NEW YORK Reasoning that consumers who are pumping iron or already traveling somewhere will be open to a pitch for a hotel search site, Hotels.com has tapped IdeaCast for a multiscreen buy.
A flight of TV ads, which starts this month, will play in health clubs and on planes. Instead of the company’s 30-second TV spots from TBWA\Chiat\Day, the ads, developed by IdeaCast, will run 120 seconds and be more of a direct response vehicle than an exercise in branding.
While targeting plane travelers for such a pitch seems a no-brainer, Vic Walia, senior director of brand marketing for Hotels.com, said research has shown that visitors to health clubs are also more likely to travel than the average consumer. “This allows us to find them in aperture moments,” Walia said. “People are more open to messages because they’re in an environment where the advertising is more relevant.”
Nevertheless, Walia said he’s not sure how effective the buy will be. “We define every media placement by ‘What’s the reach? What’s the quality of the reach? What’s the brand recall going to be,’” said Walia. “And this is our first venture with them.”
Spending for the effort was not divulged. Hotels.com spent $40 million in U.S. traditional measured media for the first 10 months of 2008, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
