Vancouver-based Kiwi Collection, a premium online hotel booking site, has awarded creative ad duties to Taxi Vancouver. The brand just launched a site redesign in April by Blast Radius.
Russ Stedman, general manager at Taxi, says the first step will be to define the company’s point of difference from other online booking sites. “With a lot of these hotel booking agencies, their job stops as soon as you hand over your money and book a room,” says Stedman. “For Kiwi, once you’ve booked with them that’s when their job begins because they look to bring added value to your experience at that hotel.”
Stedman says the site targets the “mass affluent” market and lists only top hotels that staff personally rate and road test. “It’s not a model that necessarily says I’m going to get the best price on something, but I’m going to get a better value on something,” he says, adding that customers are treated like “special guests.”
Earlier this month, Kiwi Collection announced five new strategic partnerships to target the company’s niche audience around the globe, including World’s Luxury Guide by Welt Online, the online branch of German daily newspaper Die Welt, America retail giant Macy’s, the invite-only online community A Small World (ASW), and Germany-based invite-only traveler club Zerotonine.
Stedman says advertising will likely have some conventional aspects, but will focus primarily on digital and social media.
