"When was the last time someone taped a display ad to their refrigerator?"
Quote from Jim Price, vice president sales in the travel division at PebblePost, in an article on PhocusWire this week:
Mixing media is the smart shift for travel in 2018
The idea that the Priceline Group and Expedia Inc can continue to spend approximately $8 billion a year between them on Google is coming under some serious scrutiny.
For many years, Adwords was a cheap (well, not really, in the case of PCLN and EXPE), fairly reliable and extremely measurable channel for travel brands to play in.
But the strategy is showing some signs of maturity and tiredness as consumers continue to immerse themselves in other digital services, such as chat platforms, social networks and countless others.
As a result, Priceline Group's crown jewel Booking.com has signalled a move to TV advertising, mirroring efforts by TripAdvisor and Trivago.
The big brands are slowly but surely trying different things... because they have to.
Price's point about the refrigerator opens up the idea, finally, to how media consumption (and, therefore, advertising) is perhaps more multi-channel now than it has ever been.
Travel consumers, err, consume content in plenty of ways and yet they remember those "moments" in different ways, too.
An interaction on Facebook might trigger an emotional response in a different way to seeing an ad on TV or in a magazine.
In an industry where loyalty often comes second to price, brands that understand how the process of media consumption works - and react accordingly - will be the ones that succeed.