HOTELMARKETING.COM

OTC rejects ad campaigns for search push

February 12, 2004 |

Online Travel Corp has invested £500,000 in search engine marketing activity including SEO and keyword campaigns in a bid to drive more traffic to its own brand websites.

Online Travel Corp has invested £500,000 in search engine marketing activity including SEO and keyword campaigns in a bid to drive more traffic to its own brand websites.

However, the company, which also powers travel services for over 80 partner websites, said it would not follow in the recent footsteps of rivals Lastminute and Travelocity by investing in high profile, above-the-line, ad campaigns.

“You won’t be seeing us on TV or billboards like Lastminute.com or Travelocity,” said Vic Darvey, sales director at OTC. “We just don’t believe that will provide an effective return on investment for us.”

Unlike Lastminute and Travelocity, OTC also does its marketing in-house, rather than through agencies. Lastminute signed up BLM for planning and buying last week following a six-way pitch.

Apart from running press ads at the weekend, OTC will focus on below-the-line marketing activity that would improve traffic flow and drive sales through its websites.

Darvey said OTC was particularly focusing on strengthening its core onlinetravel.com brand, but at the same time trying to build up distinct communities around all its own brand websites, which include bargainholidays.com, ifyouski.com, deckchair.com, and all-hotels.com.

The investment in search engine marketing comes just several weeks after the company resigned a deal with WebAbacus to monitor and analyse traffic across its top 30 websites.

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