Cheap Tickets flight Pattern: $20M for Ads - Brief Article

Brandweek, Jan 1, 2001 by Kenneth Hein

Travel discounter Cheap Tickets will launch a $20 million campaign, the largest in the company's 14-year history, to promote its cheaptickets.com site as well as its 600-person call-center.

The effort, which will emphasize the company's low prices as well as its customer support, is slated to launch at the end of the first quarter and will run throughout the year. The tagline is still under development. CheapTickets spent $15 million promoting the site and service in 2000.

The push, via J. Walter Thompson, San Francisco, includes national TV spots that will be rotated to showcase various discounted fares. The Web address and an 800-number will be the call to action. Radio and newspaper ads in 12 target markets will support as well as Web banners and targeted e-mail.

"We're going to use a strong incentive message while building a brand," said Evans Gebhardt, vp-marketing of Cheap Tickets, Honolulu. "We will give the consumer reason to believe that we're the cheapest place to buy tickets."

Despite the company's name and message, the target demo for the campaign is a highly educated leisure traveler with an $80,000-plus household income, Gebhardt said.

Cheaptickets.com is only the No. 10 travel transaction site, per Media Metrix, but Gebhardt said the category has not yet matured. "There's still a huge opportunity in the e-travel world for all brands to distinguish themselves," he said. Microsoft spinoff Expedia Travel is the category leader, followed by Priceline and American Airline's aa.com.

Gebhardt said offline agents are the company's chief foes. "We're catching the migrating consumer that's leaving them," he said.