Hotels.com®, the market leader in online hotel booking and home to more than 20,000 hotel destinations worldwide, is lunching a new, globally unified marketing platform reflective of a global brand ethos effective February 14, 2012.

“Over the past twenty years, we’ve evolved from a phone-based sales company, to a web-based company and now, to a global, fully integrated web, social and mobile-booking company,” said Victor Owens, vice president of marketing North America for hotels.com. “Hotels.com has the expertise to find our consumers the perfect place anywhere in the world. We felt that our branding should reflect our position as a global industry leader.”

New changes to the global branding platform will continue throughout the year, with most countries seeing the largest part of the change effective in the second quarter of 2012. Changes include, new advertising, logos, tagline and, for some countries, a new website.

New Advertising
SMART, the brand’s animated spokesperson for the past several years, is evolving from an educated consumer to an expert hotel concierge offering viewers tips on how to enjoy a perfect hotel experience. Moving away from Claymation and into computer generated imagery (CGI), a new advertising campaign featuring the updated SMART will introduce new SMART family members and friends.

New Logo
Colourful and bold, the new logo is a visually striking way of showcasing the hotels.com expertise and presence in the travel and hotel industries. The new “H” logo represents the abundance of choices hotels.com provides in destinations, hotel types, and price points. With hotels.com offering so many resources to consumers like ever-changing hotel sales and deals, Welcome Rewards®loyalty program, last-minute deals and mobile booking options, the new “H” logo, along with several complimentary sub-logos, will easily differentiate which sales fall under which categories, making online hotel room shopping even more seamless than before.

New Tagline
Hotels.com conducted a Facebook poll with loyal consumers who positively vetted the new tag line: “Finding you the perfect place is all we do,” which conveys both the opinion of consumers and the vast experience of the brand.

With three million guest reviews, more than 145,000 hotels to choose from and vast expertise on the hotels.com website and social media channels, hotels.com continues to provide hotel-focused information and service.