrated media campaign.

“Kayak.com is gaining recognition from travel experts and early adopters as a top travel website and we thought it was time to use TV to introduce the site to mainstream consumers. In my experience, TV is still the most efficient way to launch a brand into a household name,” he said.

The Trip Ideas campaign will launch initially offline with online elements following later this summer. All ads will be available to the public on Kayak.com.

The Brooklyn Brothers created 13 initial spots which highlight both domestic and international destinations in an animated format. The campaign celebrates the unique characteristics that keep each destination among the top searched on Kayak.com.

According to the company, each ad in the Trip Ideas campaign is content rich and incorporates wit and unexpected elements so viewers will notice something new each time and look forward to seeing the ads repeated.

For example, Trip Idea # 101 invites viewers to “Visit LA, where the pools are deeper than some of the
people.” Socialites resembling Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson parade through the streets of Los Angeles smiling on the red carpet while the punch line features a voluptuous Pamela Anderson look-a-like floating above a pool thanks to her air-worthy implants.

In addition, Trip Idea #39 recommends viewers “Plan a safe hunting trip”. A group of birds flying over
a forest are shot down by a caricature of Vice President Dick Cheney who, wearing a Rambo bandana, brashly winks and closes his eyes before pulling the trigger.

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