An intelligent media strategy to help Trivago reach its destination faster

German technology company, Trivago, set out to be the traveller’s first and independent source of information for finding the ideal hotel. While the search engine brand was established across most of Western Europe, it was an unknown challenger in the UK and needed to communicate the hotel comparison site proposition to a new audience. In 2010, having tested the UK market by booking TV directly, Trivago appointed MNC to develop a continuous ‘on-air’ strategy to maximise results year-round rather than just high season, with strict ROI targets.

The MNC value

With our analytically-driven approach mirroring Trivago’s own, we developed and executed an agile strategy to address both low and high season, which encompassed competitor activity, trading conditions, creative and ongoing testing. Our independent trading position enabled us to flex the ongoing TV laydown according to real-time response to active campaigns, allowing us to access the highest-performing programming, channel mix and dayparts to drive the best CPA.

With Trivago appealing to a wide audience, we developed tactical trading solutions to access different audiences in high quality, high profile environments, to build coverage and frequency of message. The campaign was deliberately timed to exploit cost-effective trading conditions and avoid cluttered, expensive environments. We acted dynamically upon consumer behavioural insights, such as upweighting activity around pay day.

We developed a rigorous measurement methodology to understand immediate response as well as the wider impact across site visits and bookings, and the halo effect on other media including brand traffic and pay-per-click.

The results

  • Our analytically-driven approach kept Trivago ahead of its competitors in this fiercely contested sector by establishing a successful year-round ROI strategy.
  • Our ability to measure campaign success at such a granular level gave Trivago the confidence to invest aggressively in ATL advertising, with annual budgets increasing by 300% year-on-year, while adhering to the same strict ROI metrics.
  • In 2012, Expedia bought Trivago for a reported $632 million.