Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam is today launching online travel agency Booking.com’s first advertising campaign Down Under.

The Dutch agency is behind comedy spots that take an amusing look at the tense scenario of unlocking your hotel room door for the first time.

Eric Quennoy, executive creative director at W+K Amsterdam, was in Sydney last week to launch the campaign, alongside Booking.com chief marketing officer Paul Hennessy.

Quennoy told B&T: “The insight for the campaign was the ‘delight to right’. There is so much hinging on your holiday booking – it’s an emotionally charged purchase. Making sure you get it right is of paramount importance. And when you do get it right it’s awesome and you, the booker, are amazing.”

The campaign’s tagline is ‘Booking.com, Booking.yeah’.

“We have played on that tension that exists at that moment you arrive at your accommodation,” added Quennoy. “I think we found an insight that no-one has yet uncovered – that there is a real emotional connection around that moment when the hotel room door opens.”

Booking.com was founded in 1996 in the Netherlands. Today, 344,000 properties worldwide are registered on the site, along with 24 million reviews and 8 million photos. The site is available in 41 different languages.

The site has been active in Australia since 2008, but Hennessy said: “A Hitwise report in August found that we are the number one online travel agency now in Australia. But only a small percentage of Australians have heard of us – so we want to tell everyone else.”

He explained what makes Booking.com different: “We have a model that allows consumers to pay after their hotel stay, so they are not committed up front. There are no fees until up to 24 hours before the stay, then pay after your stay. Our other differentiator is that we have our own in-house customer service, 24 hours a day, in 41 different languages.”

W+K Amsterdam launched the campaign in the US earlier this year. Australia is the second market for the campaign.

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