Theme Parks and Resorts Lead the Pack of Coronavirus-Tinged Travel TV Ad Spenders

If you are looking to TV advertising to reflect — or generate — a travel recovery, then be patient because there is little sign of a pulse.

But within the travel vertical, as defined by U.S. TV analytics firm iSpot.tv, it was theme parks and resorts (40 percent of travel’s spend), and then cities and destinations (37 percent) that led the way in the top two positions, respectively. Trailing were travel websites (8.7 percent), hotels and motels (8.36 percent), airlines (4.4 percent), and cruise lines (1.2 percent)

The total travel vertical only allocated an estimated $7.8 million for national TV commercials in the United States from April 1 to May 12, as reflected in the iSpot.tv chart below. (Car rental firms and tour operators weren’t included.)

Travel Industry U.S. National TV Spend 4/1/-5/12/2020

Source: iSpot.tv

When considering the TV commercial in each sector that attracting the most spending, Sandals Resorts‘ “Love Is All That Matters” was the only one to obliquely but skillfully acknowledge the coronavirus crisis with a message about the resort being welcoming when travelers decide to return.

But other brands avoided the coronavirus topic entirely in their leading spots, and one commercial offered by Treasure Island Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, amounted to buffoonery in action.

In the unwitting foot-in-mouth category, Treasure Island enticed viewers to take advantage of its two-for-one buffets, and advised in its “Heart of the Strip” commercial: “Check into your luxury room and indulge in all that center Strip action. The hot spots, the cool spots, the spa, the gourmet dining. It’s all just a call away.”

Ah yes, the hot spots. Will such TV ads spur guests to makes reservations at Treasure Island, and without social distancing, testing. and contact tracing ignite new coronavirus hot spots? (Treasure Island ran this same TV commercial as far back as 2017.)

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OTHER TAKEAWAYS?

Online travel websites, hotels and motels, airlines, and cruise lines are on TV but to an almost infinitesimal degree.

When you have brands such as Silk Way West Airlines, a cargo airline from Azerbaijan, as the third biggest spender in the airline category instead of Southwest, Delta or United, and Low Cost Airlines (not Low Cost Airlines) as the second leading spender in the travel website division instead of Trivago, Hotels.com or Booking.com, you know something’s amiss.

Two Las Vegas Strip hotels, Treasure Island and Aria, are out there enticing high rollers even though the city is in the very early stages of reopening.

Private jet vendors such as NetJets, the second biggest spender in the airline category, are looking to fill a gap.

The following highlights the U.S. national TV ad spend of each sector within the travel vertical, the top-three spenders during the period within each sector, and the TV spot that accounted for the largest spend.