Global online travel company Expedia gets into bed With BMF for trans-Tasman ad campaign
Global online travel company Expedia will launch a new brand campaign with a 60 second commercial in Australian and New Zealand cinemas tonight (6th May). Already a well-known travel brand in Europe and North America, this campaign, via agency BMF Sydney, officially introduces Expedia to Australian and New Zealand travellers.
View the cinema commercial:
The campaign positions Expedia as the world’s largest online travelcompany, and reinforces the message that its size delivers travellersgreater choice, value and convenience. With Expedia’s breadth and depthof experience, it can cater to all travellers’ needs, no matter wherethey want to go or what type of experience they’re looking for.
“Weare seeking to break the mould with travellers and prove that it reallydoes matter where they book. Put simply, we want to be the single bestplace for Australians and New Zealanders to book travel”, says LouiseCrompton, marketing manager for Expedia.com.au and Expedia.co.nz.
“Bybooking with the largest online travel company there’s a reassurancethat you’re going to be well looked after. As a traveller, it’s nice toknow that they have more experience and people on the ground to supportyou”, says Shane Bradnick, creative director at BMF.
The cinemaads, directed by Michael Spiccia via Goodoil Films, will shortly befollowed by 60-second and 30-second TV commercials, as well as printand online communications.
42 Comments
Peter’s Drumstick anyone?
1:40 you beat me to it.
Couldn’t get any closer to Drumstick if you tried. Even the little moment where the pillow pops is just like the crunch moment in Drumstick.
It’s got a nice feel, even with the dodgy post background, but just way too similar.
Hmmmmm yes ref spot’s pretty crystal. Creative re-interpretation aside … Still think it has charm, tracks great and the treatment is beautiful.
I liked it. It was sweet. And I imagine the travellng public would give a toss about drumsticks
I quite like it. It’s a different idea than the Drumstick ad.
Executionally, you can compare it Drumstick, but then again if scale and doing things in unison is grounds for comparison, couldn’t you could do that with Qantas choir, Big ad (and the British Airways ad before it), T-mobile, Sony, and even ‘no, Gary, No’ for Nicabate?
I tend to disagree 2:36 and :57
I like BMF, I like their work, just not this time.
Yeah, can see the drumstick comparison. Apart from the obvious, I thought this was really well executed. Who did the track?
Fuck me, does anyone involved in this ad actually possess a passport?
Outside of Australia you’d be hard pushed to find an Anglo Saxon Aryan blonde making your hotel bed up.
The reality is the vast majority of hotel staff are poorly paid Eastern Europeans or South Americans.
What a rip off of T•Mobile flash mob. Right down to the track.
obligatory basic gag at end…..
Elegant.
Understated.
Masterful
i like it / beautifully executed without a single starburst or a guy dressed as a pilot shouting prices at you.
i hope they have the shu-bu walkabout on there.
Momentary Lapse of Reason
Pink Floyd’s 1987 album cover
Storm Thorgerson, Hipgnosis
Well done Shane.
Bog-standard.
looks beautiful, just like dream boat but with a cheeky zing like orange, well done.
Wow, play the Drumstick audio while watching the Expedia ad. They sync up perfectly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyI5sYdzH9I
I haven’t tried it backwards yet to see if there is satanic messages. I’m sure there is.
Pretty clear it’s a flat out copy (or inspired by). Not great guys. Not from an agency of this standard.
A bit bloody dull. And defined by the tedious wank the client want to say about themselves. As a traveller I don’t care who makes my bed, or even about the bed.
Love BMF, but not fond of this. It is well shot, but not particularly inspiring or engaging. Would I go to expedia after seeing it? Probably not.
You’re all getting caught up in the execution – in the real world, whether it resembles Drumstick is neither here nor there.
This is a brand nobody has ever heard of. They are competing with well-established websites which most people turn to without a moment’s thought.
Sure, it’s a nice ad to look at, and any viewer with an IQ over 66 will get the idea of lots of hotel beds, and even the proposition of the biggest provider of hotel rooms on-line.
But what was the brand?
