LateRooms.com moves away from ‘unrealistic’ nature of travel ads with new £5m campaign
LateRooms.com is launching its first TV advertising campaign since 2013 as it aims to improve brand awareness and move away from the ‘unrealistic, white noise’ advertising it claims its rival are currently offering.
Last month, LateRooms.com was acquired by Cox & Kings from the TUI Group, and head of marketing Georgina Crosswell says the new owners have made brand building their “key objective.”
She told Marketing Week: “From appointing Mother London as our ad agency, this ad was then signed off and completed within 30 days, which I think speaks volumes. This will be the start of more regular above the line spend, that’s for sure.”
The “It’s Going To Be A Great Night” campaign will feature four 30-second TV ads each satirically focusing on the excitement of a traveller in the build up to events such as a Chris de Burgh concert and a Christmas fancy dress party.
And Crosswell says the brand is not trying to replicate the advertising model on offer at rivals such as Booking.com or Lastminute.com.
“The hotels market is extremely overcrowded and there’s so much white noise,” she explains. “Typically you’ll see a generic photoshopped Instagram photo of a beach or endless shots of beds.
“Consumers want to see brands actually enabling their reasons for travelling. You don’t get inspired to book a hotel by seeing an ad featuring dozens of beds, it’s unrealistic to think so, but seeing a concert or a sporting event can be inspiring. We want to be top of mind when people think of their next adventure.”
LateRooms.com is also teaming up with Spotify on the campaign. Although the collaboration is restricted to billboard advertising within the Spotify app and song ads on its free version, Crosswell believe it can quickly develop into more.
“In the future we’d like to make Spotify playlists as we see it as a huge platform for the brand. It could be a ‘what to listen on the beach’ style thing. If someone is going to a concert, we don’t want to just provide them with somewhere to stay but something to listen to as well.”
Moving forward she says LateRooms.com will partner with more “unconventional” third party brands. “We don’t want to be another Booking.com and we don’t have the marketing budgets of our rivals,” she insists. “But what we can do is take a more creative approach to travel marketing.”
