Skift Take
Viator’s “Regret Less. Do More.” campaign uses data-driven insights and highlights travel planning pitfalls.
Viator unveiled its latest brand campaign with two new video ads on Monday. The online travel agency for travel experiences takes aim at common travel planning disasters and uses a catchphrase theme of “Regret Less. Do More.”
One ad features a family on an empty, decrepit tour bus in London, while the other shows two people hanging from a cliff after a mountain biking trip goes wrong. The campaign emphasizes Viator’s offerings, such as guided tours and an option for free cancellations.
“These latest [ads] put greater focus on the product benefits we know travelers care about: flexibility, social proof, scale, and more,” Viator’s vice president of brand and communications, Laurel Greatrix, told Skift.
Viator’s approach to ads
Viator said that it is trying to “avoid the temptation” of producing the more typical travel ads with “smiling people against beautiful backdrops.”
The company worked with the data platform StoryData, which uses machine learning and AI to determine which ads already saturate the market.
“We’ve worked hard to avoid the ‘travel wallpaper’ trap,” said Greatrix, referring to the idyllic scenes we’ve come to expect from travel advertising. “They’re as easy to watch as they are to forget. Instead, we’ve chosen to story-tell – how the right expertise cultivated a new appreciation for art, how a wise local guide can teach you not to take yourself too seriously, and how traveler reviews save you from bad choices.”
Previous campaigns
This initiative builds on Viator’s previous campaign, “Viator Makes Museum Tours Juicy Again,” which launched in May and was part of the larger “Do More With Viator Campaign.”
The “Do More With Viator” campaign was the company’s first national effort since being acquired by Tripadvisor in 2014.
At an investor meeting in 2023, Tripadvisor CEO Matt Goldberg said that its national brand campaign has reached hundreds of millions of travelers, enhancing brand health and driving direct traffic.
The company says “Viator Makes Museum Tours Juicy Again” garnered an estimated 1.2 million TV ad impressions in a month’s time.