Hotels.com Launches Hilarious New Ad Campaign

Sometimes the best ad campaigns are the ones that don’t take themselves too seriously. And the recent push by online travel agency Hotels.com is showing that the booking company really does have a sense of humor.

Launched on Feb. 23, the new commercial features a play on the “captain obvious” character. An actor—dressed in both a full-on captain costume and a revealing red speedo—walks and talks viewers through “obvious” hotel definitions and spaces such as “all-you-can-eat” and the “hotel pool.” The campaign was created by Crispin Porter + Bogusky out of Boulder, Colo.

The goal of the new advertising roll out is to show viewers that Hotels.com is the “obvious” choice for hotel bookings.

“When ‘Hotels.com, The Obvious Choice’ idea came to us, it seemed so…obvious! It’s in our name, but not only that, it’s in everything we do,” said Neha Parikh, vice president and general manager, Hotels.com North America. “We are a company full of fun, hardworking and entrepreneurial travel lovers and this new campaign really helps to take our internal culture out to our customers, which is really important to us.”

The spot debuted during popular cable programming and will continue to run on major networks and adjacent to hit TV shows in the U.S. and Canada. The campaign will also include Captain Obvious social media activations, email marketing, radio spots, cinema, online banners, and video. It marks the biggest creative launch in the 23-year history of Hotels.com.

The feedback has been great,” said Parikh. “For example, people are saying, ‘Captain Obvious is their new favorite character,’ and some have asked us where they can purchase his swimsuit!”