Excerpt from Travel Weekly
After two years of relaunches and pauses, suppliers and the trade are ramping up marketing again, convinced that the time is right to engage a (mostly) vaccinated and (definitely) pandemic-weary public.
The fits and starts of the Covid-19 pandemic have given whiplash to travel marketers who have more than once launched advertising campaigns, only to have them run right into yet another Covid wave.
Now, with the passing of the pandemic’s second anniversary, a surge in travel advertising indicates that hotels, tour operators and cruise lines appear confident that, with travel restrictions falling worldwide and a world population that is often both vaccinated and very pandemic-fatigued, the time to market to a public bursting with pent-up demand to travel has arrived.
From Expedia’s 30 seconds of Super Bowl air time, Carnival Cruise Line’s massive “Funderstruck” campaign and Marriott’s presence at the return of live festivals like Coachella, travel marketing, like travel itself, appears to finally be on the rebound.
As Helen McCabe-Young, senior vice president of marketing for Virtuoso, put it, “Travel is roaring back, and no one wants to miss the opportunity ahead.”
Hotels
Marriott International is making sure its marketing strategies and partnerships are not just back but more effective than ever.
Brian Povinelli, Marriott’s senior vice president of brand, loyalty and portfolio marketing, said the company’s marketing arm first noticed online travel searches starting to surge in February.
“Over the last four to five weeks, the search for travel-related terms has grown dramatically, week over week,” he said. “We’re also starting to see more and more people looking farther afield.”
Marriott has responded nimbly to shifting consumer sentiment, using a combination of first- and third-party data to target travelers with timely and relevant offers. In addition to the traditional customized email messaging, the company recently revamped its digital presence, serving up personalized content via both its homepage and Marriott Bonvoy app.
Meanwhile, on the partnership front, it’s a return to form for Marriott. Its tie-ups with high-profile sports and entertainment organizations — including the NCAA, NFL and Coachella — are again in effect after being on pause for much of the pandemic.
“And when it comes to bringing those back, we’re seeing a much larger budget than we had in 2020,” said Mandy Gill, Marriott’s vice president of global marketing for the U.S. and Canada.
This year, for example, Marriott extended its longstanding NCAA partnership with a new Marriott Bonvoy commercial spot starring former NBA star and current college basketball TV analyst Grant Hill and will bolster its presence at Coachella with an on-the-ground activation for its W lifestyle brand, a move expected to build influencer and social media buzz.
Marriott Bonvoy’s TV spot includes former NBA star and current TV analyst Grant Hill and a number college mascots. (Courtesy of Marriott)
“We’re being cautious, because our hotels are still in recovery, but the biggest takeaway is that we’ve been able to make our media more efficient,” said Gill. “We’ve been able to make our media essentially work harder and, what’s more, make each dollar go further.”
Travel agencies
Live events have been a popular go-to for travel marketing across the board, including the largest agencies in the country, Expedia Group and Booking.com, whose ads debuted during this year’s Super Bowl.
Idris Elba stars in Booking.com’s Super Bowl commercial, which kick-started the OTA’s push to introduce more U.S. consumers to the brand. (Courtesy of Booking.com)
Expedia’s features actor Ewan McGregor contemplating, “Do you think any of us will look back on our lives and regret the things we didn’t buy? Or the places we didn’t go?” Booking.com’s had Idris Elba take some shots at the OTA’s name: “But, it’s who we are,” he says. “We’re good at helping you book travel. Like, amazingly good. And kinda bleep at naming.”
Expedia’s marketing spend has been increasing in recent months, including a Super Bowl ad starring Ewan McGregor. (Courtesy of Expedia)
Expedia CFO Eric Hart said on the company’s February earnings call that marketing spend was up in the fourth quarter over the year prior “in response to improved travel demand.” Marketing spend was about $875 million, still 12% less than it was in the same quarter in 2019 but up from the 19% drop in the fourth quarter of 2020. Higher marketing spend was also expected in the first quarter, Hart said, “ahead of summer travel.”
Booking Holdings’ CEO Glenn Fogel said that in the fourth quarter of 2021, marketing spend was $974 million, up from $386 million in the same period of 2020. Brand marketing fell off during the “worst of the pandemic,” he said, but “we are stepping back into a more normal marketing approach as we did in 2019.”
More is coming, too, he said.
Booking.com had “great year” in the U.S. in 2021, he said, and is looking to accelerate that momentum with brand marketing that extends beyond the Super Bowl ad “to introduce Booking.com to an even broader audience.”
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