Cheapflights’ first prime-time TV advertising campaign will debut at Christmas as the UK dot-com pioneer embarks on a new chapter.
The all-action advert features Hollywood stuntman Jacob Tomuri, the body double for actor Tom Hardy, and will run during the peaks and beyond. It will first air in a prime-time spot on Christmas Day.
Cheapflights declined to say how much it had invested in the campaign, but claimed it was its biggest-ever turn-of-year campaign and said it represented a “substantial increase in our budget”.
The website previously solely listed advertised deals and air fares but in September it also became a metasearch price comparison site.
Bosses say they hope the move will strengthen ties with its trade deals providers since its metasearch capability will increase traffic and volumes directed to its deals publishing arm.
Cheapflights managing director Andrew Shelton said: “We need to be innovative in how we integrate deals publishing with metasearch to target people at the right time with the right deals.
“We are the only company that has both under one brand and it’s really important how they work together. We believe the two can complement each other.
“What we can do is link together our flight search business to our deals publishing business and email customers when a relevant deal comes in from one of our partners. There are times when people come to the site and they haven’t yet decided where they want to go, so we should show them the deals available.”
Shelton said Cheapflights works with about 150 flight-package deals providers but added that he saw no reason to place a limit on the number of partners.