Priceline.com
will introduce today what it believes is the most powerful one-stop travel reservation site on the Internet for airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars and packages. The relaunch is being heralded by a new multi-million-dollar TV ad campaign featuring priceline.com’s celebrity spokesman William Shatner.
“Online travel customers are shoppers by nature,” said priceline.com President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffery H. Boyd. “They want the ability to see and compare prices. And they want to save the maximum amount possible on their travel purchases. When travelers come to priceline.com, they know they’re going to find a broader global assortment of travel products, and those products will frequently be available to them at prices and savings they won’t find anywhere else.”

Priceline.com decided on pursuing a multi-product travel search engine after the Company introduced a retail airline tickets service in 2004. That product helped priceline.com increase its full-year gross travel booking 52% and made priceline.com the fastest growing of the “big 4” major online travel services (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline) in 2004. (Gross travel bookings refers to the total value of all travel products purchased, including taxes and fees.)

To highlight the benefits of its new service, priceline.com turned to longtime celebrity spokesman William Shatner for a new TV ad campaign titled, “Shop - Compare - Save.” In the spots, Mr. Shatner encounters consumers who are comparison-shopping for groceries, shoes, new cars and bedding. From them, he gets the “brainstorm” to turn priceline.com into a comparison-shopping travel service.

“Once again, William Shatner excels in educating and entertaining his audience,” said priceline.com Chief Marketing Officer Brett Keller. “After drawing them into the ad, he demonstrates why people should compare prices and save using priceline.com. Then he delivers the entertainment payoff with a little improvisational comedy to finish each spot.”
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