Skies are friendlier and lots cheaper

'Rates are where it’s at. Making
it easy for people to travel is their priority, rather than trying to focus as much on the emotional side. As an advertiser, when you go that emotional route you so often look like you’re capitalizing on it.'

Skies are friendlier
and lots cheaper

Web travel ads' message: We got a deal for you

By Marty Beard

    In the aftershock of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, travelers remain a little jittery about flying.
    But airlines are doing their best to calm those jitters with an elixir they're fond of dosing out in the healthiest of times: cheap tickets.
    After pulling back on online advertising immediately following the attacks, the airlines and related travel services are flooding the web with come-on messages offering steep discounts.
    "The industry took a major hit on Sept. 11, as travel companies halted advertising out of respect for the victims, as well as to promote disaster relief efforts," says Charles Buchwalter, Jupiter Media Metrix’s vice president of media research.
    "But the sector has shown incredible resiliency as booking services and airlines have turned to the web to reach out to customers during the busy holiday season."
    Travel agencies and airlines have responded to consumer unease by making airfares almost irresistibly inexpensive and plastering the internet with their promises of thrifty travel, such as $375 round trips to Hawaii.
     "Rates are where it’s at," says Marc Ryan, an analyst with Jupiter Media Metrix subsidiary AdRelevance.
     "Making it easy for people to travel is their priority, rather than trying to focus as much on the emotional side. As an advertiser, when you go that emotional route you so often look like you’re capitalizing on it."
    According to data from Jupiter Media Metrix, the burst of discount-ticket ads has brought online travel ad-spending almost back to the levels it enjoyed before the attacks.
    Online travel advertising began an upward trend back in May, with a total of 291.9 million impressions. It peaked in August, with 1.1 billion impressions, a 263 percent increase over May.
    But when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Federal Aviation Administration shut down all flights, and almost immediately the number of travel ad impressions sank, hitting bottom in the first week of October. That week, there were only 574.4 million travel ad impressions.
    But thanks to the holidays and the airfare cuts, travel advertising has bounced back to 94 percent of its pre-Sept. 11 level.
    According to Nielsen//NetRatings figures, traffic to travel web sites began its rebound by mid-October, as people, undoubtedly influenced by the proliferation of cheap rates, started thinking about flying home for the holidays.
    Sixty-four percent of online travel ads come from online agencies. And Orbitz, the online travel agency operated by five major airlines, has led most of this year’s growth in online travel advertising.
     "Online travel advertising definitely has been growing and growing by leaps and bounds," Ryan says.
     "I think part of that is due to the introduction of Orbitz this year. Orbitz has really been playing a very big role in trying to get a lot of attention from the consumers to get them in from what was a pretty established market prior to their joining the fray."
    Orbitz ads accounted for 44 percent of all online travel ads, followed by Travelocity with 13 percent, and Hotwire with 5 percent.
     Orbitz has been employing the pop-up and pop-under ad strategy popularized by wireless technology company X10. Yet it’s hard to tell if the ads, which offer all sorts of cross-promotions and deals on top of low fares, are successfully getting people back into the air. Most airlines still aren’t carrying their usual capacities.
    "They’re really banking on their advertising having that effect and getting people back onto the planes, particularly planes belonging to airlines that are participating in Orbitz," Ryan says.
    Still, the online travel-advertising explosion won’t last forever. Ryan expects it to slow down after Christmas.
    "It’s something we’ve seen two years in a row. The week after Christmas we generally tend to see a dropoff in all industries, including travel. The holiday season’s over, everybody takes a breath of air and lets things slow down a bit."

Top Online Travel Advertisers Ranked By Share of Impressions 11/26/01-12/02/01
Advertiser	Share of industry impressions
1. Orbitz	44
2. Travelocity	13
3. Hotwire	5
4. Vail Resorts Management Co.	5
5. AMR Corporation	3
6. Princess Cruises	2
7. British Airways	2
8. Priceline.com	2
9. Thrifty Car Rental	2
10. Lufthansa	1
Source: Jupiter Media Metrix

-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.

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