I don’t think Drumstick owns the idea of mass synchronization.
They probably do have some traction on the idea of having an idea.
For all those BMF lovers that love this ad a question:
If you were judging it at AWARD, Cannes, etc. what would you give it?
Finalist, Bronze, Silver, Gold?
That’s right, you’d think ok I’ve seen the execution before and the idea isn’t really blow your socks off. I’ll give it nothing.
Enough said.
I reckon this ad is alright, and I also reckon the punters will like it.
What I don’t understand is the criticism on this blog. What are people’s real motives here? You’d think there was an abundance of great ads for the travel industry out there (probably created by the commentators on this blog when they’re not busy bagging work, of course).
As for comparisons to the Drumstick ad, I think the Drumstick ad was about Summer rituals and the rituals of eating the product (as the name of that ad would probably suggest). My take on the Expedia ad is they just want to say they’re the biggest.
I didn’t know any ad with more than three people moving in time together can be attributed to the Summer Rituals ad.
Now that I’ve been enlightened I’ll have to rethink the VB Regulars, the Coca-Cola Blimps ad, the Allens sweets ad, the second Drumstick ad, the Wispa chocolate bar ad, etc etc, because they all feature ‘parades’. So with this new-found logic, they must all be the same ad.
No, I don’t work at BMF. In fact, I only know one person who does.
I’m just sick of the vitriol on here. It does nothing but hurt our industry.
Is that Macca?
Disappointing from an agency of this calibre.
A very average idea disguised in nice production values.
To me feels like yet another ad with lots of people in it doing some synchronised activity. Yes, it looks good, but it doesn’t really say anything or make me want to visit the expedia website.
The wait continues for BMF to do something great, even better than average, under the new CD structure.
Go Macca – you’re a star.
Stylish, well executed and perfect for the target audience who couldn’t care less whether it’s derivative.
Very slick, nicely executed. And that track’s pretty fine too. Who did it?
9:47 I’m just as sick of the vitriol on here too, but at the same time I don’t understand the need to PR derivative work with comments like “well executed”, “stylish” or better yet “Elegant. Understated. Masterful”.
Love the insight. Ad is fine to me. But the house keepers should have been more truthfully represented as previously mentioned.
It’s fun, not profoundly brilliant but let’s face it, there’s not many ads are. Light-hearted, well executed and quite honestly, if the client likes it then who gives a toss what 11:37 thinks.
music composed by turning studios – elliot wheeler
It’s Ok. But why a minute? Might as well have been a 15, at worst a :30. The extra time doesn’t deliver anything…
When you PR work like this you are saying we (the agency) think this it’s rad and we think it’s probably a contender.
Unfortunately if it immediately reminds you of another ad it knocks it out of being in contention. Of course I’m talking about Drumstick.
Yes it’s a different idea. One was about summer rituals and one is about size or something. But execution is a dead set mirror image.
As one of the previous bloggers mentioned, even the sound syncs up. It has the same light comic moment towards the end.
Reference things outside of the industry, not other ads.
Very dull! When are we going to get over that washed out desaturated look in Australia. Look at the rest of the world. Its over! . It doesn’t look classy now. Just looks old hat. We need a new look. Give us something different.
Campaign Brief. Please turn off the comments. Almost everyone on industry blogs is smarter, better, more able. Its like a parallel universe- no clients, no barriers, only great ideas and creative genius.
Looks expensive to make.
My only question is why do you show 40 or 50 beds being made up when the end says ‘over 190,000 beds booked every day.’
I would have made it bigger and more expensive, ie 190,000 for example.
Then again I’m sure I wasn’t the only person to think of that and when the client said ‘how much will 200k get us’ the decision was made.
What a rip-off. BMF is sliding…
And what’s with that Toohey’s Extra Dry crap?? What viewer is actually gonna give a toss about the band that wrote the music for the ad.
Pegs?
Most of their drinkers wouldn’t even know who Mark Ronson was.
Thought this was really well done. Loved it.
Awesome
How did they make this?
Everyones a critic, it’s just sad that you are all doing shit work in Australia.