Expedia new behavioral marketing service gives advertisers ability to target the Web’s largest audience of in-market travel consumers
*Updated the Expedia Group Media Solutions brand name and description in 2019. All other data reflects the 2013 publish date. For updated information on the reach of Expedia Group’s various points of sale, please see: https://advertising.expedia.com/audience.
BELLEVUE, Wash., Feb. 26, 2009 – Expedia Group Media Solutions, the global digital advertising organization of Expedia Group, has introduced a new behavioral marketing product called PassportAds™, which gives advertisers an effective way to reach in-market travel consumers throughout the trip purchasing lifecycle. Expedia.com® reaches 50 percent of all online travel shoppers, allowing PassportAds to deliver unparalleled reach to this highly qualified audience across the Internet using anonymous visitor data.¹
The first program of its kind in travel advertising, PassportAds anonymously identifies in-market travelers through ‘explicit’ search behaviors, such as a search for hotels in Hawaii. PassportAds then uses this anonymous search data to build segments of highly qualified travel shoppers and targets them with controlled frequency throughout their decision-making lifecycle. Unlike typical contextual buys, advertisers can appear in front of these audience segments anywhere online.
“PassportAds offers unrivaled reach to consumers actively in-market for travel. Now advertisers can create highly tailored messages that target travelers during the entire vacation planning and booking process and throughout the entire online experience – from reading the news to checking their weather forecast or shopping for clothes,” said Doug Miller, vice president of Global Media Solutions, Expedia. “We’re focused on offering clients the ability to deliver behaviorally and contextually relevant advertising to the largest and most valuable audience of in-market travel consumers in the world.”
PassportAds builds on the success of Expedia’s bid for placement product, TravelAds. TravelAds uses shopper search behavior to deliver highly targeted advertising at the point-of-sale. Introduced in 2008, TravelAds offers hotel partners the ability to differentiate their property by bidding for premium placement within hotel search results on Expedia.com and Hotels.com. Both TravelAds and PassportAds allow advertisers to capitalize on the rich data generated by users when they search for travel.
Expedia Group Media Solutions helps advertisers reach a significant share of the online travel market, providing advertisers access to the 23.3 million monthly unique users that visit Expedia, Inc. Web sites and offering solutions that harness the power of these consumers’ search and shopping behaviors.¹
PassportAds and TravelAds are two of Expedia Group Media Solutions’ key products. They represent the company’s efforts to help travel and non-travel brand advertisers tap the unmatched value of Expedia’s global online travel marketplace. In addition to PassportAds and TravelAds, Expedia Group Media Solutions offers myriad opportunities to reach shoppers with a demonstrated interest in travel, including banner ads, sponsorship opportunities, promotional activities, placement in Theme Stores and more, helping companies get the most value out of their marketing dollar.
About Expedia Group Media Solutions
Expedia Group Media Solutions is dedicated to building innovative media partnerships for travel advertisers enabling them to leverage Expedia Group’s network of leading travel brands and global sites. With a growing product portfolio of advertising and sponsorship opportunities, Expedia Group Media Solutions has revolutionized the way brands reach and connect with online travel consumers.
About Expedia, Inc.
Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) is the largest online travel company in the world, with an extensive brand portfolio that includes some of the world’s leading online travel brands, including:
• Expedia.com®, the world’s largest full service online travel agency, with localized sites in 31 countries
• Hotels.com®, the hotel specialist with sites in more than 60 countries
• Hotwire®, a leading discount travel site that offers opaque deals in 13 countries on its 12 sites in North America, Europe and Asia
• Egencia®, the world’s fifth largest corporate travel management company
• eLongTM, the second largest online travel company in China
• Venere.comTM, the online hotel reservation specialist in Europe
• trivago®, a leading online hotel search company with sites in 39 countries
• Expedia Local Expert®, a provider of in-market concierge services, activities and experiences in 18 markets worldwide
• Classic Vacations®, a top luxury travel specialist
• Expedia® CruiseShipCenters®, one of North America’s leading retail cruise vacation experts
The company delivers consumers value in leisure and business travel, drives incremental demand and direct bookings to travel suppliers, and provides advertisers the opportunity to reach a highly valuable audience of in-market travel consumers through Expedia Media Solutions. Expedia also powers bookings for some of the world’s leading airlines and hotels, top consumer brands, high traffic websites, and thousands of active affiliates through Expedia® Affiliate Network. For corporate and industry news and views, visit us at www.expediainc.com or follow us on Twitter @expediainc.
¹Customized comScore data, April 2007 – March 2008, US