Whether you’re traveling for business, pleasure or a bit of both, hotel chains want you to feel that their rooms are your home away from home. Some brands are harnessing the power of celebrities such as Anna Kendrick to capture viewer attention at scale via fun TV commercials and woo travelers away from mass booking services to their own sites.
We examined TV advertising trends for the Travel: Hotel & Motels category for the first half of 2019 (Jan. 1 through June. 30) and have outlined key insights in the following report. The industry had an estimated spend of $216.7 million, an increase of 28.04% from the same period in 2018. Ad impressions also increased, up 16.83% to 21.6 billion from 2018’s 18.5 billion. And although there was a 2.11% decrease in the number of spots from 2018, airings and brands increased this year.
When it comes to individual brands, Hilton Hotels Worldwide had the biggest spend (est. $54.3 million), 25% of the industry’s total outlay. Hilton also had the top ad for the category (“Picking Stuff” featuring Anna Kendrick), with over 1.5 billion impressions and an iSpot Attention Index of 141, meaning it received 41% fewer interruptions than the industry average (interruptions include changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV).