Creative Agency: Pop Studio
As part of an overall mix of online initiatives, Orbitz runs pop under ad units that are designed to drive traffic to specific landing pages within the Orbitz Web site. Since we know consumers do not have favorable opinions on these ad units, our goal is to surprise and delight them with an unexpected diversion, as well as connect consumers to the playful side of the Orbitz brand.
We have had high levels of engagement within the advergames that we have done for Orbitz in the past, but in this instance we had an additional challenge to underscore the notion of easy.
The Orbitz consumer positioning is that finding a low fare is so easy; all you have to do is just Orbitz and Go. How do we make a game that is challenging enough to make it appealing from a game play standpoint and communicates easy to find? The idea happened quite unexpectedly in a meeting with Orbitz, where the client was giving examples of easy, and the notion of shooting fish in a barrel was mentioned. The idea of fish in a barrel struck us as funny and we thought it would be a great context for an interactive game.
The banner ad took three weeks to develop and involved a team of illustrators, designers, writers, programmers, and project managers. The game just launched and so far is performing above expectations. The interesting addition within this game is that we included a “tell a friend” link. So far this viral component has generated 8,130 additional referrals with friends passing the game along to others, helping to make more people aware of the ad and get exposed to Orbitz in the process.
Ultimately we feel what is significant about this ad is that it uses the power of the interactive medium and allows consumers to physically engage with your brand in a fun and unexpected way. We believe this helps to communicate a more tangible brand character to consumers as well as helping to differentiate Orbitz from it competition-oh yeah, and its fun too!
-- Mark Rattin, President and Creative Director, Pop Studio
I will just blow by the pop-under component of the delivery of this experience. And honestly it was a bit hard to do that as it has been an issue with me and this brand. Oops, there I go.
Reviewing this piece, I think I have to review the Orbitz approach to online advertising as entertainment and gaming. I will give them a ton of credit for consistency of look, feel, playfulness and a long-term approach. For me, even though I never (normally) play with the Orbitz ads, my opinion of them has been influenced a bit -- when I think of Orbitz I think of them as friendlier, and more fun. And if that is what consistency can do, then play or no play, they have done a great job inluencing my perceptions I would be curious to see if the rationalization behind the strategy of “Orbitz is as easy as...” works for consumers as a takeaway, and if that equates Orbitz as the easy convenient travel brand? If they get those responses then these are a home run.
As to this execution, like all, the look is their own, strong simple colors, nice motion and game design. I am a gamer, but in my busy day at work, I am not sure these ads really work for me, I just don’t take the time, I have other things to do. That being said I am sure these work, otherwise Orbitz would not continue to build games. Is there an Orbitz game museum of all of the experiences they have built?
Now about the pop-under thing...
-- Glen Sheehan, Executive Creative Director, AKQA
This ad does a good job reinforcing the quirkiness and retro look and feel of the Orbitz brand. From a functionality standpoint, it works well. The rules to the game were clear, and after a bit of practice even the far-flung fish were easy to catch. The “Reset Game” and “Tell a Friend” (with email text that reads “Happy Fishin’!”) features are simple and well-executed. If the results, as stated, were to “not only drive awareness of the Orbitz brand as well as traffic to the Web site, but to surprise and delight consumers with a momentary diversion,” I think it succeeds. However, the fact that these consumers are coming back to this ad after being delivered to the Orbitz site indicates that they may be more interested in playing the company’s online games than booking travel with them -- I’d like to see data showing how these ads are translating (directly or indirectly) into more bookings through Orbitz.com.
-- Jason Scheidt, Director of Marketing, EyeWonder
One of the few things that drives me absolutely nuts is typos in ads. There's no reason for them, because any creative should pass scrutiny by enough eyes that a typo would never slip through. But this one has a biggie on the payoff page: "...to find the trip your looking for..." That ruined the whole creative for me. The fishing game was amusing, the "down-home" music fit, and the idea that booking on Orbitz is easy as catching fish in a barrel is kind of cute. But a company as big as Orbitz should be able to get the details right -- otherwise, I wonder if they'd get my reservation right.
-- Lee Watters, Executive Editor