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Kayak everywhere

November 02, 2009 | Online Travel

Spending almost half of its annual revenue on an ad campaign is a gamble, but Kayak is eager to build brand awareness withits first big traditional ad play, especially if, as many suspect, they plan to take the company public.

Ads, created by Omnicom Group’s Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, will run for the rest of this year and all of 2010 on primetime TV shows and sports programming on CNN, ESPN and MSNBC. Billboards and video displays in taxis and airports will appear in New York City, San Francisco, Las Vegas and other popular travel destinations.

Kayak.com also plans to spend $1 million a month on digital ads that target 25- to 44-year-olds with more than $75,000 a year in household income. The company does a lot with the data it collects from users. It tracks the preferences and habits of travelers so it can send them targeted travel offers and ads. It will send ads to consumers who have visited its site and clicked on its Web ads. Women make up 60% of its 1 million daily users.

Robert Birge, 39, the company’s chief marketing officer, is overseeing the ad effort. Birge joined the Kayak.com in April after working as CMO of entertainment media company IMG Worldwide. In creating the new brand campaign, Birge tossed out the orange kayak the company has used as part of its brand imagery since it was founded in 2004, in favor of an orange leaderboard. The sign (known within the company as “flippy”) more accurately reflects what the company does and how consumers can use it, says Birge. The ad tagline: “Search One and Done.”

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