Hotels.com will be getting a reputation for trying slightly off-kilter marketing, from last year's Virtual Vacation augmented reality tool to this latest "claymation" effort.
The new promo is another web-based bit of fun where users can create a virtual character (similar to a Mii on the Wii) and share around various social networks.
It's not just meaningless fun for Hotels.com - it wants users to also submit the characters into a competition, the winner getting pride of place alongside the brand's existing claymation folk in its TV advertising campaigns.
Sceptical if such initiatives work out for the brand? Hotels.com claimed that the Virtual Vacation AR project managed to boost traffic by 26% and transactions by 36% in the weeks after it launched.
Here is the Claymation app.
NB: Hat-tip USA Today.