A Booking.com Super Bowl promotion seems to take some inspiration from the celebrity-heavy Airbnb Icons campaign.
Booking.com offered one booker and their plus-one a February 7-10 road trip to New Orleans for the Big Game in “The Iconic Madden Cruiser Experience.”
That’s the decked out bus that inimitable NFL announcer John Madden rode around the country from game to game because he was afraid of flying.
The selected booker gets the package for $19.87. That was the year, 1987, that Madden commissioned his first cruiser.
Like Airbnb Icons, which trades on the celebrity of Prince to comedian Kevin Hart and YouTuber Khaby Lame, the Madden Cruiser guests are slated to get private facetime with NFL great Terrell Owens and Emmy Award-winning tv and radio personality Rocsi Diaz.
Asked about the parallels with Airbnb Icons, a Booking.com spokesperson said the company has been offering exclusive bookable stays for years. These include overnight stays in the Empire State Building and American Airlines Arena, and use of the Nick Jonas tour bus.
Meanwhile, Booking.com will return to the Super Bowl on Sunday with a commercial for the fourth year in a row.
“Get your stay ridiculously right,” with an assist from several of the Muppets characters, emphasizes that Booking.com guests in hotels and vacation rentals can “get exactly what you’re booking for. Booking.com. Booking.yeah.” That is, there are family friendly hotels and accommodations that are “less family friendly,” the spot shows.
The 30-second spot will air during the fourth quarter of the contest between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles in the Caesars Superdome. That ad and several 15-second versions will also air on YouTube and social channels.
Nationally broadcast 30-second spots in the Super Bowl are going for $7.5 million to $8 million, according to a spokesperson for iSpot.tv.
They are usually one-off ads, but Booking.com broadcast its Super Bowl commercial last year, starring Tina Fey and Glenn Close, throughout the year. That spot during the game was 6% more likable than the norm, the iSpot.tv spokesperson said.
Booking.com seemingly put a lot of marketing dollars into the Tina Fey-Glenn Close spot. Three versions of it were the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 most-seen travel website ads on TV last year, the iSpot.tv spokesperson said. The most-seen spot last year was this one from Trivago.
MSC Cruises Releases 15-Second Teaser
Like many Super Bowl advertisers, MSC Cruises is going the celebrity route with its Super Bowl commercial, “Set Sail With MSC Cruises.” A 15-second teaser featured actors Orlando Bloom and Drew Barrymore, as well as the Madonna song, “Holiday.”
This will be MSC Cruises’ Super Bowl Debut. Like Booking.com, it intends to roll out related ad content across other channels well after February 9, according to Marketing Dive.
