Travelocity India grabs 'attentionocity'. And, how!

The online brand's Language of Travel campaign grabs eyeballs and attention with its witty wordplay.

Travel portal Travelocity India recently flagged off a rate guarantee campaign on all flights and hotel rooms booked through its site.

The guarantee, 'Find it for less, and it's free!' covers 400 airlines and 1,00,000 hotels throughout the world, including 4,000 in India, that can be accessed through its website, Travelocity.co.in.

The company flagged off a creative communication campaign for the Lowest Price Guarantee called 'The Language of Travel'. The objective of this campaign is to get Travelocity India into the top, unaided consideration set of anyone who thinks of booking online travel, and to give them a good reason to transact on Travelocity.

The creative solution stemmed from the idea that people don't think of travelling every day, but everyone uses 'language' all day, every day, and language is sticky. Therefore, new words or phrases appear from nowhere and slip into everyday usage.

Thus, the idea was to ingratiate Travelocity into everyday speech, to link Travelocity inextricably with the idea of travel, destinations, and to give the brand a unique and unassailable position.

So, using wordplay, sticky words such as 'Templeocity' to represent Chennai, 'Vadapavocity' and 'Bollywoodocity' to represent Mumbai, 'Biryaniocity' to stand for Hyderabad, 'Pinkocity' to represent Jaipur and 'Noodleocity' to symbolise Singapore, among many more were created, with the main theme being 'lowestpriceguaranteedocity'.

These have been used across media platforms (in the Travelocity brand colours of blue and orange against white background), standing out and calling for attention.

The media mix employed includes dailies and OOH (out of home) in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru in the first phase, and will include national business and travel magazines, online and activation. The campaign will run for 14 weeks.

Mindshare has handled the media planning and buying, while London-based creative agency Crave has worked on the campaign, especially for the Indian market.

Paul McManus, chief executive officer, Crave, says, "Travelocity's offer is unique. We wanted to give it a campaign that reflected this uniqueness. The 'Language of Travel' will allow Travelocity to enter the day-to-day language of its customers and own the travel space in their minds. It is engaging and intelligent and it invites customer participation."

Rohinton Commissariat, head, marketing, Travelocity India, says, "Our marketing and communication objectives were clearly mapped. We are thrilled with the creative interpretation that Crave has evolved. With this campaign, the Travelocity brand should move up smartly in the consideration mindset. Apart from being memorable and involving, the promise is highly relevant."

For the record, Travelocity India was set up in 2007. It acquired TravelGuru India's hotel site in August 2009, and synergises both brands for the Indian market. Globally, Travelocity owns and operates Travelocity Business for corporate travel; igougo.com, an online travel community; lastminute.com, a player in European online travel; and ZUJI, a player in Asia-Pacific online travel.