Hotels.com: VIRTUAL VACAY

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Other Digital Media, including Mobile Devices

Advertiser: HOTELS.COM

Product/Service: ONLINE HOTEL PORTAL

Agency: Y&R CHICAGO

Date of First Appearance: Apr 28 2010 12:00AM

Entrant Company: Y&R CHICAGO, USA

Entry URL: http://www.virtualvacay.com/

Chief Creative Officer: Ken Erke (Y&R Chicago)

Creative Director: Sonya Grewal (Y&R Chicago)

Copywriter: Evan Thompson (Y&R Chicago)

Art Director: Richard Fischer (Y&R Chicago)

Producer: Jayson Miller (Y&R Chicago)

Executive Agency Producer: Brian Smego (Y&R Chicago)

Media placement: Print - Wired, PC Magazine, Other Tech/culture Magazines - April 2010

Media placement: Augmented Reality Site - Internet - 4/28/2010



Results and Effectiveness

In the first three days alone, total views numbered more than 8300, with a click-through rate to hotels.com of 15%, far exceeding expectations.



Creative Execution

Leaning into the claymated, hand-made world of the existing hotels.com TV campaign, we wanted to create an entertaining, interactive researching experience that put the brand right in the consumers’ hands.

And so, virtualvacay.com was born.

A unique augmented reality experience that, for the first time ever, combines webcam motion detection, microphone interactivity, real-time event and weather feeds, and augmented reality technology.

Led by the hotels.com claymated character, Smart, visitors to the site don’t just get a personal tour of 10 US cities. They can hold them in the palm of their hand.

While seeing the sights, visitors learn interesting facts, can take pictures to send to friends, take part in unique tourist interactions, and of course book a hotel on hotels.com.

To drive traffic to the site, we made the AR marker readily accessible in magazines, newspapers, and banner ads, as well as allowing access to it on any smartphone.



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

When the economy took a downturn, like most industries, the online travel business went down with it.

Even the most avid travelers started to make hotel-booking decisions based on one budget-cutting fact alone: Who has the best price?

Not only that, but economists encouraged people to cut travel out of their budget. Words like, ‘Staycation’ started to appear in our vocabulary. And once avid vacationers traded in a week at the beach for a weekend of camping in the backyard.

Our objective became clear: Let’s get people excited about travelling again.

Coupled with the fact that for an online travel agency, hotels.com didn’t have much of an online advertising presence, we set out to create a virtual world that would give any travel-hungry consumer an engaging, entertaining way to not just research upcoming vacations. But make them feel like they were already on one at the same time.