After relying on organic growth over the past eight years Wotif says website upgrades and a new app launch mean the time is right to “shout out loud” about Lastminute.com.au in its first above-the-line marketing campaign for the brand.
Director of brand marketing, Wotif Group , Amanda Behre, told AdNews that the campaign launched this week is aimed at driving a rational brand preference for the travel site, which Wotif acquired in 2008, and of course - driving sales.
“We've had organic growth and performance but it was really important to reposition the brand and get it recognised in market,” said Behre, who said it was too early to comment on results.
“I'd love to say immediate uplift over two days we've been out. Certainly we'll be monitoring it over time,” she added.
Behre told AdNews the move to go above-the-line with its marketing comes after Wotif upgraded the lastminute.com.au website over the past several months, launched a new mobile app in July, and gained further insight into would-be customer's preferences through new survey data.
Creative agency Havas Worldwide is credited with the idea behind the ad campaign, having been selected from a competitive pitch.
“Havas brought to the table this concept that just resonated with this brand. The brief was really about bringing our cheekiness and rebelliousness to life and getting a campaign that will cut through the clutter that you get with a lot of your typical travel brands.
“It's important to keep that cheekiness to get people to take action,” said Behre.
The new TV ad plays on the impulse to be spontaneous in travel. In one ad, a frustrated office worker breaks out of his everyday life, with a mess of paper exploding from a hole puncher then turning into confetti as the “fabulous” traveller is seen traveling the world.
In another, a kinky couple quickly book a hotel room to let loose their passion.
Besides tapping into travellers' spontaneousness, Behre said a major element of the company's strategy is about making sure they are seen to offer value. “It's about making sure we have that choice of value for the consumer, so we can do hotels, flights and dynamic packaging," she said.
Incentivising potential customers to take up the app, Behre said Lastminute.com.au is also offering a bevy of attractive “mobile only” last minute offers.
The app capitalises on the fact that Australians are often willing to make last minute travel bookings and in a survey of 3,300 Australians, 26% said that if they are booking last minute travel it would be via their mobile.
“We quite often survey the Aussie public and our data says 70% of Australians have made a booking on the same day as travel. It's significant. Our data also says we get bookings within seven days of travel, so they are skewed into that space. Lastminute.com.au has to be about convenience and being accessible on the go; we've done a lot of work around our mobile and our app and a significant proportion of our bookings come in that way,” said the marketer.
The campaign is multichannel and will be supported by activity on radio, digital, social and PR.
“It's a holistic approach,” said Behre, describing this as key.
Asked what the next step in the strategy might look like, Behre said the company will be monitoring the success of this campaign but “more great things” can be expected leading up to 2016.
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