Booking.com made its Canadian television debut earlier this week with a brand campaign that centres on the “delight of right” — the moment you first see your accommodation and realize it’s everything you had hoped for, and maybe more.
In the past, the Amsterdam-based accommodation booking site, has relied on word of mouth and direct response marketing through sites such as Google and Trip Advisor to promote its brand, Booking.com CEO Darren Huston told Marketing.
Despite having a “pretty strong usage” in Canada, Huston said the brand campaign is an attempt to tell the Booking.com story. He wouldn’t disclose how many of the sites overall users are from Canada, but said it’s “in the millions.”
“We’re here, but under the radar,” he said of the decision to launch a brand campaign in Canada, which was developed by its creative agency Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam.
The creative was introduced a year ago in the U.S., and in Australia last fall, and tested with Canadian consumers before this week’s launch. “Our strategy right now is single creative,” he said” “We’ve done a ton of tests with Canadian focus groups and they really like the creative and resonate with it.”
The voiceover was tweaked slightly in the Australian market, “but Canadians like the American voiceover so we’re going to try that and see where it goes from there,” said Huston. Booking.com brought new ideas to the table, but Huston said the Canadian focus group preferred the creative out of the U.S.
