Priceline customers star in the testimonial-based TVCs and print ads, created by Saatchi & Saatchi, to convey the message that you can be anyone and still get great savings on travelling.
The testimonials form the second phase of the portal's launch campaign in April, when the company wanted to establish the Priceline brand, plus the 20 to 30 per cent savings message.
According to Ronica Wang, Priceline's executive vice-president and chief marketing officer, the launch campaign was extremely successful. "Our own research in July showed that 69 per cent of 640 customers polled in Hong Kong and Singapore remember the phrase 'name your own price,' while 59 per cent remember the 20 to 30 per cent savings."
Added Peter Callaghan, executive creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi: "Many people who tried using Priceline ended up saving a lot of money.
To spread this news around, there was no doubt for us to use real customers.
There is more credibility and trust to having real consumers share their experiences."
Wang said: "We contacted about 30 of our customers to see if they would be interested in becoming a Priceline star. We narrowed the list to 10 to reflect different travel destinations, air tickets and hotel room bookings.
Their comments were entirely spontaneous - though naturally, we chose the ones that reinforced the messages we wanted to get across."
Filming and stills took place over two days where volunteers were placed in a comfortable environment and asked to chat about themselves and their travel tales.
"The ads are very simple. These are real people with real Priceline experiences, which is precisely what we wanted. There was no need to finesse it, added Wang.
